#NamePlaceFund

download your campaign info pack

download the campaign visuals

The EU funds culture through several programmes and is now designing their successors for 2028-2034. One of them is Horizon Europe, the EU’s research and innovation programme.

Currently, Horizon contains a dedicated space for culture research called Cluster 2: Culture, Creativity and Inclusive Society with a budget of roughly €2.28 billion. Despite years of high demand and widely celebrated and relevant projects, EU decision-makers removed culture from their proposal for the next Horizon programme (2028–2034).

Other opportunities for funding in the current EU budget include the Single Market Programme and the Digital Europe Programme. The latter has funded over €11 million for the digitalisation of cultural heritage including projects such as Europeana Initiative and the related data space for cultural heritage. Under the next budget for 2028-2034, these funding opportunities are also at risk. Instead, the EU has proposed a new programme — the European Competitiveness Fund — which mentions culture only marginally and provides no structural place for it.

As it stands, dedicated funding for culture and creativity is absent from both Horizon Europe and the European Competitiveness Fund, which together are worth €409 billion. With negotiations on the next EU budget ongoing between the EU institutions, now is the time for urgent action to make the case for culture and artistic research in the next budget.

A coalition of cultural networks started the ‘Name, Place, Fund’ campaign to secure the presence of culture for research, innovation and competitiveness in the 2028-2034 budget. The campaign focuses specifically on the Horizon Europe and European Competitiveness Fund (ECF). It is coordinated by the Artistic Research Alliance (composed of Culture Action Europe, ELIA, AEC – European Association of Conservatoires, CILECT, European Association for Architectural Education, EQ-Arts, GEECT, MusiQuE, Society for Artistic Research) and Michael Culture Association, which together represent around 1,200 institutions involved in artistic cultural research and cultural heritage in Europe.

The goal of the campaign is to influence the European Commission, European Parliament, and the Council of the EU during interinstitutional negotiations and to ask for three things:

• NAME: Put culture in the title of a Horizon Europe window: ‘Culture and Global Societal Challenges,’ and put culture in the title of a Competitiveness Fund policy window.
• PLACE: Give culture a dedicated structural component in both programmes. When we say ‘dedicated component,’ we mean a dedicated budget line, work programmes, and calls. A horizontal principle is not enough for culture, nor is a line inside someone else’s policy window. Culture deserves a home of its own.
• FUND: We call for €5 billion to be allocated towards culture and artistic research in Horizon Europe, and €3 billion to be allocated towards culture and creative industries in the European Competitiveness Fund.

We have submitted amendments to the EU institutions, including to the European Parliament and the Council of the EU, to provide concrete proposals through which culture can be meaningfully supported in Horizon and the ECF.

The Name, Place, Fund social media campaign was also launched on Wednesday 6 May 2026, tagging relevant influential decision-makers and calling for change. We now wish to bring visibility to our campaign, its goals, and to share the experiences of the cultural and creative sectors with Horizon Europe, artistic research, etc. For that, we need your active involvement.

There are three main things you can do to support the campaign:

1. Post online
2. Email decision-makers
3. Spread the word further and invite your members/partners to join the campaign.

Please engage with the campaign in whatever way feels most appropriate for you and your organisation.

Whether you choose to focus on social media, email policymakers, or both, each of the actions below contributes meaningfully on its own.

We have compiled information for each of these points below so you can identify how and/or your organisation wish to contribute and what works best for you.

You can post on social media (e.g. LinkedIn, Instagram) several things.

The timeline for posting is until 30 June 2026: the earlier the better!

1.1. Post your story about Horizon Europe

If you were ever involved in a Horizon Europe project, we want to hear your story! [If you do not have a story to tell, we recommend moving on to point 2. of this section. Our goal is to shine a light on the stories behind the projects funded by Horizon, showcasing how each one goes far beyond work packages, deliverables and KPIs. Make sure to tag all the policymakers we are targeting (see here), as this will help showcase the diversity and breadth of artistic research.

As for the visuals, feel free to use your own images related to the project. Alternatively, you can use the campaign’s #NamePlaceFund carousel or other visuals featuring the main campaign messages, which you can access here. For LinkedIn posts, the carousel should be attached as a PDF file. Please also include the hashtag #NamePlaceFund in your post.

Please also include the hashtag #NamePlaceFund in your post.

Template that can be used:

We recommend the following steps for writing your Horizon story:

• Identify one moment or experience from a Horizon project that has stayed with you. Perhaps a first-hand experience, a memorable collaboration or partnership, or a creative interaction you witnessed that lingers in your mind.
• Start with a concrete scene, not with the name of the project.
• Keep the first paragraph short enough that someone will read the second.
• Choose one object, place, voice or moment that stayed with you.
• Show what the artists and cultural professionals actually did in the research room, rehearsal space, archive, street, school, museum or community setting. Describe what you did with your hands, voice, instrument or tool.
• Explain the research question in plain language: ‘We wanted to understand why…’ or ‘We were trying to find out what happens when…’.
• Avoid buzzwords like ‘innovative methodology’, ‘new models’, sustainable frameworks’, ‘raise awareness,’ etc.
• Avoid ornamental numbers. One memorable detail is stronger than ‘500 participants across 12 countries.’
• Show how artistic practice produced knowledge.
• You can include one moment of friction, doubt, correction or surprise.
• Reflect on what made that moment special. Why do you still remember it months or years later? Why does it come to mind now?
• Let a person in the story speak, quote them.
• Write as if explaining the project to an intelligent friend who has never heard of Horizon Europe. Could someone outside your research bubble understand it? That should be the goal.

For inspiration, we invite you to read articles about Horizon projects in Horizon – The EU Research and Innovation Magazine. Notice how they often start with a vivid scene or concrete action that illustrates the project, before moving on to the main takeaways, tangible impact, and personal reflections.

• From masterpieces to makeup: eco-friendly art conservation gentle enough for human skin
• Beyond museum walls: games that let you step into history
• On with the show: AI and virtual reality step in to transform live performance

1.2. General Endorsement Post

If you don’t have a story to share, you can still spread the word online through endorsing our campaign.

Feel free to:

• use the example post shared below (aimed at LinkedIn) as a source of inspiration;
• use the visuals and carousel associated with the Name, Place, Fund campaign;
• use the hashtag #NamePlaceFund;
• tag the decision-makers listed in the table (see toolkit PDF) on social media.
• add the campaign banner to your email signature.

If you use the example post below as a template, we recommend personalising it to your organisation in terms of name, language and style: pay particular attention to adapting the parts highlighted in yellow! As for the visuals, feel free to use the campaign’s #NamePlaceFund carousel or other visuals featuring the main campaign messages, which you can access here. For LinkedIn posts, the carousel should be attached as a PDF file. Please also include the hashtag #NamePlaceFund in your post.

The timeline for posting is until 30 June 2026: the earlier the better!

Example Post (LinkedIn)

Whom to write? Check out the list in the infopack.

What to write?

Ideally, each email should be timed according to the negotiations timeline. That is what our coalition does at the technical level: submitting amendments and proposals in line with all relevant deadlines.

We recognise that, as part of a public campaign, it is difficult to coordinate fully with this technical work. But there is still value in reaching out to decision-makers to reiterate your demands or your support for the Name Place Fund campaign, even outside the strict procedural calendar.

Please write individual emails using the template below. Select the appropriate addressee and adapt the content accordingly, keeping only the points that are relevant to that recipient, delete text in italics.

In May-June-July 2026, it’s best to write to MEPs, as well as to the Cyprus and Irish Presidencies.

Example email:

In addition to the previous two points, raising awareness of the campaign within your network(s) would be of great assistance in gaining visibility and traction for the campaign. This could be through sharing information about the campaign in any newsletter(s) your organisation shares, or inviting organisations from your network directly to contribute to the call by sharing their stories or sharing/re-posting any post(s) that you have shared online. The more visibility we gain and the more tags on decision-makers we achieve, the greater the chances we have of achieving our campaign’s goals: Name, Place, and Fund culture in Horizon Europe and the European Competitiveness Fund!

download your campaign info pack

download the campaign visuals

(If you have any issues accessing the links within the info pack, reach out to maya@cultureactioneurope.org)