Deadline: 7 March 2017
The European Commission is currently seeking proposals for its program titled “Cultural Heritage as a Driver for Sustainable Growth”.
European cities and rural areas are unique cultural landscapes full of character at the core of Europe’s identity. They are examples of our living heritage which is continually evolving and being added to. However some of them are facing economic, social and environmental problems, resulting in unemployment, disengagement, depopulation, marginalisation or loss of cultural and biological diversity.
Cultural heritage (both tangible and intangible) can be used as a driver for the sustainable growth of urban and rural areas, as a factor of production and competitiveness and a means for introducing socially and environmentally innovative solutions.
Project Priorities
Projects should aim to:
- map, analyse and systematically document successful heritage-led regeneration models in ‘Role models’, linking where appropriate cultural and natural heritage; make this evidence base readily accessible to an EU-wide community of competent and interested authorities, planners, practitioners, enterprises and stakeholders (including civil society) through innovative communication and training strategies. Particular emphasis should be paid to successful business and management models, financing mechanisms, leveraging of investments, governance structures, urban and territorial plans and legal frameworks. ‘Role models’ would, if they so wish, also have the possibility of further upscaling their regeneration activities during the life of the project;
- assist ‘Replicators’ through provision of expertise, advice and capacity building in developing and implementing during the life of the project their heritage-led regeneration plans, including appropriate business and management models, financing mechanisms, governance structures, planning tools and legal frameworks;
- set up a robust monitoring scheme to monitor the performance of the deployed regeneration scheme, so as to assess the impact for the targeted rural and urban areas in an as quantifiable way as possible against a well-defined baseline at the time of the proposal. Performance monitoring should last for a period of at least 2 years within the life of the project. Longer term monitoring commitment beyond the end of the project, while continuing the systematic documentation of the data, will give an added value to the proposal;
- develop methodologies enabling the replication and up-scaling of heritage-led urban regeneration projects in different contexts, including replication of innovative investment strategies, governance and business models;
- identify potential regulatory, economic and technical barriers and propose concrete ways to optimise policy and regulatory and administrative frameworks;
- establish long-term sustainable data platforms securing open, consistent data and performance measurements and interoperability of data infrastructures to ensure effective communication, public consultation, exchange of practices and sharing of experiences and a continuous building up of the ‘knowledge portfolio’ through future activities under Horizon 2020 and beyond, and long-term (i.e. beyond the life of the project) exploitability of the results.
Eligibility Criteria
Legal entities established in the following countries and territories will be eligible to receive funding:
- The Member States (MS) of the European Union (EU), including their overseas departments;
- The Overseas Countries and Territories (OCT) linked to the Member States
- The associated countries (AC)
How to Apply
Applications must be submitted online via given website.
Eligible Countries
Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Republic of Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and the UK.
For more information, please visit Call for Proposals.