“Renaissance Clusters” is a grant program of the UCORD project aimed at supporting cultural initiatives to stimulate regional development. The program is implemented within the framework of the “Social Cohesion through Culture” priority of the UCORD project and is aimed at supporting project partnerships in the six pilot regions of the project. Its main goal is to create cultural and cultural-tourism clusters that will demonstrate the contribution of culture to regional development. Through these clusters, the program seeks to support the development of sustainable partnerships that create added value for the local economy, improve human capital development and strengthen social cohesion.
The total budget for this call is 1,500,000 Swiss Francs (CHF). Projects will receive a minimum grant of 80,000 CHF and a maximum of 250,000 CHF. A minimum of one and a maximum of three projects will be funded in each partner region.
Supported activities under this call for proposals will cover one or more sectors of the cultural and creative industries and demonstrate relevance to socio-economic development.
A sustainable cluster must be established in each partner region by August 2026, continuously generating added value for local economic development, human capital development and strengthening social cohesion through cultural and/or cultural tourism potential.
Applications for participation in the grant program are accepted exclusively from representatives of partnership initiatives, where the main partners (applicants) will be public organizations from UCORD partner regions – Sumy, Ternopil, Volyn, Odesa, Khmelnytskyi and Vinnytsia. Such public organizations can be registered in any other region of Ukraine. However, they must demonstrate experience in implementing projects in the named regions.
Partners of public organizations in these projects must also be:
- a local government body from the partner regions;
- other partners from the partner regions or adjacent communities.
All necessary documentation, including an electronic version of the manual for applicants, a conceptual application template and the necessary applications, is available at the link.
The Renaissance Clusters grant competition was announced on November 18, 2024. The acceptance of concept applications lasted until December 22, 2024. The evaluation of concept applications submitted to the competition is currently underway. The competition committee, consisting of international experts, will determine those applicants who will be invited to submit full applications by January 29, 2025.