what we do
The Creative Industries Fund NL is the national cultural fund for design, architecture and digital culture. We finance innovative design projects of makers and cultural institutions in the creative industry. Many of these projects are interdisciplinary.
The Fund offers professionals scope to experiment, research and make. By doing so, the Fund wants to enhance the quality of design practice, strengthen the creative sector as a whole and connect design talent to other disciplines and sectors.
Every year, we invest around 20 million euros in hundreds of projects and activities that have a basis in the Netherlands and the Caribbean part of the Kingdom. We do this on behalf of the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science, and additionally on behalf of the Ministries of Foreign Affairs when it comes to internationalisation, and the Interior and Kingdom Relations when it comes to spatial planning.
connecting
We encourage interaction between the cultural, social and economic domains. We do this by challenging designers to help think about how to tackle social issues and by connecting them to policymakers, scientists and other experts. This is because we believe that the power of design can do a lot for the difficult tasks the world is facing.
Also read The Fund for Coalitions.
pioneering
Our ambition is to play a progressive role in the dynamic field of the creative industry. With our range of subsidies, we respond to developments we identify. In this way, we continue to create scope for the emergence of new ideas and build on a chain of talent development and a strong cultural infrastructure.
Also read The Fund for Makers and The Fund for Cultural Institutions.
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.
inspiration, knowledge and results
The grants we provide often lead to meaningful results. We think it is important to share these. We do this in the following way: on this website, selected projects show the impact of subsidy and design. Overarching information and results from programmes are collected in publications and dossiers. We highlight activities and presentations around supported projects via Instagram, LinkedIn and Facebook.
Besides the website, there are also two thematic platforms. Results from the Spatial Design Voucher Scheme and the Spatial Design Action Programme are collected on De nieuwe ruimte (in Dutch only). And Talent Platform provides an overview of all makers who have received a grant from the Fund through the Talent Development Grant Scheme since 2014.
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.
