Europe has the talent—what it lacks is smart activation

It’s time to move from abstract support for the CCI:s to policies that spark real activation. Photo: iStock

Data is not merely about outcomes; it maps behavior. Partners within ekip have contributed participant lists, ecosystem maps, activity logs and role descriptions: who shows up, where they come from, what resources they bring, and what they are actually interested in. What emerges is not a neat, generic “innovation ecosystem”, but a messy, living swarm.

“The data that we have collected in this inventory comes from all our key partners from policy labs, from our prototyping cases. Everyone has been able to participate and contribute with their data,” says Katarina Scott Senior Project Development at Future by Lund in Sweden and a member of ekip.

What takes shape is not a tidy, one-size-fits-all “innovation ecosystem,” but rather an organic swarm, dynamic, tangled, and constantly in motion.

Artists, researchers, technologists, public servants and companies coexist in the same rooms, driven by very different motivations.

“A company may say: I’m most interested in cameras. The researcher just wants to do their research. The choreographer is most interested in choreography,” the interviewee explains. The striking insight is that this diversity is not a weakness. It is the defining strength of cultural and creative innovation.”

Inactivity a problem

Yet the data also reveals a deeper problem: inactivity. Local ecosystems are full of resources, people, spaces, expertise, even money, but much of it lies dormant.

“They have their own tag on. They are not active,” Katarina Scott says. “They are waiting for the right time. Activation only happens when something external forces it: an EU call, a funding announcement, a political push. Without that spark, the system idles.”

This is where current policy frameworks fail. Innovation support is still designed around start-ups, incubators and science parks, ignoring the fact that most impactful innovation happens inside existing organizations or constellations of actors.

“That amount of innovation is infinitely much greater than the one you get from start-ups,” the Katarina Scott notes.

” Yet the cultural and creative sector is routinely pushed down a start-up path that assumes everyone can, or should, become an entrepreneur. Many cannot and the data shows they quietly drop out. “

Intentional mobilization

What is needed instead is deliberate activation: people, roles and mechanisms whose sole job is to light the fuse. In this middle space, there must be some kind of early actor who takes on starting the formulation and negotiations Katarina Scott argues.

” Trust is central here. Participants must feel safe enough to open their processes, knowing their conditions and reputations are respected. If I deliver something that is very bad, then I may never be able to do it again.”

The data also points to finance as a structural bottleneck. Large funding instruments dominate, while small, flexible resources for early collaboration are rare.

“Who will be able to pull together a 5 million euro project and manage it?”

Cultural and creative ecosystems grow bottom-up, through learning, failure and repetition. They need micro-funding, coordination money and staged support, not all-or-nothing bets.

Perhaps the most important insight is methodological. Just as consumer companies obsess over understanding customer behavior, cultural policy must learn to read ecosystem behavior.

“We can’t just be on the philosophical surface,” Katarina Scott says. “If we can start backing this up with corresponding facts, we will be able to design our efforts in a much better way.”

Mowing forward

The data tells a clear story. Europe does not lack creativity, talent or ambition. It lacks activation mechanisms that respect how cultural and creative innovation actually works: plural, cross-sectoral, trust-based and iterative. Moving forward means shifting policy from abstract support to practical ignition. Funding the early work of collaboration, recognizing multiple innovation journeys, and measuring success not just in outputs, but in participation and learning.

“ekip is a portfolio for innovation potential. If you make policies for potential, you must also activate the potential. The cultural and creative sector is not broken. But without data-driven activation, it will remain permanently “almost ready” – full of promise, waiting for a spark that policy has so far failed to provide.”