Culture, heritage and creative industries for health and well-being

The Horizon Europe grant opportunity titled "HORIZON-CL2-2027-01-HERITAGE-04" focuses on the integration of culture, heritage, and creative industries to enhance health and well-being. This call aims to fund Research and Innovation Actions with a total budget of €16 million, expected to support approximately four projects with individual contributions ranging from €3 million to €4 million. The application submission period opens on May 13, 2027, and closes on September 23, 2027.

Eligible applicants include a diverse range of entities such as research organizations, universities, cultural heritage institutions, health institutions, civil society organizations, and public-private partnerships. The call encourages the formation of consortia, requiring multiple applicants to foster interdisciplinary collaboration among stakeholders from cultural, health, and educational sectors. While the primary funding mechanism is a lump sum grant, additional financial support may be provided to third parties involved in related activities.

The geographic scope encompasses all EU member states and associated countries, as well as certain non-EU countries that meet specific funding provisions. Projects are expected to operate at the research and validation stage, focusing on developing evidence-based practices that explore the positive effects of cultural experiences on health outcomes.

Proposals should aim to develop validated research addressing key challenges in cultural interventions related to health, including leveraging creative industries like video games to promote mental well-being or investigating barriers to adopting effective cultural-health interventions. The emphasis is on stakeholder engagement to ensure that research translates into practical applications that enhance health and well-being across European populations.

The application process is single-stage, with no mandatory co-funding required. Success rates for this call are not explicitly defined, but historical data from similar calls suggests rates range between 10% and 39%. Projects are expected to incorporate gender dimension analysis and consider various validation methodologies to ensure practical applicability.

The overarching goal of this initiative is to systematically integrate culture into health-promoting strategies, ultimately enhancing societal health outcomes through cultural engagement.

This EU grant opportunity, HORIZON-CL2-2027-01-HERITAGE-04, falls under the Horizon Europe Programme, specifically the Culture, Creativity and Inclusive Society call for 2027. It aims to fund Research and Innovation Actions (RIA) focused on "Culture, heritage and creative industries for health and well-being." The grant type is a HORIZON Lump Sum Grant. The planned opening date for submissions is May 13, 2027, with a deadline of September 23, 2027, at 17:00 Brussels time.

The expected outcomes of funded projects are:

1.  Deepened knowledge of the potential positive effects of cultural experiences on health and well-being is developed and made available to relevant stakeholders, along with validated scalable and replicable practices to reinforce these effects.

2.  Key industrial, health, cultural, educational, and/or civil society actors are aware of validated systemic approaches to make cultural experiences improve health and well-being and are engaged in producing or supporting such cultural experiences.

3.  Competitive European cultural and creative sectors and industries systematically contribute to improve health and well-being.

The scope of this opportunity recognizes the benefits of cultural experiences offered by cultural heritage institutions (CHIs) or cultural and creative sectors and industries (CCSI) for health and well-being. While research supports this, it's scattered. The World Health Organisation (WHO) argues cultural experiences aid health in four areas: preventing ill-health, promoting healthy behavior, managing disease, and treatment. The challenge is a lack of systematic research into the key characteristics and circumstances of cultural experiences to best support health and well-being. The goal is to develop evidence-based and validated practices for CHIs, CCSI, and stakeholders to create cultural experiences that effectively support health and well-being.

Proposals can freely choose their focus, aiming for a strong impact, and should delimit the focus for thorough work. Activities may concentrate on different kinds of arts and culture interventions and/or experiences online and/or in person and/or on cross-sectoral issues. Proposals should explain why the chosen focus and approach are likely to achieve a strong impact.

Possible focuses include:

1.  Arts and culture-based experiences as a societal support kit during crises, providing decision-makers with validated practices to support well-being.

2.  Mobilizing a particular cultural and creative industry, such as the video games industry, to contribute to health and well-being, addressing issues like isolation and discrimination in online communities.

3.  An implementation research approach, exploring obstacles to adopting validated arts and culture-based interventions and developing ways to achieve broad uptake.

Projects should involve stakeholders from relevant sectors to achieve evidence-based and validated practices. Validation methods can include small-scale pilot trials or other appropriate methods. The gender dimension should be considered, addressing gender differences in cultural participation. Financial support to third parties, up to EUR 60,000 per party in the form of grants, may be awarded to involve entities such as CCSI, CHIs, or other important stakeholders not part of the project consortium.

Projects should build on previous research and innovation, potentially linking to the project funded under call topic ‘HORIZON-CL2-2025-01-HERITAGE-09 Impacts of Culture and the Arts on Health and Well-being’. Involvement of the European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC) may be considered, leveraging its experience with SciArt and artist-in-residency programmes.

Admissibility conditions require adherence to proposal page limits and layout as described in Annex A and Annex E of the Horizon Europe Work Programme General Annexes and Part B of the Application Form. Eligible countries are detailed in Annex B of the Work Programme General Annexes, with specific provisions for certain non-EU/non-Associated Countries outlined in the Horizon Europe Programme Guide. The Joint Research Centre (JRC) can participate as a consortium member with zero funding or as an associated partner, but not in proposal preparation or submission.

Financial and operational capacity and exclusion criteria are detailed in Annex C of the Work Programme General Annexes. Evaluation and award processes, criteria, scoring, and thresholds are described in Annex D and Annex F of the Work Programme General Annexes and the Online Manual. The indicative timeline for evaluation and grant agreement is also in Annex F.

Legal and financial aspects include the granting authority's right to object to ownership transfer or exclusive licensing of results for up to four years after the action's end. Financial support to third parties is limited to EUR 60,000 per party in the form of grants. Eligible costs will be in the form of a lump sum as defined in the Decision of 7 July 2021 authorising the use of lump sum contributions under the Horizon Europe Programme.

Application forms are available in the Submission System, with standard forms for HE RIA and IA actions. Evaluation form templates will be adapted as necessary. Guidance documents include the HE Programme Guide, Lump Sum MGA, call-specific instructions, detailed budget table (HE LS), information on financial support to third parties (HE), and guidance on lump sums. Additional documents include the HE Main Work Programme 2026-2027, HE Framework Programme 2021/695, HE Specific Programme Decision 2021/764, EU Financial Regulation 2024/2509, and various guidance documents and online manuals.

The budget overview lists several topics under the call, including HORIZON-CL2-2027-01-DEMOCRACY-01 through -08, HORIZON-CL2-2027-01-HERITAGE-01 through -08, and HORIZON-CL2-2027-01-TRANSFO-01 through -08. Each topic specifies the type of action (CSA, RIA, or IA), budget, stage (single-stage), opening date (May 13, 2027), deadline (September 23, 2027), contribution range, and indicative number of grants. For example, HORIZON-CL2-2027-01-HERITAGE-04 has a budget of EUR 16,000,000, is a RIA, has a contribution range of EUR 3,000,000 to EUR 4,000,000, and an indicative number of 4 grants.

Partner search announcements can be viewed and edited by LEARs, Account Administrators, or self-registrants. The submission system is planned to open on the date stated on the topic header.

This Horizon Europe call aims to foster research and innovation that leverages culture, heritage, and creative industries to improve health and well-being. It encourages projects to develop evidence-based practices and systemic approaches that can be adopted by cultural institutions, creative industries, and other stakeholders to create cultural experiences with positive health impacts. The call is structured to allow applicants flexibility in choosing their focus area, while emphasizing the need for validated, scalable, and replicable practices. The funding mechanism is based on lump sum grants, and the call encourages collaboration and knowledge sharing among various sectors, including health, culture, education, and industry. The ultimate goal is to deepen the understanding of how cultural experiences can contribute to health and well-being and to promote the systematic integration of culture into health-promoting initiatives across Europe.

Eligible Applicant Types: Cultural heritage institutions (CHIs), cultural and creative sectors and industries (CCSI), industrial actors, health actors, cultural actors, educational actors, civil society actors, stakeholders from such sectors, entities such as CCSI, CHIs or other important stakeholders which are not part of the project consortium, Member States/Associated Countries, decision-makers, European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC).

Funding Type: Grant. Eligible costs will take the form of a lump sum. Beneficiaries may provide financial support to third parties in the form of grants. The maximum amount to be granted to each third party is EUR 60 000.

Consortium Requirement: Consortium. The Joint Research Centre (JRC) may participate as member of the consortium selected for funding as a beneficiary with zero funding, or as an associated partner.

Beneficiary Scope (Geographic Eligibility): EU, non-EU/non-Associated Countries that are not automatically eligible for funding but have made specific provisions for making funding available for their participants in Horizon Europe projects, Member States/Associated Countries.

Target Sector: Culture, heritage, creative industries, health, education, arts, video games.

Mentioned Countries: EU Member States, Associated Countries, non-EU/non-Associated Countries.

Project Stage: Research, validation, scalable and replicable practices.

Funding Amount: The total budget for the HORIZON-CL2-2027-01 call is specified for various topics. For HORIZON-CL2-2027-01-DEMOCRACY-01, the budget is EUR 3,500,000 with contributions ranging from EUR 3,000,000 to EUR 3,500,000. For HORIZON-CL2-2027-01-HERITAGE-04, the budget is EUR 16,000,000 with contributions ranging from EUR 3,000,000 to EUR 4,000,000. Other topics have budgets ranging from EUR 8,000,000 to EUR 20,000,000 with varying contribution ranges.

Application Type: Single-stage.

Nature of Support: Money. Beneficiaries will receive lump sum contributions. Financial support to third parties can only be provided in the form of grants.

Application Stages: 1.

Success Rates: Indicative number of grants are specified for each topic, ranging from 1 to 5.

Co-funding Requirement: Not specified.

Summary:

This Horizon Europe call, part of the Culture, Creativity and Inclusive Society program, focuses on leveraging culture, heritage, and creative industries to improve health and well-being. The call aims to deepen the understanding of the positive effects of cultural experiences on health, develop validated practices, and engage key stakeholders from various sectors. Projects can explore different facets of arts and culture, including online and in-person interventions, and address cross-sectoral issues. The call encourages proposals that focus on arts and culture as a societal support kit during crises, mobilize specific creative industries like video games for health benefits, or implement research approaches to broaden the adoption of validated interventions. Projects should involve stakeholders from cultural heritage institutions, creative sectors, and other relevant areas. Funding is provided as lump sum grants, with the possibility of awarding financial support to third parties. The call is open to a wide range of entities from EU Member States, associated countries, and non-EU countries with specific funding provisions. The Joint Research Centre (JRC) can participate as part of the consortium. The application process involves a single stage, with a planned opening date in May 2027 and a deadline in September 2027. The indicative number of grants varies by topic, with contributions ranging from EUR 3,000,000 to EUR 5,000,000. This initiative seeks to establish a systematic approach to harness cultural experiences for health and well-being, fostering a competitive European cultural and creative sector that actively contributes to societal health improvements.