Culture, heritage and creative industries for health and well-being

Expected outcome

Projects should contribute to all of the following expected outcomes:

• Deepened knowledge of the potential positive effects of cultural experiences on health and well-being is developed and made available to relevant stakeholders, along with validated scalable and replicable practices to reinforce these effects
• Key industrial, health, cultural, educational and/or civil society actors are aware of validated systemic approaches to make cultural experiences improve health and well-being and are engaged in producing or supporting such cultural experiences
• Competitive European cultural and creative sectors and industries systematically contribute to improve health and well-being

Scope

It is widely recognised that cultural experiences, such as those offered by cultural heritage institutions (CHIs) or cultural and creative sectors and industries (CCSI), can be beneficial for health and well-being. Research done, though scattered and not always systematic, supports this conclusion, with for instance the World Health Organisation arguing that cultural experiences contribute to health in four areas: prevention of ill-health, promotion of healthy behaviour, as well as management and treatment of disease.

However, there is still a lack of systematic research into the key characteristics and circumstances of cultural experiences to best support health and well-being. The challenge is to remedy this situation by developing evidence-based and validated practices that can be understood and used by CHIs and CCSI as well as other key stakeholders to develop cultural experiences that effectively support health and well-being.

There are many possible ways to approach this challenge. Proposals are free to choose the focus considered to have the best potential to achieve a strong impact and should make sure to delimit the focus in a way that allows for sufficiently thorough work. Activities may thus concentrate on different kinds of arts and culture – interventions and/or experiences – online and/or in person – and/or on cross-sectoral issues. Proposals should, however, credibly explain why the chosen focus and approach are likely to achieve a strong impact.

One possible focus could be on arts and culture-based experiences as a societal support kit, in situations of crises or other circumstances where health or well-being is under threat. Decision-makers could thus benefit from a set of validated practices that help support well-being among the population in such situations. Such research might be based on good examples provided by Member States/Associated Countries or other stakeholders, with a view to consolidate and build on existing knowledge and practices.

Another possible focus could be on mobilising a particular cultural and creative industry to contribute to health and well-being, such as for instance the video games industry. Ever more people spend ever more time on games, making this an important and growing source of cultural experiences, with a strong interactive component. Besides being a source of entertainment, video game communities give opportunities for isolated, underprivileged or discriminated people to find a sense of belonging, and to contribute to societal goals. At the same time, however, a context of competitivity and anonymity may invite harassment and discrimination in online multi-player video games.

A third possible focus could be an implementation research approach, exploring the obstacles to adoption of already validated arts and culture –based intervention(s) that support health and well-being, and developing effective way(s) to achieve broad uptake.

In order to achieve evidence-based and validated practices that can be understood and used by CHIs and/or CCSI as well as by other targeted key actors and stakeholders, projects should involve stakeholders from such sectors. To validate practices, projects may launch small scale pilot trials but may also choose other validation methods appropriate to the focus chosen. As appropriate for the focus chosen, projects should properly take the gender dimension into account, such as for instance gender differences in cultural participation and its consequences. Projects may award financial support to third parties in order to involve entities such as CCSI, CHIs or other important stakeholders which are not part of the project consortium. Such support can only be given in the form of grants.

To the extent appropriate, projects should build on previous research and innovation and established methods. In particular, as appropriate, projects may establish links to the project funded under call topic ‘HORIZON-CL2-2025-01-HERITAGE-09 Impacts of Culture and the Arts on Health and Well-being’.

Proposals may consider, as appropriate considering the focus chosen, the involvement of the European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC), based on its experience for example with the SciArt and artist-in-residency programmes, and the value it could bring in providing an effective interface between research activities and policymaking.

[1] ‘Health and well-being’ should in the context of this topic be understood in a comprehensive sense, comprising both mental and physical health and well-being.

[2] See the 2019 WHO Scoping review “What is the evidence on the role of the arts in improving health and well-being?”