Summary
- Profile Type
- Research & Development Request
- POD Reference
- RDRHU20260807012
- Term of Validity
- 7 August 2026 - 7 August 2027
- Company's Country
- Hungary
- Type of partnership
- Research and development cooperation agreement
- Targeted Countries
- All countries
General information
- Short Summary
- An early-stage Hungarian cultural-community initiative is seeking a Horizon Europe consortium for HORIZON-CL2-2026-01-HERITAGE-02. A practice-based pilot setting in Budapest, together with expertise in audience development, participant learning and replication, can be contributed to the consortium. An experienced coordinator, as well as complementary partners from the cultural, creative, research and innovation sectors, is sought.
- Full Description
-
Social Dance Official (SDO) is an early-stage cultural and creative industries initiative based in Budapest, Hungary. The founder is developing SDO as a repeatable social-dance participation model that connects offline cultural and community experiences with a practical bilingual digital layer for discovery, registration, communication and privacy-conscious learning from pilot delivery.
The founder's engagement with the social dance community began in 2006, bringing nearly two decades of first-hand experience with its music, culture, participant needs, and community dynamics. Alongside the development of SDO, the founder has also worked part-time as a DJ and social dance event organiser. Between 2022 and 2024, the founder regularly organised social dance events and parties at Budapest Park. This practice-based background is central to the initiative, providing a deep understanding of both the participant journey and the operational realities of building a safe, welcoming, and sustainable local community around music and dance.
SDO addresses a common challenge for local cultural and community formats: how to convert initial interest into regular participation, maintain meaningful contact between events, and learn systematically from delivery. Social dance serves as a valuable practice-based test case because it combines learning, social interaction, cultural expression, and recurring local participation. Through this initiative, the founder aims to make these experiences more accessible, inclusive, and repeatable without reducing them to a transactional event service.
The initiative is currently in the pre-launch and pilot-preparation stage. Its digital foundation supports participant discovery, registration, communication, and operational learning, with Budapest identified as the intended first pilot market. The founder does not claim completed pilot outcomes, market validation, or a scaled service. Instead, the founder is seeking a suitable collaboration in which the pilot design, baselines, target values, consent procedures, data minimisation principles, and evaluation methodology are jointly agreed.
Within a suitable European consortium, the founder can contribute as a practice-based pilot partner or work package contributor. The founder's potential contribution includes:
- local pilot design and delivery in a Hungarian cultural-community setting;
- audience development, bilingual outreach, and participant onboarding;
- community activation and participant communication;
- practical digital participation processes and consent-aware feedback collection;
- privacy-conscious measurement of registrations, confirmed participation, attendance, repeat participation, and participant feedback;
- documentation of operational lessons and a transferable playbook for partner locations or other cities.
The founder is particularly interested in collaborating with cultural and creative organisations, research and technology partners, public bodies, innovation hubs, and community organisations working on cultural participation, audience engagement, participatory formats, digital inclusion, creative entrepreneurship, or real-world pilot testing. The founder has not previously participated in Horizon Europe and is open to joining a consortium led by an experienced coordinator, contributing to a clearly defined work package, or co-designing a realistic pilot with partners that bring complementary research, technology, or local-delivery expertise. - Advantages and Innovations
-
Social Dance Official offers a practice-based cultural participation perspective: an offline community format can be developed, tested and assessed with real participants while keeping learning and replication in focus.
The proposed contribution brings together cultural participation, audience development, participant journeys, consent-aware learning and transferable operational lessons. Social dance is a useful test setting because it combines learning, social interaction, cultural expression and recurring local participation.
The innovation is not a venue project by itself. It is a real-world pilot contribution that can help a consortium test how creative-community formats are designed, activated, assessed and adapted across partner locations. - Technical Specification or Expertise Sought
-
An experienced Horizon Europe Innovation Action coordinator and consortium partners are sought to jointly develop a competitive proposal under HORIZON-CL2-2026-01-HERITAGE-02.
Relevant expertise includes creative and cultural industries innovation, startup and scale-up support, Horizon consortium coordination, research design and impact evaluation, participatory cultural formats, audience engagement, pilot methodology, digital participation, responsible data and ethics, dissemination, and replication across locations.
Particular interest is placed on partners capable of leading the research and innovation framework, recruiting or connecting relevant creative startups, and designing the required real-world pilot trials. Universities, R&D organisations, innovation hubs, cultural networks, and experienced SMEs are all considered highly relevant partners. - Stage of Development
- Under development
- Sustainable Development Goals
- Goal 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities
- Goal 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth
- Goal 9: Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure
- IPR status
- No IPR applied
Partner Sought
- Expected Role of a Partner
-
The coordinator should have demonstrable experience in Horizon proposal development, Innovation Action management, lump-sum project governance and multi-country pilot coordination.
Relevant partners may contribute one or more of the following: research on creative-startup growth and disruptive innovation; access to creative startups or scaleups; CCI ecosystem expertise; pilot methodology and evaluation; participatory cultural formats; digital participation; ethics and responsible data; communication and dissemination; or replication across locations.
The consortium should be able to establish the required real-world pilot trials. Social Dance Official can contribute a Hungarian practice-based cultural participation pilot, local audience development, participant learning and replication inputs. - Type and Size of Partner
- R&D Institution
- SME 11-49
- Other
- SME 50 - 249
- University
- Type of partnership
- Research and development cooperation agreement
Call details
- Framework program
- Horizon Europe
- Call title and identifier
-
HORIZON-CL2-2026-01-HERITAGE-02 - Boosting creative startups for disruptive innovation
- Submission and evaluation scheme
-
Horizon Europe - Innovation Action (IA), single-stage, lump sum
- Anticipated project budget
-
EUR 5-6 million per project
- Coordinator required
-
Yes
- Deadline for EoI
- Deadline of the call
- Web link to the call
- https://ec.europa.eu/info/funding-tenders/opportunities/portal/screen/opportunities/topic-details/HORIZON-CL2-2026-01-HERITAGE-02
- Horizon Europe
Dissemination
- Technology keywords
- 11007 - Sports and Leisure
- Market keywords
- 09003007 - Other services (not elsewhere classified)
- Sector Groups Involved
- Creative Industries
- Targeted countries
- All countries