Community Programmes

Creative Europe is the European Union programme that supports the cultural and creative sectors. It is a consolidation of the previous MEDIA, MEDIA Mundus and CULTURE programmes and will run between 2014 and 2020. Its general objectives are to guarantee and safeguard the elevation of European cultural and linguistic diversity and reinforce the competitiveness of the cultural and creative sectors, striving for the promotion of smart, sustainable and inclusive growth. The specific objectives of the Creative Europe Programme are to:

• Support the ability of the European creative and cultural sectors to operate internationally;
• Promote the transnational circulation of cultural and creative works and the mobility of artists and performers;
• Educate new audiences inside Europe and abroad;
• Reinforce the financial competence of the cultural and creative sectors;
• Support transnational cooperation in order to promote the development of policies, innovation and the education of new audiences and the use of new business models;
• Support activities that provide agents with skills and know-how that will contribute towards the reinforcement of these sectors.

The programme includes two funding sub-programmes: the MEDIA sub-programme (exclusively directed towards the cinematographic and audio-visual sector) and the CULTURA sub-programme (which encompasses the remaining forms of cultural and artistic expression). Each of these sub-programmes involves various lines of funding, focussed on different types of projects and with different eligibility and evaluation criteria.

Creative Europe Programme website: http://www.europacriativa.eu/

The Erasmus + programme will run from 2014 to 2020 and encompasses the various actions that up until now comprised the following programmes:
Aprendizagem ao Longo da Vida; Juventude; Tempus; Erasmus Mundus; Alfa; EduLink. The Erasmus + programme is segmented into three main actions

• 1 – Individual mobility for learning purposes: allows for the facilitation of individual mobility for learning purposes which offers opportunities to individuals so that, while they are part of the subsidized institutions, they can improve their skills, increase their employability and gain cultural conscience. This mobility can be accomplished by students and my members of organizations with approved projects. These mobility projects will allow their beneficiaries to travel to another participating country to study, work, teach, implement training activities and develop professional skills.
• 2 – Cooperation for Innovation and Best Practices: this action intends for organizations to work together in order to improve their outputs for students and share innovative practices. The types of project included in this action are extremely varied, allowing for a broad range. Among these are the Strategic Partnerships, which are comprised of collaborative projects that will allow organizations to improve their educational offer and reflect on common issues and share innovative practices in any given area.
• 3 – Support to Policy Reform: this action aims to support changes in policy and covers any type of activity with the objective of supporting and facilitating the modernization of education and training systems.

Website for the ERASMUS+ National Agency:
http://www.erasmusmais.pt/erasmusmais/index.php

Horizon 2020 (H2020) – a Research and Innovation Programme, is the main tool used to finance research and innovation in Europe, and will run from 2014 to 2020, with a total budget of 79 billion euros. H2020 supports research into priority areas and its main objective is to make or keep the European Union as the world leader in these sectors. H2020 is comprised of three main pillars that cover different areas:

•  I – Excelência Científica;
• II – Liderança Industrial;
• III – Desafios Societais.

In the scope of the Societal Challenges, support will be given to research projects with international collaborations of a more encompassing and cultural nature, considering that Social Challenge 6: “Europe in a changing world – Inclusive, Innovative and Reflective Societies”, has the objective of promoting a better understanding of the key questions of Europe’s socioeconomic cultural context, as well as providing solutions to promote a more innovative and inclusive European Union. To reach this goal, Europe is in need of solutions that transform European diversity into a source of innovation and development. That effort will help Europe to face these challenges internally as well as globally.

Website: http://www.gppq.fct.pt/h2020/

The Partnership Agreement adopted between Portugal and the European Commission converges the action of the five European Structural and Investment Funds – ERDF, the Cohesion Fund, ESF, EAFRD and EMFF – and defines the programming principles that guide the economic, social and territorial development policy to be implemented in Portugal between 2014 and 2020. These programming principles are aligned with the Europe 2020 Strategy for Smart, Sustainable and Inclusive Growth. Within the pluriannual framework of the Union and under the purview of these funds, Portugal will receive 25 billion euros until 2020, defining the Thematic Objectives to stimulate growth and job creation, the interventions necessary to meet these objectives and the results expected from this funding:

• Stimulating the production of transactional goods and services;
• Incrementation of exportations;
• Transfer of scientific findings to the area of productivity;
• Guaranteeing compulsory schooling until the age of 18;
• Reducing levels of early school leaving; Integration of people at risk of poverty and battling social exclusion;
• Promoting sustainable development in terms of the efficient use of resources;
• Reinforcing territorial cohesion, particularly in low-density areas.

Portugal 2020 Online Platform: https://www.portugal2020.pt/Portal2020/

POISE (Operational Programme for Social Inclusion and Employment) works towards the integration of people at risk of poverty and the fight against social exclusion, assuring the promotion of innovative social intervention solutions and the direct support of underprivileged groups, implementing active employment policies and other instruments for the safeguarding of social cohesion. As such, POISE ensues two of the Thematic Objectives of the European Structural and Investment Funds (ESIF) – Thematic Objective 8, “Promoting sustainable and quality employment and supporting labour mobility”, and Thematic Objective 9, “Promoting social inclusion, combating poverty and any discrimination”. As a rule, POISE encompasses less developed regions of continental Portugal – North, Centre and the Alentejo – and the pursuit of its action within this territory is complemented by the Regional Operational Programmes (ROP) which also incorporate the areas of Social Inclusion and Employment. To guarantee the accomplishment of this strategy a range of investment priorities will be mobilized around the following structuring intervention elements of POISE:

• I: Promote the sustainability and quality of employment;
• II: Youth Employment Initiative;
• III: Promote social inclusion and fight poverty and discrimination.

POISE Website: http://poise.portugal2020.pt/inicio

Investment in human capital is the most sustainable catalyst of development and the promotion of economic and social convergence. To this end, the Human Capital Operational Programme works towards Thematic Objective 10, “Investing in education, training and vocational training for skills and lifelong learning”, based on four structuring elements:

• 1 – Promoting academic success, preventing early school leaving and reinforcing the qualification of young persons for employability. It will allow for the support of initiatives geared towards the promotion of academic achievement and quality, staying in school and reinforcing education and professionalization and their link with business and the needs of the job market;
• 2 – Reinforcement of higher education and advanced training, broadening the social base of students attending higher education and increasing the number of graduates. It will be supported by the creation of a short-term higher education training activity;
• 3 – Learning, continuous qualification and the reinforcement of employability, directly striving to improve the qualification of the adult population and supporting the segment of young adults who did not complete their schooling;
• 4 – Quality and innovation of the education and training system, accomplished through interventions directed towards the autonomy of schools.

POCH Website: https://www.poch.portugal2020.pt/pt-pt/Paginas/default.aspx

The programme for Portugal 2020 includes five Regional Operational Programmes in continental Portugal, and one in each of its autonomous regions. The Five Regional Operational Programmes on the continental front are: Operational Programme of the North, Centre, Lisbon, the Alentejo and Algarve. The development of the actions of these Regional Operational Programmes throughout the country complements the interventions of the Thematic Operational Programmes, approximating funding solutions to specific regional problems.

Website of the ROP of the North: http://norte2020.pt/
Website of ROP of the Centre: http://www.centro.portugal2020.pt/
Website of ROP of Lisbon: http://lisboa.portugal2020.pt/
Website of ROP of Alentejo: http://www.alentejo.portugal2020.pt/
Website of ROP of Algarve: http://algarve2020.eu/info/