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Celebrating culture: The European Heritage Days
September marks the month of the European Heritage Days (EHD) each year. In 2023, the event will be built around the theme “Living Heritage”, and encouraged to explore topics looking at skills, practices and memories passed from one generation to the next and are still in use today.
In the frame of the EHD, children and young people aged 6-11 and 11-17 interested in observing, exploring and participating in the environment and heritage surrounding them can apply for the Young European Heritage Makers competition. From the Western Balkans, Montenegro and North Macedonia are participating in the competition but there is an opportunity to apply from other economies as well.
Further initiatives in the Western Balkans
The Western Balkans are involved in a wide range of activities related to cultural heritage and art. In the following, we introduce a few examples of projects that are currently active in the region.
- The project Fostering Sustainable Partnerships and Dialogue: Arts and Culture Collaboration between Kosovo* and Serbia has a purpose to connect and develop partnerships between cultural organisations in Kosovo* and Serbia.
- The REligious Studies Infrastructure: tooLs, Innovation, Experts, conNections and Centres in Europe (RESILIENCE) project is a research infrastructure for Religious Studies, building a high-performance platform with partners from Albania and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
- Stone monument ensembles and the climate change impact (STECCI) works on protection strategies for cultural heritage from the climate change impact and consequential natural hazards, environmental pollution, and anthropogenic threats. STECCI is coordinated by the University of Sarajevo and has partners from Montenegro and Serbia as well.
- Culture and Creativity for the Western Balkans (CC4WBs) aims at fostering dialogue in the Western Balkans by enhancing the cultural and creative sectors for increased socio-economic impact.
In the calls section of our newsletter, you can find several opportunities to apply for EU funding in topics related to cultural heritage and arts.
Connecting science and R&I with art and culture: the New European Bauhaus
In its attempt to bridge science, technology, research and innovation with art and culture, the European Union launched the New European Bauhaus (NEB) in 2020. It expresses the EU’s ambition of creating beautiful, sustainable, and inclusive places, products and ways of living. In July 2023, the EC initiated preparations for a sixth Horizon Europe Mission on the NEB. Decision and project makers aiming at applying NEB principles and criteria to their activities can find guidance in the NEB Compass.
After two years of implementation, the initiative has made significant progress in various fields. One of these developments is the New European Bauhaus Prizes, which are a special way of supporting initiatives on the ground. The 2023 edition received more than 1.400 applications from EU Member States and for the first time, applications for initiatives in the Western Balkans. Community Garden in Podgorica was one of the 15 winners.
The fourth edition of the NEB Prizes will be organised in the frame of the New European Bauhaus Festival 2024, which will focus on the theme of “Resources for all”, exploring subtopics such as shelter and living environments, land and water, fashion and human wellbeing in light of the changing environment. Interested organisations and individuals can propose their own activities, projects or satellite events to one of the three calls until 30 September 2023.
Those interested in funding opportunities within the NEB can find an overview on the Info Hub. The Co-create NEB call from the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) is currently open and there is an upcoming Horizon Europe NEB call to be published 4 October 2023.
The NEB is being implemented in concrete projects through the NEB Lab. One example for these kind of projects is the NEB on the Danube, which has locations – among others – in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia as well.
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Do you have anything to share with our network in connection with cultural heritage and science? Contact us via policy-answers@westernbalkans-infohub.eu and we are happy to share any relevant information.