How the EU funds us

Europa Nostra has benefited from financial support from the European Union since 1997. This support has helped Europa Nostra substantially to develop as a European civil society organisation committed to protecting, celebrating and advocating for cultural heritage.

 

Since 2002, Europa Nostra has organised the European Heritage Awards / Europa Nostra Awards scheme, which is co-funded by the Creative Europe programme of the European Union. Europa Nostra has been successfully applying for tenders to run this prestigious Awards scheme ever since it was set up by the European Commission. The EU co-funding (at a rate of 60%) has helped transform the Awards scheme into one of the most high-profile in the culture field at European level and has turned the European Heritage Awards Ceremony into one of its annual highlights.

Europa Nostra has also received support from the EU for its activities as a cultural heritage network. Under the EU Creative Europe programme, funding was granted to Europa Nostra’s network projects – namely Mainstreaming Heritage (2014-2017), Sharing Heritage – Sharing Values  (2017-2021), European Cultural Heritage Agora “Empowering Europe’s Civil Society Movement for Heritage” (2022-2024) – and Europa Nostra Heritage Agora (2025-2028) – which has enabled the organisation to further professionalise its network and to build a long-standing partnership with the European Commission. The network projects, which are co-funded at a rate of 80%, comprise Europa Nostra’s key activities.

 

As a beneficiary, Europa Nostra has to comply with specific and very strict financial management and reporting requirements, for both the network grants and the Awards grants separately. While EU support initially comprised operational grants for organisations working in the field of culture, funding has more recently been granted only for specific project activities that contribute to the objectives of the EU funding programme. General information about different types of EU funding is available here.

 

European Heritage Hub

The European Heritage Hub is a two-year pilot project (May 2023 – April 2025) bringing together heritage stakeholders and movements across Europe to support the transition towards a more sustainable, innovative and inclusive society. The project, funded by the European Union, is formed by a consortium of 20 partners led by Europa Nostra.

 

From museums, cities and civil society organisations active in the field of cultural heritage to sustainability, digitalisation or music, the 20 partners of the European Heritage Hub gather a wide array of expertise and experience, covering all aspects of heritage in the whole of Europe.
Europa Nostra takes the role of the project leader, working closely with the European partners (co-beneficiaries) of the project, namely Europeana Foundation, Eurocities, KU Leuven (via HERKUL) and ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability; as well as the affiliated partners of the project, namely the Society of Friends of Kraków History and Heritage, ELLINIKI ETAIRIA – Society for the Environment and Cultural Heritage, Cinquantenaire 2030, Centro Nacional de Cultura, Hispania Nostra and the European Music Centre.
Several associated partners support the European Heritage Hub pilot-project, including the Organisation of World Heritage Cities, the City of Kraków, the City of Athens, the Municipality of Lisbon, the Directorate-General for Cultural Heritage, the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and SUMUS.
Other partners supporting the project are the European Students’ Association for Cultural Heritage (ESACH) and the European Union Youth Orchestra (EUYO).

 

European Cooperation Projects

MERITA

MERITA – where chamber Music, cultural hERItage and TAlent meet is a platform for musicians, mentors, historical houses, and concert organizers, working both online and offline, to re-invigorate the tradition of classical music performance in Europe. It is co-funded by the Creative Europe programme of the European Union.

 

MERITA is a project of Le Dimore del Quartetto, involving 17 cultural institutions from all over Europe: Europa Nostra, Comitato AMUR, B & M Theocharakis Foundation, Beogradska Umetnička Nova Teritorija (Belgrade Artistic New Territory – BUNT), Cadenza Arts Management Ltd., EuAbout Lab ASBL – European Association for Research, Educational, Cultural and Social Innovation, European Historic Houses, Experimentadesign – Associação para a Promoção do Design e Cultura de Projecto, Julian Cochran Foundation, Kolarac – Zadužbina Ilije M. Kolarca, Lofoten Internasjonale Kammermusikkfest, ProQuartet – Centre européen de musique de chambre and Qendra EVENT.

IMPACTOUR

IMPACTOUR (January 2020 – June 2023) was a project about how a more reliable understanding of cultural tourism can inform decision-making to reduce pressure, enhance marginal locations, and improve integration of tourism within economies and communities. The project received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. IMPACTOUR concluded with events in Madrid and Brussels to launch a management support tool for sustainable cultural tourism.

Europa Nostra was among the 12 project partners from 9 EU Member States who worked on this project: Universidade Nova de Lisboa (Portugal), the Project Leader; the Cyprus University of Technology (Cyprus), the Institute of Baltic Studies (Estonia), Tecnalia (Spain), the European Network for Accessible Tourism (Belgium), ACIR Compostelle (France), Transromanica (Germany), the Association of Municipalities of the Autonomous Region of the Azores (Portugal), the Estonian Tourist Board (Estonia), Matera Hub (Italy), and Cultur Viajes Patrimonio (Spain).

Cultural Heritage in Action

Cultural Heritage in Action (2020-2021) was a peer-learning programme for local and regional policy-makers to exchange knowledge on cultural heritage, with a focus on key three topics: participatory governance, adaptive reuse and quality of interventions. The programme aimed to empower cities and regions to strengthen their cultural heritage policies and initiatives, and to develop innovative solutions to preserve cultural heritage assets. It was one of the actions of the European Framework for Action on Cultural Heritage published by the European Commission in December 2018 to sustain the legacy of the European Year of Cultural Heritage 2018. The project was led by EUROCITIES and involved other 4 European partners: Europa Nostra, KEA, ERRIN and the Architects’ Council of Europe. The project was funded by the European Union’s Creative Europe programme.

ILUCIDARE

ILUCIDARE was a three-year project (2019-2021) that aimed to foster heritage-led innovation and diplomacy by establishing an international network of heritage practitioners. It was funded by the EU Programme for Research and Innovation Horizon 2020 and built on the expertise and networks of eight Consortium partners: KU Leuven, Europa Nostra, KEA European Affairs, International Cultural Centre, World Monuments Fund, Cultural Heritage Without Borders, Universidad de Cuenca and Imec.

Food is Culture

Europa Nostra was part of the Food is Culture project (2018-2020) consortium coordinated by Slow Food. The project was co-funded by the Creative Europe programme of the European Union (at a rate of 60%) and by the Fondazione CRC di Cuneo (at a rate of 18.18%).  This special EYCH cooperation project aimed at making European citizens aware that food heritage is a means of expressing their sense of belonging to Europe and at promoting a better understanding of the wealth and uniqueness of Europe’s cultural diversity. The project entailed several activities, such as a travelling multimedia artwork, contests in schools and with chefs, as well as the drafting of EU policy papers, a component of the project which was led by Europa Nostra.

Cultural Heritage Counts for Europe

The EU, through its Culture programme, co-funded the cooperation project ‘Cultural Heritage Counts for Europe’ at a rate of 60%. The project was carried out between July 2013 and June 2015 and aimed to raise greater awareness on the impact of cultural heritage on the economy, society, culture and environment in Europe. This project was coordinated by Europa Nostra through a Steering Group composed of all project partners: ENCATC, Europa Nostra, Heritage Europe-EAHTR, The Heritage Alliance, The International Cultural Centre in Krakow and the Raymond Lemaire International Centre for Conservation in Leuven.