Why is it relevant to tourism?
Horizon Europe is a research and innovation framework programme, running from 2021-27.
It has a budget of around €95.5 billion for 2021-27 (in current prices). This includes €5.4 billion from NextGenerationEU to boost the economic recovery and make the EU more resilient for the future, as well as an additional reinforcement of €4 billion.
Pillar 2 of Horizon Europe - Global Challenges and European Industrial Competitiveness - supports research on societal challenges and reinforces technological and industrial capacities through clusters. It sets EU missions with ambitious goals tackling some of our biggest problems. Pillar 2 also includes activities pursued by the Joint Research Centre, which supports EU and national policymakers with independent scientific evidence and technical support.
The Digital, Industry and Space work programme has been available since March 2023.
Within cluster 2 - Culture, Creativity and Inclusive Society - research and innovation activities are offered to meet the EU’s goals and priorities for enhancing democratic governance and citizen participation. Safeguarding and promoting cultural heritage, and responding to and shaping social, economic, technological and cultural transformations are also conducted.
Developing new approaches, concepts and practices for sustainable, accessible and inclusive cultural tourism are among the research activities planned for this cluster. These opportunities will continue. Those already provided through the previous framework programme Horizon 2020 will be further developed.
With a budget of €95.5 billion, Horizon Europe is the EU’s key funding programme for research and innovation. It tackles climate change, and aims to help achieve the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, and boost the EU’s competitiveness and growth.
Horizon Europe creates jobs, fully engages the EU’s talent pool, boosts economic growth, promotes industrial competitiveness and optimises investment impact within a strengthened European Research Area. Applicants from the EU and associated countries can participate.
Project Title: SmartCulTour
Description: Sustainable cultural tourism policies can significantly support the development of European regions. Cultural tourism, especially in rural areas as well as urban peripheries, can emerge as a factor of economic growth.
The EU-funded SmartCulTour project (Smart Cultural Tourism as a Driver of Sustainable Development of European Regions) intends to redefine the concept of cultural tourism. The objective is to provide European regions with strategies to engage stakeholders in co-creating smart cultural tourism practices.
Running from 2020 until 2023, the project will develop a decision support system to extensively monitor the target regions, combining traditional and non-traditional data sources. Inclusive desk research will determine which sustainable cultural tourism policies could have a positive impact. Proposals for local projects will then be made. Each project will then be tested in 6 living labs.
EU contribution: €2,980,000.50
Level of EU funding: 100% of eligible costs
Project Title: TExTOUR
Description: TExTOUR (social innovation and TEchnologies for sustainable growth through participative cultural TOURism) (brings together 18 experts, entrepreneurs and partners from business, civil society and government to co-design, validate and upscale policies and strategies to boost socio-economic territorial development through cultural tourism.
TExTOUR uses ICT and social innovation tools to work with 8 cultural tourism pilot projects in lesser known areas. They collaborate to design methodologies for developing cultural tourism (CT) strategies in these areas.
Each pilot sets up lab communities, composed of a wide range of stakeholders who bring their own skillset to help develop CT. Stakeholders are guided through in CT labs on how to implement, monitor and secure approval of ad hoc strategies for cultural tourism.
The project started in 2020 and will run until 2024. It develops procedures, services and tools and carries out proposed activities. The results of these activities are then used to prepare a modular and scalable EU action plan for developing cultural tourism.
In parallel, a technological platform has been designed and tested to assess CT policies and strategies envisaged by public and private stakeholders. It provides data analytics-as-a-service, as well as other assessment services. Content curation and validation processes are also built in.
EU contribution: €3,950,468.75
Level of EU funding: 100% of eligible costs
Project Title: Crosscult
Description: CrossCult (empowering the reuse of digital cultural heritage in context-aware crosscuts of European history) aims to boost the development of new businesses by using digital cultural assets to reinterpret European history.
This project created cross-border perspectives by connecting digital historical resources and creating new ones through public participation. CrossCult brought together computer scientists, researchers in the humanities, historians, and private companies from 7 European countries.
EU contribution: €3,503,358 (2016-19)
Level of EU funding: 95%
Project Title: POLARIS
Description: Siberia, Lapland, Patagonia and regions with similar features are destined to experience changes due to global warming and globalisation. Their fragile ecosystems could be easily damaged by mass tourism and an uncontrolled development strategy.
This project provided an analysis of how to protect and promote territories and heritage. It also provided training for local officials and postgraduate degrees on tourism, geography and policies. These initiatives aimed to improve know-how and promote practices on how to make use of this heritage in a sustainable way.
EU contribution: €327,900 (2013-17)
Level of EU funding: 100%