ECIA – European Creative Industries Alliance

The European Commission is working in collaboration with the "European Creative Industries Alliance" (ECIA) to ensure more align the strategies and funding policies on the creative industries. ECIA develops strategies and concepts that aim to strengthen the creative industries in Europe as a catalyst for the development of innovative services and products. According to the “European Objectives 2020”, the potential of the creative sector should better be used for a dynamical growth and innovative economy. The ECIA project is part of the CIP framework program for competitiveness and innovation, which is launched in January 2012 and runs until the end of 2014.

The "Policy learning platform" supports networking and sharing of strategies and best practices for the benefit of SMEs in the creative industries in Europe. It provides information about innovation strategies and funding opportunities. The results of the European Creative Industries Alliance are also considered in the development of EU Structural Funds guidelines and other EU programs (eg research, culture, trade, EIB and mobility) 

Further information about ECIA: <link www.eciaplatform.eu _blank - "Opens external link in new window">www.eciaplatform.eu</link>.

The ECIA consortium consists of six European partners

• AMEC Board – Johanna van Antwerpen/Amsterdam 
• Provinz Milan/Economic Development – Myriam Camarero/Mailand 
• The Senate Department for Economics, Energy and Public Enterprises/Project Future – Tanja Muehlhans/Berlin 
• Catalan Institute for Cultural Industries (ICIC) – Edgar Garcia Casellas/Barcelona 
• City of Tampere – Tuija Mannila/Tampere 
• Nantes Métropole – Boris Meggiorin/Nantes

Topics

• Innovation Vouchers – Mailand 
• Access to financing – Barcelona 
• Networks and Clusters – Berlin 
• Cross Innovation/Internalization – Nantes 
• Demand-driven Innovation models – Tampere