Boost your creative thinking, expand your network, and turn innovation into impact in a vibrant ecosystem where experts, startups, researchers, and creatives shape the future of Cultural and Creative Industries.
Our Group of Experts in Cultural and Creative Industries spans the diverse and vibrant world of culture and creativity – including architecture, libraries and museums, artistic crafts, audiovisual (including film, television, video games and multimedia), tangible and intangible cultural heritage, design (including fashion design), music and festivals, literature, performing arts, books and publishing, radio, and visual arts.
Our goal:to strengthen creativity-driven business and research through tailored guidance, partnerships, and global connections.
With over 48 experts strategically based across 28 countries, we support SMEs in expanding into export markets and deliver our core values of client focus, deep sector expertise, and collaborative partnership to envision a future where cultural and creative industries become a stronger economic engine – an ecosystem where talent from all backgrounds and businesses of all sizes thrive and innovate.
How do we work?
Our group of experts works closely together to bridge the gap between creative talent and thriving businesses. Our objective is to help cultural and creative entrepreneurs innovate, grow and become more competitive and resilient by:
- Expanding Horizons: Facilitating participation in international summits, fairs, festivals, and exhibitions to showcase their work in new markets.
- Building Bridges: Connecting them with partners and opportunities across Europe and beyond.
- Driving Growth: Fostering collaborations with SMEs, experts, and clusters to increase their impact.
- Sparking Innovation: Providing cutting-edge resources, success stories, and tools to develop sustainable, digital focused solutions.
How can we support you?
To empower you, our group of experts focus on:
- Enabling SMEs to adopt cutting-edge technologies including AI, AR/VR/MR, IoT, 3D printing, blockchain, drones, and robotics.
- Supporting SMEs, start-ups, creatives and innovators in embracing sustainable design principles, processes, and practices to future-proof their businesses.
- Facilitating upskilling, reskilling, and new skills development to keep pace with rapid changes in the world.
- Partnering with local governments to promote inclusive local development through cultural and creative activities.
- Highlighting the innovative capacity of CCIs and their spillover benefits to other sectors.
- Guiding SMEs toward funding opportunities, from EU grants to venture capital funds.
Initiatives and Events
We want the cultural and creative industries to develop and grow, enriching lives and fostering Europe. To this end, we organise, promote and participate in a variety of events, including matchmaking sessions, specialised missions, conferences and hackathons, to encourage collaboration and growth within the ecosystem.
CCI SG Newsletters
Every six months, our newsletter delivers the latest sector news, success stories, events, and opportunities across Europe and beyond.
Past newsletters:
QuickFire Knowledge Session: Spotlight on Lithuania’s CCI Success
This event marked the beginning of a series of concise, impactful events designed to highight the economic value and social impact of the Cultural and Creative Industries sector across Europe.
The first session highlighted Lithuania’s integrated and successful approach to developing its creative and cultural industries.
1st Session presentations (5 Jun 2025):
Creativity Meets Clusters
International event and a point of reference for cultural and creative ecosystem to broaden their knowledge and get inspiration to:
- Create connections between the most representative cultural and creative clusters on the European and international scene and share best practices
- Explore common paths for bottom-up policies and support Cultural and Creative Industries
- Access new markets, discover new trends and create opportunities for new businesses
The numbers:
- 17 clusters
- 50 foreign companies
- 54 italian companies
- 4 plenary sessions with 24 experts
- 6 thematic sessions with 32 testimonials
- 296 b2b meetings scheduled
How EU creative entrepreneurs can grow
The PULSE podcast, led by Katrina Sihel, focuses on how creative entrepreneurs can grow and brings together experts and entrepreneurs from various fields (finance, digital, EU programmes, etc.) and creative industries (fashion, design, audiovisual, etc.) to discuss access to finance, digital transition, internationalisation, intellectual property, equality, and more.
Led by Katrina Sihel, this podcast offers valuable insights into European Union initiatives such as the Enterprise Europe Network, the SME fund, and the InvestEU programme, providing guidance on how to expand businesses and enhance creativity within the single market and beyond:
Needs and challenges of the cultural and creative industries
To improve EU support for cultural and creative industries (CCIs), the Directorate-General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs launched a survey from 31 January to 23 February 2024. The results published in October 2024 show the needs and challenges CCIs face, particularly, regarding access to finance, digitalisation, IPR, sustainability and skills.
Creative Europe
Creative Europe is the European Commission's flagship programme to support the culture and audiovisual sectors.
The Creative Europe programme 2021-2027 has a budget of € 2.44 billion, compared to €1.47 billion of the previous programme (2014-2020). Creative Europe invests in actions that reinforce cultural diversity and respond to the needs and challenges of the cultural and creative sectors.
Let's work together to build truly innovative, sustainable, and inclusive Cultural and Creative Industries!
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