Culture, the arts and cultural spaces for democratic participation and political expression, online and offline

Call updates

Jun 14, 2024 3:58:06 PM

FLASH EVALUATION results

HORIZON-CL2-2024-DEMOCRACY-01

Published: 07/12/2022

Opened: 04/10/2023

Deadline: 07/02/2024

The total budget for the call was EUR 95.000.000.

The results of the evaluations per topic are as follows:

HORIZON-CL2-2024-DEMOCRACY-01-08

Budget for the topic: EUR 9.000.000

Number of proposals submitted (including proposals transferred from or to other calls): 51

Number of inadmissible proposals: 0

Number of ineligible proposals: 0

Number of above-threshold proposals: 29

Total budget requested for above-threshold proposals: EUR 83824620,25

Number of proposals retained for funding: 3

Number of proposals in the reserve list: 3

Funding threshold: 13,5

(Proposals with the same score were ranked according to the priority order procedure set out in the call conditions (see in the General Annexes to the Work Programme or specific arrangements in the specific call/topic conditions).

Ranking distribution:

Number of proposals with scores lower or equal to 15 and higher or equal to 14: 2

Number of proposals with scores lower than 14 and higher or equal to 13: 3

Number of proposals with scores lower than 13 and higher or equal to 10: 24

Summary of observer report:

The observe the evaluation process of the single stage calls:

• HORIZON-CL2-2024-HERITAGE-01

• HORIZON-CL2-2024-TRANSFORMATIONS-01

• HORIZON-CL2-2024-DEMOCRACY-01.

The same independent observer reviewed the evaluation of the three calls. This enabled the observer to follow the entire process, to identify strengths and areas for possible improvements specific to the single stage evaluation, and to compare procedures and practices of a fully online evaluation with online consensus independent observer was appointed by the European Research Executive Agency (REA) to

meetings and online discussions.

REA staff ensured that for the topics associated to these 3 calls, all actors involved were fully informed about the background guidance and legal documents, procedures and standards of quality. The organization and management were very challenging because of the large number of topics and proposals. Interdisciplinarity embedded in the call texts added layers to the overall complexity.

The overall evaluation process was executed in full compliance with the procedures, code of conduct, and guiding principles of fairness, transparency and equal treatment of proposals. The rules and guiding principles for the procedures concerning each evaluation step were known in advance to the applicants, the evaluators and all the persons involved in the evaluations. The briefing materials made available to the external experts were of the highest quality as they provided all the relevant information in a clear and comprehensive way. Experts were asked to declare any potential conflict of interest and to ensure confidentiality of all information. The evaluation process was robust. No preferential treatment of any proposal was observed by the observer or reported by any expert. The discussions were fair and consistent with open and detailed online deliberations covering all the criteria and sub criteria to ensure clarity of issues (both in remote discussion meetings and/or in written communications within the evaluation system) arising and providing impartial feedback to applicants. REA continues putting significant effort into assigning proposals to evaluation groups that cover all the key disciplines relevant to the topic and provides structured training to moderators on how to help experts bridge barriers between disciplines through informed discussions that leave sufficient space for each discipline.

We recently informed the applicants about the evaluation results for their proposals.

For questions, please contact the Research Enquiry Service.

Feb 8, 2024 6:50:25 PM

PROPOSAL NUMBERS

The call HORIZON-CL2-2024-DEMOCRACY-01 has closed on 07.02.2024.

287 proposals have been submitted.

The breakdown per topic is:

HORIZON-CL2-2024-DEMOCRACY-01-08: 51 proposals

Evaluation results are expected to be communicated in June 2024.

Oct 4, 2023 12:00:06 AM

The submission session is now available for: HORIZON-CL2-2024-DEMOCRACY-01-08(HORIZON-RIA)

Culture, the arts and cultural spaces for democratic participation and political expression, online and offline

TOPIC ID: HORIZON-CL2-2024-DEMOCRACY-01-08

Programme: Horizon Europe Framework Programme (HORIZON)
Call: Past, present and future of democracies (HORIZON-CL2-2024-DEMOCRACY-01)
Type of action: HORIZON-RIA HORIZON Research and Innovation Actions
Type of MGA: HORIZON Action Grant Budget-Based [HORIZON-AG]
Deadline model: single-stage
Planned opening date: 04 October 2023
Deadline date: 07 February 2024 17:00:00 Brussels time

ExpectedOutcome:
Projects should contribute to the following expected outcomes:

Recommendations on how to foster civic participation through a deep analysis of the use of spaces beyond classic democratic institutions, especially cultural and artistic spaces, as well as cyberspace and metaverses, for political expression.
Forward-looking policy recommendations to ensure that digital spaces (including metaverses and social networks) can, by design, have a positive impact on democratic life and limit potential threats to democracy.
Experimentation of solutions, methods and tools to support democratic behaviour and social well-being for the next generation of social media.
Scope:
Participation in political life through conventional means, such as elections, has become a challenge. Participation rates decrease while parts of society feel unheard by political elites and see electoral processes as inefficient.

On the other hand, some citizens find alternative outlets to express political opinions, such as protests[1], expression on social media and in virtual spaces, art creation, music and vocal forms of expressive culture, etc. Cultural, artistic and online spaces (such as public libraries, art exhibition spaces, heritage sites, cultural centres, parks and other public places used temporarily to convey a message, social media platforms, metaverses, etc.) are increasingly positioning themselves as catalysers for social and economic changes. They become privileged places for deliberation and alternative engagement with politics through debate, education and free expression, for instance. Proposals should evaluate how effective they are at channelling bottom-up political energy. They should also propose options as to how those alternative initiatives could feed into the wider political debate (for instance through social innovation). In addition, proposals could look at art and cultural productions (in the broader sense, online and offline) as vectors of political expression, be it in democratic or non-democratic contexts. How efficient are they in mediating political messages? What kind of attacks and counterattacks are targeted at them, with what effects, from the side of the professional politicians and organisations? How are questions regarding the legitimacy of artistic activities answered?

Aside from physical spaces, virtual spaces for exchange and communication have been very active in the dissemination of political views and have influenced the political debate, notably through the use of popular culture references (memes, etc.) and through cyber-culture. While the link between social media and disinformation as well as political engagement has already been investigated, the revival of virtual alternative universes, such as metaverses, begs for more scientific evidence regarding what impact this will have on democracy. Digital universes have a strong potential to both threaten and nurture democracies. Proposals should propose forward-looking policy recommendations to ensure that such digital spaces can, by design, have a positive impact on democratic life, and to limit the potential threats to democracy. How can these new spaces be exploited as positive tools for citizen engagement? Proposals should also experiment solutions, methods and tools to support democratic behaviour and well-being for the next generation of social media.

Proposals are expected to investigate cultural activity and engagement, online and offline, as political expression, civic participation and political engagement, historically, in contemporary society, and to provide forecasts for the future. Gender, decoloniality and intersectionality should be taken into account. Investigation of examples and initiatives from outside Europe will be instrumental, given the many interesting experiences of art and activism around the world. Therefore, international cooperation is encouraged. Proposals should produce concrete policy recommendations and design proposals to allow the potential for political engagement through physical and virtual non-traditional spaces to be fully expressed, in an inclusive manner.

Research methodologies should include field research and participative methods. They may also involve culture and art practitioners and art-based research.

Clustering and cooperation with other selected projects under this topic and other relevant projects are strongly encouraged.

Proposals are encouraged to collaborate with the JRC Competence Centre on Participatory and Deliberative Democracy,[2] particularly in respect to the development of evidence-informed policy recommendations on how digital universes, such as metaverses, can have positive impacts on democratic systems and democratic life in general.

[1] See, under the same call, HORIZON-CL2-2024-DEMOCRACY-01-01: Protest politics and cultures of opposition in democracy.

[2]https://knowledge4policy.ec.europa.eu/participatory-democracy_en