New pilot programme to support mobility and exchange across the Nordic region, UK and Ireland opening in August 2025.

The first Northern European Mobility Opportunity (NEMO) call will support artistic exchange and collaboration for practitioners across the Nordic region, the UK and Ireland. The Call is jointly funded by the six funding agencies and will be administered by the Nordic Culture Fund.

Søren Merrild Staun, interim director of the Nordic Culture Fund said: “We are very happy to announce this new pilot opportunity, reflecting the Nordic Culture Fund's ambition to create new paths for Nordic and international cultural collaboration. Through this new partnership with the arts funding agencies of Ireland, England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, we reaffirm our shared commitment to strengthening the possibilities for artists and cultural actors to work across borders, even in uncertain times. Now more than ever, fostering stronger alliances and cooperation among our neighbouring countries is essential to sustaining and enriching the cultural landscape.”

Need for new collaborative efforts

The Nordic countries, the UK and Ireland constitute a shared international space with fertile ground for creative collaborations. Working across the region has become more difficult with increased costs and new barriers to mobility restricting international collaboration. The focus of the Call is on individual arts practitioners in the initial years of their careers, acknowledging that this group has a particular need for opportunity and investment in the current climate. 

The programme aims to foster international collaboration, develop artistic networks across the region and encourage more arts practitioners to work confidently with international partners. The need for unity, cooperation and mutual understanding between neighbours is now more urgent than at any time this century.

Building on experiences from previous collaboration

The new pilot programme builds on the experiences of a previous international funding collaborations by the partners. It is a practical manifestation of the closer ties that have been developed over the last five years between arts funding agencies in the Nordic and Baltic states, the UK and Ireland.

Full programme information and criteria available in June 2025

 The programme will open for applications on 18 August 2025 with a deadline for submissions of 15th September 2025. The full guidance and application information will be available on the Nordic Culture Fund’s website in June 2025.

The Nordic Culture Fund will administer the open call. Applications can be made by artists in the UK and Ireland to engage with counterparts in the Nordic Countries, and vice versa, with awards of up to EU9,000 each from a total budget of approximately EU300,000.

And more good news:

The third round of the Four Nations International Collaboration Fund (https://www.creativescotland.c...) will open in January 2026, supporting artistic collaboration for UK practitioners planning to collaborate with a wider range of international partners.

Noirin McKinney, Director of Arts Development, Arts Council of Northern Ireland, said: “The Arts Council of Northern Ireland is proud to partner with the Nordic Culture Fund and our arts funding colleagues across these islands in the Northern European Mobility Programme. This initiative offers a valuable opportunity for our emerging artists to develop international links with their counterparts in the Nordic region, UK and Ireland through creative collaboration and thus develop and deepen their artistic expertise and experience. I would encourage individual practitioners from Northern Ireland to apply when the programme opens in August.

Maureen Kennelly, Director of the Arts Council of Ireland, said: “This new pilot programme represents a vital opportunity for early-career artists to build relationships, share ideas and create work across borders. We’re delighted to be part of this collective effort to strengthen cultural ties across the Nordic region, the UK and Ireland. Initiatives like this offer connection and the chance to imagine new ideas together.

Simon Mellor, Deputy Chief Executive for Arts and Museums, Arts Council England said: “Arts Council England is proud to be a partner in this exciting new mobility initiative which will build closer connections and invest in collaborations between emerging artists across fourteen northern European countries. We are grateful to the Nordic Culture Fund for administering this important scheme.”

Dana MacLeod, Director of Arts, Communities and Inclusion, Creative Scotland, said: “The desire to interact with our Nordic neighbours has been manifest across the whole of our island’s history with a particular connection for Scotland which is very much alive today. This joint fund will celebrate, encourage and strengthen these links and we are delighted to be partnering with the Nordic Culture Fund on this programme.”

Eluned Hâf, Head of Wales Arts International, said: “The Arts Council of Wales and Wales Arts International are proud to be a partner in this new funding programme with the Nordic Culture Fund and our colleagues across the UK and Ireland. We are excited for the opportunities it will offer emerging artists to strengthen links and collaborate creatively with international partners.”

Notes

The Nordic countries are: Denmark, Faroe Islands, Finland, Greenland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, and Åland Islands.

About the partner organisations:

At the Nordic Culture Fund, we work to set the direction for the cultural co-operation of the future. In a time of upheaval, when nations draw in to themselves, art and culture can act as a focal point that opens up, creates links and offers new perspectives – both towards ourselves and towards the world we live in. With our funding programmes, partnerships and cultural policy work, we therefore aim to bring arts and culture into new forms of dialogue, and provide flexible frameworks for developing new collaborations and initiatives - nordiskkulturfond.org

The Arts Council of Ireland is the national government agency for funding, developing and promoting the arts in Ireland. Our role is to advocate, advise, invest and work in partnership with others, to cultivate a vibrant arts environment at the heart of Irish society – artscouncil.ie

The Arts Council of Northern Ireland is the lead funding and development agency for the Arts providing support to arts projects throughout the region, through its Treasury and The National Lottery funds. Arts Council funding enables artists and arts organisations to increase access to the arts across society and deliver great art that is within everyone’s reach. – artscouncil-ni.org

Creative Scotland is the public body that supports culture and creativity across all parts of Scotland, distributing funding provided by the Scottish Government and The National Lottery, which, now in its 30th year, has supported over 14,600 projects with more than £501.9 million in funding through Creative Scotland and its predecessor, the Scottish Arts Council. Further information at creativescotland.com.

Arts Council England is the national development agency for creativity and culture. We have set out our strategic vision in Let’s Create that by 2030 we want England to be a country in which the creativity of each of us is valued and given the chance to flourish and where everyone of us has access to a remarkable range of high quality cultural experiences. We invest public money from Government and The National Lottery to help support the sector and to deliver this vision. artscouncil.org.uk

Wales Arts International is the in-house international agency of the Arts Council of Wales, the public body – wai.org.uk