Open Call Building on Talent 2023 – experienced professionals

With the Open Call Building on Talent, we stimulate knowledge exchange between experienced and starting professionals in the creative industry. By creating workplaces in the form of collaboration projects, we also strengthen the connection starters have with the professional field.

To bring about these collaborations, the Fund has set up two open calls. Workplaces are selected through the first call for experienced professionals. The second call is aimed at starters. This will follow in September 2023.

This open call is for professionals who are located in the Netherlands and are active in the creative industry with at least four years of professional experience in design, architecture and/or digital culture. Like design studios, agencies, platforms, collectives and independent designers or makers.

Experienced professionals can submit a proposal for a collaboration project with a talented starter. In your proposal, describe which self-chosen current design challenge, research question or experiment you would like to work on with the starter.

In your proposal, you need to reserve a role for a starting designer or maker and give a description of the proposed collaboration. Describe as well as possible what you expect of the starter.

The grant is to be used for a part-time work period of four months. The collaboration project is to start between 1 January 2024 and 1 March 2024.

Both the experienced party and the starter should commit themselves on a weekly basis. We expect a constructive collaboration that leads to substantive research or an experiment. Before the start of the collaboration, both parties have to draw up a collaboration agreement and a plan of action.

The collaborations are established in two steps.

first call
The workplaces are selected through this first open call. In September 2023, the second open call will follow. Starting designers and makers can then respond to one of the selected workplaces and the associated challenge.

second call
The second open call is for designers and makers, who are located in the Netherlands and have at most four years’ work experience within the disciplines of design, architecture or digital culture. They can have completed a relevant design course, but they can also have developed themselves professionally in practice, without having completed a relevant design course.

In order to prepare the application, it is important for you to acquire the right information based on the following documents:

Open Call Building on Talent
Applications are assessed on the basis of the Open Call Building on Talent 2023 – experienced professionals. This states the conditions, criteria and objectives.

Open Call Grant Scheme
Applications are assessed on the basis of the Open Call Grant Scheme. This scheme describes the general conditions, grounds for rejection, manner of publication, submission process, assessment and award procedures, and grant obligations.

Grant applications will be submitted to four external independent advisers for assessment. This committee assesses the plans based on the following three criteria:

- the relevance of the selected design challenge;
- the extent to which the design challenge and the selected approach match the applicant’s expertise and portfolio; and
- the way in which the collaboration with a starting maker or designer is proposed, with the added value of the collaboration project for both parties also being taken into account. The committee will also assess if the starter will be given enough room to add a personal interpretation to the project.

acceptance
When you have submitted your application, the Fund Desk will check if your application fits within the open call and complies with the Open Call Grant Scheme’s formal requirements.

assessment
An independent advisory committee will assess your application on the basis of the Open Call Grant Scheme and the Open Call Building on Talent 2023 – experienced professionals. The committee advises the Fund’s Board.

tender
The assessment of this open call is similar to a tender – this means that, within the available budget, a number of proposals will be preferred over other ones. Only positively assessed projects can be supported.

decision
The Board takes account of the committee’s advice in its decision on the rejection or provision of the grant. You will be notified about the result in a decision. You will receive this no later than ten weeks after submitting your application.

accountability
If you receive a grant from the Fund, then you will have to comply with the obligations. Two weeks before the conclusion of your project, you will be asked by email to submit your accountability form in the application environment.

Open Call Building on Talent 2023 – experienced professionals
Open Call Grant Scheme