The CreaDemo and DigiDemo grants are funded by a special appropriation from the Ministry of Education and Culture, which was halved in 2021 due to a reduction in gaming profits.
“The Ministry of Education and Culture’s government programme objectives for arts and culture for the period 2023–2027 propose increasing the support appropriation back to the 2020 level. We hope that this will indeed happen. The large number of applications shows that there is a great need for such support in the creative industries, and the size of the appropriation does not match the demand,” says Ulla Simonen, Director of AVEK.
The amount of the concept support is €5,000. Kati Uusi-Rauva, Project Manager at the University of the Arts Helsinki and a member of the CreaDemo expert jury, points out that the support is important considering its size. The funding enables the advancement and testing of even experimental ideas.
“This kind of precision funding for the development of an idea is not available elsewhere. Over the years, we have seen how a few thousand euros can help transform an idea into a product, allowing for professional development even in the early stages,” says Uusi-Rauva.
Due to the high number of applications and limited budget, the percentage of successful applications for concept grants was low. There were 80 projects applying for CreaDemo, and grants were awarded to 9 projects, totalling €45,000. A total of 100 projects applied for DigiDemo, and grants were awarded to 13 projects, totalling €65,000. The application period for concept grants was open from 15 February to 11 April 2023.
Support for unique ideas
CreaDemo grants are awarded for product development projects that seek new product or service innovations in the creative industries and cultural entrepreneurship. The aim is to create new products, methods or services that are based on or utilise creative expertise.
In this year’s application round, applications for concept support highlighted the opportunities expanded by digitalisation to reach different target groups, but there were also many high-quality product development projects.
DigiDemo is a product development grant for the development of new audiovisual or other cultural content and its narrative forms. The concept grant applications in this round were diverse in terms of content – there were visual short stories, games, new kinds of animation formats and innovative audio applications.
“The number of applications was high, so competition for funding has become more intense. To receive support, the idea had to be justifiably unique and the working plan had to be carefully thought out,” says Marcus Korhonen, Director of Aalto Studios and a member of the DigiDemo expert jury.
The support decisions are made by two expert juries. This year, the CreaDemo expert jury includes Kati Uusi-Rauva, Project Manager at the University of the Arts Helsinki, and Leena Janhila, Specialist at Humak. The DigiDemo expert jury includes Marcus Korhonen, Director of Aalto Studios; game expert Taina Myöhänen and Antti Hirvonen, COO of Creative Content and Media at Yle. AVEK’s representative in both juries is Media Art Commissioner Milla Moilanen.
Full list of concept grant decisions (in Finnish)
Application period for demo grants now open
The application period for CreaDemo and DigiDemo demo and pilot grants is open until 11 September. All applications must be submitted via our application system by 16:00 on the last application day. Those who have applied for and received concept support can also apply for a demo grant, provided that the concept support has been reported before the deadline for the demo support application.
The aim of the demo grants is to develop a content plan into a demo, prototype or pilot to present the project to parties such as financiers and distributors for production on a commercial scale.
We will hold an online application clinic on Wednesday 16 August at 10:00–12:00. The event is intended for applicants who have already started the application process and need answers to specific questions about the application.