The ekip project, European Cultural and Creative Industries Innovation Policy Platform, is the new innovation policy platform for the cultural and creative industries in Europe, redesigning how Europe starts innovation, with creatives at the core. Ekip is funded by Horizon Europe (HORIZON-CL2-2022-HERITAGE-02-01) and is coordinated by Lund University.

The event will bring together policymakers, cities, innovation actors and partners to discuss how creatives strengthen Europe’s innovation capacity and how innovation systems can be redesigned to better support competitiveness, adoption and collaboration.

Europe is very good at funding innovation.

We now need to make it work.

Somewhere between policy frameworks, funding programmes and real-world adoption, something gets lost. Ideas stall. Systems fragment. And the people best equipped to connect them, the Creatives, remain on the margins.

On 4 May in Brussels, we are creating a working moment; a space where Europe’s innovation system is examined, challenged and restructured in real time.

At ekip’s High-Level Policy Day, you will join politicians, policymakers, regional leaders and ecosystem actors who are asking a more difficult question:

What if Europe’s competitiveness depends on redesigning how innovation actually happens, starting with who is included in the process?

Throughout the day, we will move across four focused sessions, each one building toward a single outcome: putting the results of ekip into motion.

This includes:

• Reframing the relationship between innovation policy and cultural policy
• Turning policy recommendations into operational tools for regions and ecosystems
• Positioning open innovation as a working norm, not a concept
• Exploring how creative-led portfolios become investable
• Aligning Smart Specialisation strategies with real ecosystem capacity
• Rethinking how Europe funds its most transformational, yet under-leveraged, asset: the creatives

The session we would particularly value your perspective in, focuses on a critical gap:

How policy translates into regional strategy and whether current funding structures actually enable innovation capacity on the ground.

Each session is designed as a guided exchange; short provocations, followed by direct reflection and structured dialogue among participants. The aim is clarity, alignment and forward movement.

We are inviting you as a Co-creator of the process, someone whose perspective can shape how these ideas translate into practice.

Because this is ultimately what is at stake:

If we continue designing innovation systems without creatives, we will continue producing innovation that struggles to connect, scale, and endure.

Registration is available here and closes on 20 April.

If useful, we are very open to a short exchange ahead of the event to align on how your contribution can be most valuable within the session.