OFTH IKE 2024One from the Heart films distribution in Greece, promoting emerging talents and voices from various
European countries and cultures in cinemas and other media.
OFTH IKE 2023One from the Heart films distribution in Greece, promoting emerging talents and voices from various
European countries and cultures in cinemas and other media.
OFTH IKE 2022One from the Heart films distribution in Greece, promoting emerging talents and voices from various European countries and cultures in cinemas and other media.
Each one links to its EU funding record and the partners it works with: a starting list for building a consortium.
Is this call for you?
For European audiovisual and videogame companies, alone or in a consortium, that develop or spread innovative tools and business models. It pays for tools that improve the visibility, availability and audience of European works, market efficiency and transparency, AI adoption, or greening of the industry.
Grant per projectNo fixed limit
EU pays80% of eligible costs
Project lengthUp to 36 months
Pass mark70 of 100 points
Strong fit
Developers of subtitling, accessibility, discoverability or recommendation tools used across borders and platforms
Companies building automated rights management, data gathering or data analysis tools for audiovisual markets
Projects testing new production, financing, distribution or promotion models enabled by AI, big data, blockchain, virtual worlds or NFTs
Organisations with tools or business models that green the audiovisual industry, or that link festivals, cinemas and VOD
Not funded
Development of hardware (e.g. cameras, virtual headsets)
Projects relying on financial support to third parties
Projects already completed before submission
Content that is pornographic, racist or advocates violence
Who can apply
Where you must be based
EU Member States (including overseas countries and territories) plus listed EEA countries and countries associated to Creative Europe, provided they participate fully in the MEDIA strand
Applicants must be majority owned, directly or indirectly, by nationals of countries participating fully in the MEDIA strand. Beneficiaries from countries still negotiating association can sign only if the agreement is concluded before grant signature and covers this call retroactively.
Alone or in a consortium
Single applicants allowed, or a consortium of at least 2 beneficiaries (affiliated entities do not count). No minimum number of countries stated.
You must
1Legal entity (public or private body)
2Established in a country participating fully in the MEDIA strand
3Owned directly or indirectly, wholly or by majority participation, by nationals of countries participating fully in the MEDIA strand (for publicly listed entities whose owners cannot be established, the stock exchange location decides)
4Registered in the Participant Register before submission and validated by the Central Validation Service (REA Validation)
Who cannot apply
Natural persons, except self-employed sole traders without separate legal personality
EU bodies (except the European Commission Joint Research Centre)
Entities subject to EU restrictive measures (Article 29 TEU and Article 215 TFEU), in any role
Entities subject to EU conditionality measures under Regulation 2020/2092 (currently Hungarian public interest trusts under Hungarian Act IX of 2021 and entities they maintain), in any funded role
Applicants subject to an EU exclusion decision or in an exclusion situation (bankruptcy, tax or social security breaches, fraud, grave professional misconduct, etc.)
International organisations+
Eligible. The eligible country rules do not apply to them.
Entities without legal personality+
May exceptionally take part if their representatives can undertake legal obligations on their behalf and offer guarantees equivalent to those of legal persons.
Associations and interest groupings+
May take part as sole beneficiaries or beneficiaries without legal personality. If members implement the action, they must also participate as beneficiaries or affiliated entities, or their costs are not eligible.
Creative Europe Desks+
Host organisations can be coordinator or beneficiary if they separate project management from information provision and prove cost separation through analytical accounting with allocation keys and codes.
Financial capacity is checked for coordinators during grant preparation, except public bodies, international organisations, cultural and creative entities with over 50% of annual revenue from public sources over the last two years, and grants of EUR 60 000 or less. Operational capacity is assessed with the Project management criterion (staff profiles, description of participants); public bodies, Member State organisations, international organisations and publicly funded cultural entities are exempt.
The money
Budget for this topic
EUR 14 000 000
Grant per project
No limit on the requested grant amount
EU pays
80% of eligible costs
Type of grant
Actual costs, with unit cost and flat-rate elements
Project length
Normally no more than 36 months (extensions possible if duly justified, through an amendment)
Overheads
7% flat rate on eligible direct costs
Payments
Prefinancing of normally 40% of the maximum grant amount, paid within 30 days of entry into force or financial guarantee (whichever is later); one or more interim payments and additional prefinancing payments; balance at the end. All payments go to the coordinator.
Evaluators score your ability to request EU funding below the authorised 80%, so plan private and own investment into the co-financing
No profit allowed: for-profit organisations must declare revenues and any profit is deducted from the final grant
Financial support to third parties is not allowed
SME owner and natural person unit costs are allowed; volunteer unit costs are not
Travel and subsistence must use the unit costs in Annex 2a, unless a case is not covered by Decision C(2021)35
Equipment is eligible as depreciation only
Non-deductible VAT is eligible, except VAT paid by public bodies acting as public authority; in-kind contributions are allowed but cost-neutral
Kick-off meeting costs (travel for up to 2 persons to Brussels and one night) are eligible only if the meeting is after the project start date
Subcontracting above 30% of total eligible costs must be justified in the application
How proposals are scored
Evaluators score each proposal out of 100. You need at least 70 to be considered for funding, and the budget then goes to the highest scores first.
45
40
10
5
Pass mark 70
Relevance
45 pts
Relevance of the innovative tools and business models to the new needs of audiovisual markets and the call objectives (20 points)
European dimension and potential: origin of works, partnership, cross-border and cross-language reach, potential for European expansion (15 points)
Strategies for a more sustainable and environmentally respectful industry (5 points)
Strategies for gender balance, inclusion, diversity and representativeness, in the project, content or management (5 points)
Quality of content and activities
40 pts
Methodological and strategic choices: market analysis, nature and timing of activities, target groups, segments and territories, value chain collaboration, development, marketing and AI integration strategies, tools deployed (20 points)
Coherence of the business model, including co-financing structure and ability to request EU funding below the authorised 80%, plus feasibility and cost-efficiency (20 points)
Project management
10 pts
Coherence, added value and complementarity of the team or partnership, task division, decision making and knowledge exchange (10 points)
Dissemination
5 pts
Methodology for collecting, analysing and disseminating data to share results, ensure transparency and exchange knowledge (5 points)
Ties are ranked by the Relevance score, then Dissemination, then Quality of content and activities.
Timeline
Call opens30 September 2026
Submission deadline14 January 2027, 17:00 Brussels time
EvaluationJanuary to May 2027
Information on evaluation resultsJuly 2027
Grant agreement signatureOctober 2027
What to submit
Online only, via the Funding & Tenders Portal Electronic Submission System from the Topic page, using the forms inside the system.
Page limitPart B: 50 pages maximum; evaluators ignore extra pages
Your application
Part A: administrative information and summarised budget (online)
Part B: technical description (Word template from the Submission System, uploaded as PDF)
Part C: additional project data and contribution to programme KPIs (online)
Mandatory annexes and supporting documents
Mandatory annexes
Declaration on independence and ownership (mandatory template in the Submission System)
Required work packages
WP 1: Project management (mandatory)
WP 2: Activities of the first year of implementation
WP 3: Activities of the second year of implementation
WP 4: Activities of the third year of implementation
Additional work packages may be added
Traps that get proposals rejected
Every beneficiary and affiliated entity must be majority owned by nationals of countries participating fully in the MEDIA strand; one ineligible partner must be replaced or the whole proposal is rejected
Hardware development (cameras, virtual headsets, etc.) is out of scope
Asking for the full 80% costs you points: the business model criterion rewards co-financing that keeps EU funding below 80%
The Declaration on independence and ownership is mandatory; missing it makes the proposal incomplete
Part B is capped at 50 pages and evaluators ignore anything beyond
Several proposals for very similar projects: only one is evaluated and you will be asked to withdraw the others
Include a plan to disclose inputs and results to public authorities, Member States and the industry; transparency is a stated requirement and scored under Dissemination
Costs from before the project start date or proposal submission are not reimbursed, and completed projects are rejected
Read from the official call document (V1.0, 30.09.2026). The call document is the legal reference: check it before you submit.
What this call funds
Objective
The Innovative tools and business models action is aimed at encouraging the development and/or the spread of innovative tools and business models to improve the visibility, availability, audience and diversity of European works in the digital age and/or the competitiveness and/or the greening process of the European audiovisual industry (including videogames). The support also aims to enable the European audiovisual industry to better adapt to the opportunities offered by the development of Artificial Intelligence and contribute to the implementation of the Apply AI Strategy.
Expected results
Improve the competitiveness of the European audiovisual industry (including videogames) and seize the benefits of the innovative developments in technology and business models;
Improve the adaptation of the European audiovisual industry to the opportunities offered by Artificial Intelligence;
Improve the greening process of the European audiovisual industry;
Improve the production and circulation of European audiovisual works in the digital era;
increase the number and diversity of European works available online and increase their visibility in order to allow them to reach more audiences.
Description of the activities to be funded
The projects can include in particular:
Subtitling or accessibility/discoverability/recommendation tools to be widely used across borders and across platforms in order to improve the visibility, the availability and the audience potential of European audiovisual works;
Business tools improving the efficiency and the transparency of the audiovisual markets: automated rights management system, technology for data gathering and analysis;
Business models seeking to optimise the synergies and complementarities between the distribution platforms (festivals, cinemas, VOD…);
Business tools exploring new modes of production, financing, distribution or promotion enabled or enhanced by new technology (AI, big data, blockchain, Virtual worlds / Metaverse, NFT, etc.).
Innovative tools and business models improving the greening process of the audiovisual industry.
The action does not cover the development of hardware (e.g. cameras, virtual headsets...).
Applications should present adequate strategies to ensure more sustainable and more environmentally-respectful industry and to ensure gender balance, inclusion, diversity and representativeness.
Transparency plays a key role in the action. Therefore, applications should contain plans for the disclosure of the inputs and results of the action, including among others communicating the results to public authorities, Member States and the audiovisual industry.
Special emphasis will also be placed on attracting private investment and on own investment. Project’s ability to apply for a sound and reasonable level of EU public funding below the 80% authorised will be assessed.
Source: EU Funding & Tenders Portal · synced 2026-11-09
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