“Artistic intelligence” : harnessing the power of the arts to address complex challenges, enhance soft skills and boost innovation and competitiveness

The EU funding opportunity titled "Artistic Intelligence: Harnessing the power of the arts to address complex challenges, enhance soft skills and boost innovation and competitiveness" aims to explore the intersection of art, science, and technology within the framework of Horizon Europe. This call, designated as HORIZON-CL2-2026-01-HERITAGE-01, falls under the Culture, Creativity and Inclusive Society 2026 program and focuses on encouraging collaborations among artists, researchers, and technology partners to address societal issues.

The expected outcomes of the call include developing actionable methodologies, toolkits, and guidance that clarify how artistic practices can enhance soft skills and promote innovative solutions. Additionally, it seeks to establish networks for art-science-technology collaborations to increase opportunities for artists and creative professionals.

The initiative is structured around two primary focus areas. The first focuses on enhancing soft skills through creative practices in various sectors, including education and corporate environments. It emphasizes the need for creative thinking and problem-solving skills in an increasingly automated world. The second focus area requires the development of small-scale pilot projects demonstrating emerging technologies in interdisciplinary settings, showcasing the effectiveness of artists in collaborative research endeavors.

Participation is open to a broad range of applicants, including research organizations, universities, companies, and individual researchers from EU member states and associated countries. A critical requirement is the integration of artists and creative professionals within project consortia. The funding type is a lump sum grant, with an expected budget of €15 million for three grants, each between €4.5 million and €5 million. Financial support for third parties, such as artists, may reach up to €60,000.

The application process follows a single-stage model, with proposals due by September 23, 2026, following an opening date of May 12, 2026. While specific success rates are not disclosed, the competitive nature of the call suggests rates may fall below 10 to 39%, reflecting trends in specialized Horizon Europe funding opportunities.

Overall, this funding aims to leverage the transformative potential of artistic intelligence to address pressing societal challenges, thereby fostering a culturally rich and innovative European society. The call encourages the development of concrete use cases, case studies, and frameworks that demonstrate the effectiveness of art-science-technology collaborations in driving innovation and enhancing soft skills.

This EU funding opportunity, titled "Artistic Intelligence: Harnessing the power of the arts to address complex challenges, enhance soft skills and boost innovation and competitiveness," aims to explore and consolidate the transformative potential of art-science-technology collaborations. It falls under the Horizon Europe Programme, specifically the Culture, Creativity and Inclusive Society call for 2026 (HORIZON-CL2-2026-01). The action type is HORIZON-RIA (Research and Innovation Actions), utilizing a HORIZON Lump Sum Grant [HORIZON-AG-LS] model. The call is forthcoming with a single-stage deadline model. The planned opening date is May 12, 2026, and the deadline for submission is September 23, 2026, at 17:00:00 Brussels time.

The expected outcomes of this funding opportunity are twofold. First, it seeks to enhance the understanding of the potential of art-science and/or technology collaborations in addressing societal challenges and driving innovation. This involves developing guidance, toolkits, and actionable methodologies to promote these collaborations, providing policymakers, professionals, and training organizations with clarity on intervention scope, applicability across various fields, and evaluation methods, metrics, or tools. Second, it aims to establish or strengthen new and existing national, European, or international networks for art-science-technology collaborations, thereby expanding opportunities for artists to engage with science and technology.

Proposals should contribute to the first two expected outcomes, and either the one listed under Focus 1, or the one listed under Focus 2.

Focus 1: Approaches, methodologies and model interventions for integrating arts and creative practices to enhance soft skills across public and private sectors are developed, tested and disseminated.

Focus 2: The effectiveness of critical artists’ engagement in interdisciplinary teams is demonstrated alongside the assessment of the viability of research-intensive emerging technologies through at least three low technology readiness level (TRL) pilot demonstrators.

The scope of this funding opportunity encompasses artistic research that fosters inter-, multi-, and trans-disciplinary thinking, inspiring innovative problem-solving and offering new avenues for innovation across policy areas, akin to scientific research. It acknowledges that EU initiatives such as SciArt and S+T+ARTS have demonstrated that art-science-technology collaborations enhance scientific and technological progress. Art is viewed as a catalyst for innovation, developing creative solutions to complex challenges and bringing fresh perspectives to the scientific community.

Projects are expected to:

Gather evidence on art-science-technology collaborations for addressing societal challenges and spurring innovation in science and technology.
Collect case studies, produce and disseminate guidance, toolkits, and methodologies supporting policymakers in promoting these collaborations and strategies for cross-disciplinary innovation. Mechanisms, span of possible interventions, applicability to diverse fields and contexts will be clarified and exemplified.
Develop concrete use cases, such as (but not limited to): artists supporting ethical, inclusive, human-centred AI; addressing societal challenges and complex transformations through art-science-technology collaboration, advancing emotional storytelling, experiential art and public engagement through AI and real-time data; public sector roles in the art-science-technology uptake; role of artists in catalysing innovation in policymaking; participatory art-science-technology initiatives and citizen science.
Develop and test qualitative and quantitative methodologies and key performance indicators for evaluating such interventions, assessing their impacts, measuring their medium to long-term benefits and identifying what constitutes success.
Increase opportunities for artists to engage in art-science-technology collaborations, through network establishment or consolidation, interdisciplinary initiatives or other methods.

Project consortia should include artists and creatives/representatives of creative industries. Through leveraging creativity, projects should boost EU productivity and competitiveness while improving artists and creative professionals' employment conditions and preserving the autonomy and freedom essential to artistic practice and democratic society.

Financial support to third parties of up to EUR 60.000 in the form of grants may be considered, with the aim of actively engaging artists and creative professionals, for example through residencies, to facilitate development of solutions and innovative experimentations.

In addition to the main focus area, proposals should choose between the following two focuses:

Focus 1. Enhancing soft skills through creativity and the arts

Policies and strategies for introducing creative thinking and cross- and transdisciplinary methods in education, research and the broader public and private sectors are needed. In the workforce, engaging with creative practices and the arts enhances soft skills -such as creativity, critical thinking, problem-solving, emotional intelligence - crucial for productivity and competitiveness in an increasingly automated world[3] and to meet the demands of a changing market. Supporting research and innovation in this area will help individuals and institutions develop the skills and mindsets needed to thrive and increase creativity, productivity and well-being, including mental health, in a complex, interconnected society. Projects are expected to develop, experiment, and disseminate frameworks for using the arts and creative practices to strengthen soft skills in various public and private sectors, including education and lifelong learning, public administration and corporate environments, and showcase best practices. Proposals may choose their own areas of application.

Focus 2. Pilots on emerging technologies

Proposals should develop at least 3 small scale pilots on emerging technologies in interdisciplinary settings involving artists, to assess, demonstrate and streamline research-intensive technologies. Candidate technologies could include, among others, immersive arts, grid sensing networks, multisensuality, ubiquitous XR, spatial computing, VLM/LLM and historical data, crowd digitization or virtual reality. Pilots should demonstrate the effectiveness of artists’ engagement.

Proposals should clearly indicate the focus they have selected.

Proposals should consider the involvement of the European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC) based on its experience, in particular with the SciArt programme, and with respect to the value it could bring in providing an effective interface between research activities and policymaking.

The general conditions for this funding opportunity include:

Admissibility Conditions: The proposal page limit and layout are described in Annex A and Annex E of the Horizon Europe Work Programme General Annexes and Part B of the Application Form. The page limit for Part B of the Research and Innovation (RIA) application using a lump sum is 50 pages. A detailed budget table must also be submitted.
Eligible Countries: As described in Annex B of the Work Programme General Annexes. Specific provisions may exist for non-EU/non-Associated Countries.
Other Eligible Conditions: The Joint Research Centre (JRC) may participate as a member of the consortium with zero funding or as an associated partner. Restrictions may apply for the protection of European communication networks.
Financial and operational capacity and exclusion: As described in Annex C of the Work Programme General Annexes.
Evaluation and award: The award criteria, scoring, and thresholds are described in Annex D of the Work Programme General Annexes. The submission and evaluation processes are described in Annex F of the Work Programme General Annexes and the Online Manual. The indicative timeline for evaluation and grant agreement is also described in Annex F.
Legal and financial set-up of the grants: Eligible costs will take the form of a lump sum as defined in the Decision of 7 July 2021. Beneficiaries may provide financial support to third parties, with a maximum amount of EUR 60,000 per third party. The granting authority may object to a transfer of ownership or exclusive licensing of results for up to 4 years after the end of the action.

The application and evaluation forms, model grant agreement (MGA), and additional documents are available in the Submission System and include:

Standard application form (HE RIA, IA)
Standard evaluation form (HE RIA, IA)
HE Programme Guide
Lump Sum MGA
Detailed budget table (HE LS)
Information on financial support to third parties (HE)
Guidance: "Lump sums - what do I need to know?"
HE Main Work Programme 2026-2027 – 1. General Introduction
HE Main Work Programme 2026-2027 – 5. Culture, Creativity and Inclusive Society
HE Main Work Programme 2026-2027 – 15. General Annexes
HE Framework Programme 2021/695
HE Specific Programme Decision 2021/764
EU Financial Regulation 2024/2509
Decision authorising the use of lump sum contributions under the Horizon Europe Programme
Rules for Legal Entity Validation, LEAR Appointment and Financial Capacity Assessment
EU Grants AGA — Annotated Model Grant Agreement
Funding & Tenders Portal Online Manual
Funding & Tenders Portal Terms and Conditions
Funding & Tenders Portal Privacy Statement

The budget overview for this topic in 2026 includes several sub-topics related to Democracy, Heritage, and Transformation, each with its own budget, opening date (May 12, 2026), deadline (September 23, 2026), contribution amounts, and indicative number of grants.

Partner search announcements are available, and LEARs, Account Administrators, or self-registrants can publish partner requests on the Funding & Tenders Portal. The submission system is planned to open on the date stated on the topic header.

This funding opportunity seeks to leverage the power of art in conjunction with science and technology to address complex societal challenges, enhance essential soft skills, and stimulate innovation and competitiveness within the European Union. By fostering collaborations between artists, scientists, technologists, and policymakers, the program aims to unlock new perspectives, develop innovative solutions, and promote a more inclusive and culturally rich society. It encourages projects that not only explore the theoretical potential of art-science-technology collaborations but also develop practical tools, methodologies, and use cases that can be implemented across various sectors and levels of governance. The program also emphasizes the importance of evaluating the impact of these collaborations, ensuring that they contribute to sustainable and inclusive societal transformations.

Eligible Applicant Types: The eligible applicant types are not explicitly stated, but the call targets consortia that include artists and creatives or representatives of creative industries. Therefore, eligible applicants could include universities, research institutes, creative industry companies, artists collectives, and other organizations involved in arts, science, and technology collaborations.

Funding Type: The funding type is primarily a grant, specifically a HORIZON Lump Sum Grant, as indicated by the Type of MGA (Model Grant Agreement) being "HORIZON Lump Sum Grant [HORIZON-AG-LS]". Financial support to third parties is also in the form of grants.

Consortium Requirement: The opportunity requires a consortium of multiple applicants. Project consortia should include artists and creatives/representatives of creative industries.

Beneficiary Scope (Geographic Eligibility): The geographic eligibility is not explicitly stated in the provided text. However, since it is a Horizon Europe call, it is likely open to entities from EU member states, associated countries, and potentially some non-EU countries as specified in Annex B of the Horizon Europe Work Programme General Annexes and the Horizon Europe Programme Guide.

Target Sector: The program targets the intersection of culture, creativity, science, technology, and innovation. Specific sectors include arts, creative industries, emerging technologies (such as immersive arts, grid sensing networks, multisensuality, ubiquitous XR, spatial computing, VLM/LLM, historical data, crowd digitization, and virtual reality), education, public administration, and corporate environments.

Mentioned Countries: No specific countries are mentioned, but the opportunity falls under the Horizon Europe program, implying eligibility for EU member states and associated countries. A number of non-EU/non-Associated Countries that are not automatically eligible for funding have made specific provisions for making funding available for their participants in Horizon Europe projects.

Project Stage: The project stage ranges from research to innovation, including development, testing, and dissemination. The focus on pilot demonstrators suggests a Technology Readiness Level (TRL) of 3 or 4, indicating early-stage technology validation in a lab environment.

Funding Amount: The funding amount varies depending on the specific topic within the call. Based on the budget overview, the contributions range from around EUR 3500000 to EUR 6000000. Financial support to third parties is capped at EUR 60000 per third party.

Application Type: The application type is a single-stage call, as indicated by the "Deadline model: single-stage" in the general information.

Nature of Support: The beneficiaries will receive money in the form of a lump sum grant. They may also provide financial support to third parties in the form of grants.

Application Stages: The application process involves a single stage, as indicated by "Deadline model: single-stage".

Success Rates: The success rates are not explicitly mentioned, but the "Indicative number of grants" provides some insight. For example, a topic with a budget of EUR 12,000,000 and an indicative number of 3 grants suggests a success rate of around 10-39%.

Co-funding Requirement: The need for co-funding is not explicitly stated. As a Horizon Europe Research and Innovation Action, co-funding is generally not required, but applicants should consult the specific call conditions.

Summary: This Horizon Europe call, part of the Culture, Creativity and Inclusive Society pillar, aims to harness the power of artistic intelligence to address complex societal challenges, enhance soft skills, and boost innovation and competitiveness. It seeks to foster collaborations between artists, scientists, and technologists to develop innovative solutions and methodologies. The call encourages projects that gather evidence on art-science-technology collaborations, develop concrete use cases, and establish or strengthen networks in this field. Proposals should contribute to a better understanding of the potential of art-science-technology collaborations and provide guidance for policymakers and professionals. The call is structured around two main focuses: enhancing soft skills through creativity and the arts, and piloting emerging technologies in interdisciplinary settings. Project consortia must include artists and creatives, and financial support to third parties is encouraged to actively engage artists and creative professionals. The funding is provided as a lump sum grant, with a single-stage application process. The indicative contributions range from EUR 3500000 to EUR 6000000, and the call is open to entities from EU member states, associated countries, and potentially some non-EU countries.