what we do
The Creative Industries Fund NL is the cultural fund for design, architecture, digital culture and any crossovers between them. As one of the six national cultural funds, we finance special and innovative projects, research and activities of designers, makers and cultural institutions in the creative industry.
The Fund is aimed at enriching and strengthening the creative sector. We strive to connect the unique talent of designers and makers with sectors within and outside the cultural domain.
Every year, on the instructions of the ministries of Education, Culture and Science, and the Foreign Office and the Home Office, we invest around 20 million euros in hundreds of projects and activities in the Netherlands and beyond. With this, we want to increase the quality of the professional design practice. We have a keen eye for regional spread, but also aim our activities at the Dutch Caribbean.
Further, we stimulate interaction between the cultural, social and economic domains, by placing specific issues on the agenda and involving designers in current social issues.
connecting
By providing grants we offer designers, makers and cultural institutions scope to experiment, research and make. This increasingly results in collaboration between various domains and disciplines, initiated by designers and commissioning parties alike, resulting in innovative and surprising connections.
Also read The Fund and Commissioning Parties
pioneering
We aspire to play a pioneering role in the creative industry. By being the link between designers and society, we can strengthen the social significance of design and increase the engagement of the power of design. At the same time, we promote the idea that experiment and research underpin the makers’ artistic and professional development and that scope is needed for the creation of new concepts. We demonstrate that grants lead to inspiring, meaningful results and that designers often collaborate with scientists and/or industry to achieve them.
Discover more about the projects we support or view a selection of the grants issued.
diversity and inclusivity
It is our job to build, from a cultural perspective, on the rich design tradition that characterizes the Netherlands. Diversity and inclusion play an important part in this. That is why we expressly offer scope to new sides of the creative industry, new stories and new values. We also attach great importance to the application of the Fair Practice Code, the Governance Code for Culture and the Diversity and Inclusion Code.
other national cultural funds
The Creative Industries Fund NL for design, architecture and digital culture, is one of the six Dutch cultural funds. The other five funds are the Cultural Participation Fund, the Performing Arts Fund NL, the Mondriaan Fund, the Netherlands Film Fund and the Dutch Foundation for Literature.
A large part of the contributions the Dutch government sets aside for culture is invested in these funds, in addition to the Basic Infrastructure (BIS) that falls under the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science's direct responsibility. With our substantive knowledge as funds, we are appointed implementers in addition to important initiators and policy makers in our areas of expertise.
