Mobility funding

The Nordic-Baltic Mobility Programme for Culture strengthens artistic and cultural cooperation in the Nordic region and Baltic states. The programme focuses on increasing the exchange of knowledge, contacts, presence and interest in Nordic and Baltic art and culture. The Nordic-Baltic Mobility Programme comprises three forms of funding: mobility, network and residence funding.

Which activities are funded?

The mobility funding provides applicants, who may be individuals or small groups, access to contacts, skills and knowledge from different parts of the region. Funding may also be used to present artistic and cultural productions and to increase interest in Nordic and Baltic art and culture.

Mobility funding is intended for the travel and/or stay of professional artists or cultural workers within Nordic and/or Baltic countries. That is: Denmark, Estonia, Finland, the Faroe Islands, Greenland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Sweden and the Åland Islands.

The reason for the journey may, for example, be:

• cooperation with colleagues in one of the Nordic and/or Baltic countries
• a special performance
• exhibitions
• participation in conferences, meetings and workshops
• research

You cannot apply for funding for:

• travel within the same country/area
• travel to or from countries outside the Nordic region/Baltic states.
• travel which is a part of the applicant’s formal studies
• corporate or business travel
• travel for employees of public administration – for example, state authorities, municipalities, regions or equivalent.
• activities that have already been completed. At the earliest, activities that are supported by the programme may begin 8 weeks after the application deadline.

Funding for artists’ residency stays are normally not prioritised due to the specific funding for artist residency centres which promotes such activities in the region.

Students are not granted mobility funding. However, in some cases, working artists and cultural workers, who have started studying again, may apply for funding if the purpose of the travel is not linked directly to their studies, but is a part of the artist’s continued professional work.

Finances

Mobility funding can be applied for travel and/or stays for up to 10 days. The size of the funding is based on a fixed travel cost and/or fixed compensation per day, which is calculated based on the duration and destination of the stay.

The stay may exceed ten days, but the mobility funding will not cover more than ten days.

You cannot apply for additional funding for production costs or similar. The funding applies for a return journey and is thus unsuitable for, for example, tours covering several countries.  You can only submit one application per application round.

The online application form automatically calculates the amount you can apply for based on the destination and travel dates which are selected. This table on the fixed compensation per day as well as accommodation and travel expenses is used as the basis for calculation.

Who can apply?

Only professional artists and cultural workers (such as curators, producers, fiction translators, cultural editors or researchers) within all fields of culture and art can apply for funding.

“Professional” means that you have documented experience of working within the field of art and culture and/or have studied art or culture.

Mobility funding can only be granted for individuals or groups of up to 6 persons per application.

Therefore, the user account which you create in our application system should not be registered as an organisation to apply for mobility funding.

In order to apply for mobility funding, the applicant(s) should reside in the Nordic region (Denmark, Finland, the Faroe Islands, Greenland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, the Åland Islands) or Baltic states (Estonia, Latvia or Lithuania) but it is not necessary for applicants to have Nordic or Baltic nationality.

You will have to attach an invitation, or letter of intent, to the application. It should state who is invited, and by whom. Moreover, an invitation letter can also state what the applicant is being offered by the inviting organization/institution/group/etc.

Individual and group travel

In the individual applications, the traveller should always fill in and submit the application. Therefore, you cannot apply for funding for another person, except in group applications where one of the travellers is specified as the leader and contact person of the group.

Furthermore, everyone in the group should fulfil the requirement of working as a professional artist or cultural worker and should also reside in the Nordic region or Baltic states.  If anyone in the group does not fulfil the requirements, the entire application will be rejected.

Everyone in the group must travel at the same time from the same location and to the same destination. If group members with the same destination travel from different countries, they should instead submit individual applications. These applications will be assessed together.

A group application should only be submitted when it is clearly evident that the persons who are applying together are artistically (or in another manner) connected. This means that everyone who is a part of the group has a professional relationship with each other and can justify their role and purpose of the stay. For example, a quartet or dance company may be an artistically connected group, but if a number of individual cultural workers want to apply for funding, for example, to visit a festival, they should instead apply separately.

How is an application assessed?

The assessment is conducted based on the aforementioned criteria and depending on how well the application has managed to convey the following:

Cooperation opportunities
The journey contributes to meetings and contacts and promotes new groupings and initiatives.

Quality and content
The assessment takes into account the quality of the applicant’s artistry or previous assignments and the traveller’s reason for the journey as well as the purpose and how the applicant intends to achieve his/her objectives. If the objective is to contribute to knowledge of new art forms and expressions, then we will also consider this.

The Nordic-Baltic dimension
In this context the Nordic-Baltic dimension means that the travel:

• promotes and increases contacts, communication and activities between the Nordic and/or Baltic countries
• strengthens the Nordic-Baltic presence in cultural life in the Nordic region and Baltic states
• strengthens understanding of similarities and differences between the Nordic and Baltic countries
• increases knowledge of the Nordic and Baltic artists and their work

To view an FAQ about our programmes, please click here.

Please note that the language of the programme is English and that applications and reports must be submitted in English.

The application deadline is 15:59, Finnish time. Granted projects may begin 8 weeks after the application deadline within the mobility funding programme.

Preview application form ›