NDPC & EUNIC joint project
Project Durance
1 February 2021 – 31 October 2022
Strengthening culture and creativity through cross-border cooperation.
Keywords
Cross-border cooperation, creative industries, Northern Dimension, EUNIC, capacity building, policy dialogue
Summary
How can culture and creativity build bridges across borders while driving innovation and sustainable development?
The NDPC & EUNIC Joint Project was designed to answer this by fostering practical cooperation, professional exchange, and cross-sectoral innovation across the Northern Dimension region.
Supported by a grant from the European Commission and co-funded by the European Union, this project aimed to enhance dialogue and connections among creative and cultural professionals, policymakers, and stakeholders from the Northern Dimension countries. By addressing gaps in cross-border funding, offering capacity-building opportunities, and piloting innovative models of collaboration, the project strengthened people-to-people and business-to-business ties across the region.
What makes this project unique is its practical, hands-on approach to developing the Northern Dimension Partnership on Culture (NDPC) as a catalyst for collaboration, aligned with the NDPC Strategy 2021–2024, ensuring that the cultural and creative industries are positioned as essential drivers for resilience and sustainable development in the region.
Objectives
- Enhance cross-border cooperation and dialogue among cultural and creative industries (CCI) in the Northern Dimension
- Foster cross-sectoral innovation linking creativity with health, youth, climate, and other fields
- Strengthen professional exchange, skills development, and capacity building within the CCI sector
- Facilitate policy dialogue and knowledge sharing to support sustainable regional development
Key Activities
Work Package 1:
- Foster cross-sectoral cooperation and innovation in CCIs
- Pilot creative collaboration models with partners in health, youth, and climate sectors, including projects with the Northern Dimension Partnership in Public Health and Social Well-being and the Council of the Baltic Sea States
Work Package 2:
- Improve cross-border people-to-people contacts through a targeted mobility scheme
- Launch the NDPC Creatives Academy to build professional skills for CCI stakeholders
- Establish a seed funding mechanism to support regional creative collaboration projects
Work Package 3:
- Enhance policy dialogue and knowledge sharing across the region
- Build sustainable networks of experts
- Produce research and policy briefs relevant to CCI stakeholders and policymakers
Results
- Strengthened cross-border networks and cooperation among creative professionals and institutions
- Piloted innovative models linking culture and creativity with health, youth, and climate action
- Launched professional development pathways for creative practitioners through the Creatives Academy
- Supported regional collaboration with seed funding mechanisms
- Advanced policy dialogue and produced actionable insights to guide CCI development in the region