This call is launched under the Cross-Sectoral strand of the Creative Europe programme, with the aim of fostering collaboration between the audiovisual sector and other cultural and creative sectors. Project proposals should clearly demonstrate their cross-sectoral approach, outline the conditions for its implementation, and specify the expected benefits for all sectors involved. The total budget available for this call is EUR 7,021,561.
Objective
The call aims to encourage cooperation between the audiovisual sector and the music, book or museum sectors to accompany their environmental transition and/or to improve their competitiveness and/or the circulation, visibility, discoverability, availability, diversity and the audience of European content across borders. The support also seeks to enable the European audiovisual sector and these three sectors (music, books, and museums) to better adapt to the opportunities offered by the development of artificial intelligence and virtual worlds.
The call will support projects that are focused on the creation, development, and/or dissemination of innovative tools, models, or solutions applicable to the audiovisual sector (mandatory) and at least one of the following sectors: music, books, or museums.
The audiovisual sector covers all activities and companies related to the development, production, distribution, promotion and circulation of the following content:
• Feature films, animations and creative documentaries intended primarily for cinematic release;
• Fiction audiovisual works (one-off or series), animation (one-off or series) and creative documentaries (one-off or series) intended primarily for the purposes of television or digital platform exploitation;
• Interactive, non-linear fiction, animation or creative documentary projects (e.g. narrative virtual reality projects);
• Narrative video games and interactive narrative immersive experiences. In order to be considered narrative, the story must be told or shown throughout the whole game (in-game storytelling) or interactive immersive experience, and not only as an introduction or an ending.
Expected results
• Improve the competitiveness of the European audiovisual and other cultural and creative sectors: transparency, data collection and the appropriate use of artificial intelligence/big data, adaptation to the challenges and opportunities driven by the ongoing changes in those sectors;
• Improve the adaptation of the European audiovisual and other cultural and creative sectors to the opportunities offered by the development of virtual worlds (also called metaverse(s)).
• Improve the production/financing and circulation of European audiovisual and cultural content in the digital age;
• Increase the visibility, discoverability, availability and diversity of European audiovisual and cultural content in the digital age;
• Increase the potential audience of European audiovisual and cultural content in the digital age.
• Accelerate the environmental transition of the European audiovisual, cultural and other creative sectors, in line with the priorities of the European Green Deal and the New European Bauhaus.
Description of the activities to be funded
Projects must focus on one (or several) of the below topics:
• Virtual Worlds as a new environment for the promotion of European content, audience renewal and competitiveness of European content industries;
• Innovative Business Tools for production, financing, distribution or promotion enabled or enhanced by new technology (AI, big data, blockchain, Virtual Worlds, NFT, etc.), in particular:
o Rights’ management and monetisation (including innovative bundled subscription offers to access diverse European cultural content from various existing European platforms), at the same time ensuring transparency and fair remuneration for creators and artists;
o Data collection and analysis, with particular emphasis on prediction for content creation and audience development (including innovative cross-sectoral tools to improve the quality of the subscriber service and a better valorisation of European content offered by European online platforms);
• “Greener” practices in order to lower the impact on the environment of the audiovisual and other cultural sectors in line with the Commission’s Green Deal and the New Bauhaus initiative.
Applications should include appropriate strategies to ensure a more sustainable and environmentally responsible industry, as well as to promote gender balance, inclusiveness, diversity, and representation.
The following activities are ineligible:
• multimedia art projects and installations;
• immersive tours, events, music videos and immersive experiences used in retail;
• works of a promotional nature being part of a promotional campaign or advertising for a specific, destination (tourism), product and/or brand and institutional productions to promote a specific organisation or its activities;
• reference works (encyclopaedias, atlases, catalogues, databases and similar), “how-to” works (instructional guides, manuals and similar) and (interactive) e-books;
• projects focusing on live recordings, TV games, talk shows, cooking shows, magazines, tv-shows, News, Media literacy, reality shows, educational, teaching and “how to” programmes;
• documentaries promoting tourism, “making-of”, reports, animal reportages, news programmes and “docu-soaps”;
• projects including pornographic or racist material or advocating violence;
• E-learning platforms;
Costs related to content production/development, organisation of cultural events are not eligible under this Call.
Eligible Applicants
Legal entities (private or public) that are registered and operate in the countries participating in the Creative Europe Programme are eligible to apply. The application may be submitted by a single partner or by a consortium composed of at least two partners.
A wide range of organizations are invited to participate, including private and public entities, technology companies and start-ups, as well as audiovisual, cultural, and creative organizations. Participation of business incubators and accelerators is particularly encouraged in order to provide space and time for the development of creative ideas.
Project duration: up to 24 months.
Procedure for preparing and submitting project proposals/applications
Project proposals should be prepared in accordance with the criteria and conditions outlined in the call document: Creative Innovation Lab (CREA-CROSS-2026 – INNOVLAB), Version 1.0, 21 October 2025. Links to the call can be found here, and to the call document here.
Applications must be processed and submitted electronically through the Funding & Tenders Opportunity Portal (F&TP) via the following link.
More information about the call will be provided during an online info session organized by the European Commission, which will take place on 20 January 2026, from 10:30 to 12:30 (CET).
To participate in the online session, please use the following link.