Cultural activity funds for Danish missions and cultural institutes

The fund is intended for Danish missions; that is, embassies, consulates and cultural institutes abroad, which work with international cultural collaboration within the area of the Ministry of Culture Denmark.

Local Danish missions and/or local departments of the Danish Cultural Institute may apply for funding for projects with concrete collaboration between Danish and foreign cultural actors; that is, institutes, organisations or artists. Danish missions and local departments of cultural institutes may submit applications.

An application may include several independent projects, for example, several small collaboration projects with local actors.

The formal application requirements are the following:

• The amount applied for must be at least DKK 20,000.
• The fund does not support projects that take place exclusively in Denmark.
• The fund does not support projects if the primary professional content is sport or food. Please see the Danish Ministry of Industry, Business and Financial Affairs’ and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark’s information on Public Diplomacy (PD) funding.
• The fund does not support film or media production. Please see the Danish Film Institute’s funds.
• Project may not be started before the application deadline.

An application is entitled to support if it fulfils the following requirements:

• A project must be based on concrete collaboration between Danish and foreign actors; for example, artists, organisations and/or institutes.
• To the greatest possible extent, a project should support the other strategic work with culture carried out by the missions and cultural institutes.
• The Danish artistic or cultural actor must play a professional role.
• The group of actors in the project must make use of their own resources in the project. In this regard, the Danish Cultural Institute is expected to make use of its own funds in the projects applied for.
• Applicants must have investigated other relevant funds, including the Danish Arts Foundation’s funding programmes (kunst.dk))
• The project or projects applied for must include elements that create relevant professional networks for the participating Danish art and culture actors. This could be accomplished, for example, through network meetings, receptions or professional gatherings.

We prioritise offering support for:

• Travel and accommodation (expenses for this should follow the Danish state travel allowance rates)
• Local transport
• Targeted communication related to project activities
• Documentation, marketing and PR
• Visas, insurance or the like
• Professional network events in connection with the project.

The purpose of the programme is to ensure and support Danish art and cultural collaboration abroad.

The fund is anchored in the collaboration agreement between the Ministry of Culture Denmark and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark, which has the following objective:

• The export of Danish culture abroad.
• Intercultural dialogue between Danish and foreign actors
• Marketing Denmark as a country
• Renewal of Danish art and culture through international collaboration.

The fund works on the basis of the following principles for projects included in Denmark’s international cultural collaboration:

• Activities must be of high professional quality in all respects.
  High professional quality is defined as being activities that are able to support the purpose of the fund.
  For professional artistic and cultural content in projects, part of the assessment of high professional quality will include the evaluation of whether the work of the practising, creating or participating artists or actors is firmly anchored and presented on professional platforms. For the areas within the arts, an evaluation of the quality will be based on the Danish Arts Foundation’s quality concepts for the individual artistic areas.
• Activities must be anchored in collaboration between Danish, local and international partners, which are built upon mutual and local interest.
• Activities must ensure strong networks and partnerships, which extend beyond the individual activity and preferably have a long-term perspective.
• Activities must ensure visualisation through targeted communication.

From the autumn of 2024 to the spring of 2025, priority will be given to concrete cultural projects based on the attention given to Denmark’s EU chairmanship, promoting international cultural collaboration and knowledge about Denmark. This may be, for example, projects that focus on Denmark's role in Europe and the European cultural community.

Publicly accessible events or projects will, in this case, have special priority. The projects must take place in the spring and autumn of 2025. Applicants are requested to consider how the project supports the mission’s other strategies or involvement with regard to the EU chairmanship. When assessing the application, consideration will be given to the extent, visibility and effectiveness in the country in question.

Consideration will be given to reasonable distribution of funds among those entitled to apply.

You must apply via the Grant portal. Once you have created your profile in the Grant portal, you can go in and out of the portal at any time to check whether you have all appendices and information there before you submit the application.

If you are exempt from Digital Post or due to very special conditions cannot use the digital self-service solution, please write to post@slks.dk.

If you apply on behalf of a Danish mission abroad or the Danish Cultural Institute, you must use a foreign login. If you do not have a login, you can order it here.

We recommend that you become aware of the implications of your application form and have the required information ready before you start.

The following appendices must be attached to the application:

• The project description and budget (please use the agency’s project and budget templates, which can be obtained below)

Any further material will not be included in the evaluation of the application. Applications that do not include the required information will not be processed. When applying for several independent projects in the same application, the applicant must only complete a combined document with project descriptions and a combined budget form with tabs per project.

Templates for project descriptions and budget

We request applicants to use the project and budget templates, which can be obtained from the links below. The project and budget template provides an overview of the project and its financial dimensions, as well as own/local/other financing. It also gives the applicant an impression of which information we are requesting.

It is a requirement that the application’s budget must include the individual project’s main expenses and a financial plan. The financial plan must include an overview of local and Danish partners’ financing and resources in the project, as well as any sponsorships or fund grants and any own co-financing. The budget must clearly state which budget items funding is requested for. All budget items must be indicated in Danish kroner.

Download the project description form here

Download the budget form here

Download a guide for filling out the budget form here

We pay any support to the NemKonto that is related to a company registration (CVR) number (all citizens and companies registered in Denmark are required to have a NemKonto bank account).

Your support will be reported to the Danish tax agency (SKAT). Reporting it is mandatory. This is done whether or not you are obligated to pay tax on the support. Most of our support is reported with the Danish Labour Market Contribution (AM-bidrag).

The support is paid as close as possible to the start date that is stated in the application form. You should therefore adjust the start date for your project with the date when your first expenses for the project are due.

Applications to the ‘Cultural activity funds for Danish missions and cultural institutes’ fund will be processed twice a year.

The deadlines for 2024 are the following:

• 9 February
• 13 September

Processing takes up to eight weeks. 

Projects must not be started before the application has been received by the Agency for Culture and Palaces.

When you have submitted your electronic application, you will receive a receipt by email.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Culture Denmark assess applications for more than DKK 150,000. For applications for up to DKK 150,000, the Agency for Culture and Palaces will assess the application. The Agency for Culture and Palaces will obtain statements from the professional centres. These statements will be included in the total assessment of all applications.