THE ARTS+

In doing so, the Ars Electronica Festival functions as a proving ground, the Prix Ars Electronica is an international competition to honor outstanding achievements in media art, the Ars Electronica Center is an educational institution and Museum of the Future open throughout the year, the Futurelab is Ars Electronica’s in-house R&D facility, and AE Solutions is the business division that carries out assignments commissioned by clients in the private sector. All these entities constantly monitor their respective domains to identify what’s happening in science and research, art and technology, and to mutually inspire one another.

With a national, European and international mission, BOZAR serves an artistic and policy platform for new ideas and concepts. Creativity, quality, and artistic diversity have been at the heart of the Centre’s mission since its foundation. But for art not to be something abstract and distant, for it to be truly part of the “culture” of a society – and particularly in a city as variegated and international as Brussels – the public must be able to experience it in a way that is both natural and lively. Art and people must find and recognize each other, must interact with and enrich each other.

With currently over 60 employees in Portugal, a turnover of about 5 million Euros and a constant high profitability, INOVA+ has managed over 40 international innovation projects (with the role of coordinator in several projects with large consortia and budgets of over 1 Million Euro). The company has offices in Lisbon, Brussels, Heidelberg and Warsaw. INOVA+ is also a group, formed by complementary entities that collaborate closely, such as SERN – Start-Up Europe Regions Network, an initiative of the European Commission, creating links between ecosystems, focusing on connecting people, local ecosystems, international outreach and providing information through the One Stop Shop for start-ups. Originally focused on ICT and web start-ups it has recently broadened its scope to all start-ups.

Its project relies on an exceptional area to test and develop innovative projects around culture and digital technology, thus strengthening the attractiveness and dynamism of this area. The territory of French Tech Grande Provence gathers 1260 digital and tech companies, 4 competitive clusters and benefits from a surrounding “living lab” in the cultural and creative sector, with 9 international festivals, gathering more than 1,9M spectators and 5 sites classified by UNESCO. Its ambition is to create favourable conditions for the emergence, development and perpetuation of startups deploying innovative solutions around artistic, cultural, tourism and mobility applications.

T6 ‘Innovation Society and Social Capital’ research unit, has gained a long experience in the field of socio-economic impact assessment, having developed and successfully tested methodologies and impact assessment toolkits for more than 12 horizon 2020 projects. T6 has a long experience in the Media and Cultural and Creative Industry community through its work on policy design and analysis of the industry and its involvement in two research projects on media (i3 and SOMA). T6 partners are also Vice- Chair of the New European Media Initiative (NEM) and founding member of Creative Innovation Council at the Frankfurter Buchmesse working on evolving digital needs of Europe’s creative industries. In its research activities, T6 adopts an interdisciplinary approach that combines and develops both quantitative and qualitative methodologies, following – when possible – the action-research principles. T6 has also an outstanding experience in disseminating and communicating activities for several EC projects (e.g. iSCAPE, EUCalc, RAMSES, TESS), developing communication strategies adapted to specific target groups and using on-line and offline tools, applying user experience and interaction design. With a long and extensive experience in participating and co-ordinating national and international research and innovation projects, with a specific focus on European Research Framework Programmes T6 has also a relevant experience and competence in project and program management, project communication and dissemination.