In the last months all the world had to face a sanitary emergency due to the Corona virus, that had significantly changed the world as we knew it. The crisis had severe impact on the sustainability of many sectors of the economy, and especially the Cultural and Creative Industries all around Europe. The efforts of the Friuli Venezia Giulia Autonomous Region in order to overcome this situation were made with the aim of implementing the action plan for CCI regional policies.
The strategic document foresees 3 important actions that now more than ever will be fundamental to develope and to expand regional policies in this field. The 3 lines of activities carried out by the Department for culture and sports, elaborated thanks to the experiences collected during the CRE:HUB project, are practical tools for supporting to the sector.
In the framework of the first action “Coordination activities aimed at creating synergies among EU funding and regional support to CCIs”, the FVG AR continued the dialogue started with the regional Department for Education on the possible synergies between the current ROPs and ROPs for the next EU programming period, and between the ROPs and regional funds for CCIs, and engaged a new actor, the regional Department for health. This choice is a logical consequence of the recent scientific studies (confirmed by the last study published at the end of 2019 by the World Health Organization) where the effectiveness of cultural and creative activities as a factor in promoting individual well-being (from physical health to life satisfaction) and social cohesion, has been scientifically proven and confirmed. The first action was implemented also by the coordination with the regional Department of Economic development, and the setting up of actions to be funded to support CCIs and cultural heritage in the next ROP for the programming period 21-27. The cooperation led also to the definition of a working group for culture and creativity, in charge of the revision of the regional smart specialization strategy.
The second action “Creation of a CCIs cluster” is considered an important step for the regional cultural and creative system. In the last months, the Cluster Management Organization was set up after a public call published by the FVG AR: the funds for the Cluster will be managed by a business association composed by Informest, the regional Agency for development and international economic cooperation, and the regional business incubators: Friuli Innovazione, Area Science Park, Technology park of Pordenone and BIC incubators FVG. Thanks to the experience of the actors managing the regional cluster and its nature of widespread cluster, cultural and creative enterprises and operators will be assisted in all the territory. The first activities on the territory will be devoted to the promotion of regional CCIs, and to create synergies amongst them, in order to develop new common projects.
The third action “Creation of financial instruments to support access to credit of the CCIs” has been implemented thanks to several meetings with regional financial institutions and regional Department for economic development in order to give evidence-based results of the culture and creative business to better support CCIs. With the aim of overcoming the lack of knowledge on how to evaluate the cultural idea behind ICCs request of funding, a grid of criteria was set up, also to be shared with regional Financial institutions.
The future work for the Regional Department for culture and sports in the frame of the CRE:HUB project, will be to identify specific actions to support culture and creativity also in the frame of the new EU programming period 2021-2027, taking into consideration the needs of regional actors and with the purpose of supporting cultural crossovers, and the impact CCIs have on other sectors.
