The Ministry of Culture Denmark’s and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark’s fund for International Cultural Collaboration

Applications are accepted from Danish cultural actors at institution or organisation level. Cultural actors must play a professional role, either as a profession or commercially. In this context, ‘professional’ is defined for institutions or organisations as having art and culture as their primary area of activity. Danish missions abroad may also apply to the funding scheme in collaboration with international partners.

Foreign missions in Denmark may also apply for support for visiting programmes in Denmark. Visiting programmes must involve professional artistic and cultural actors and take place in cooperation with Danish cultural actors.

Formal requirements

Requirements for all formal applications:

• The amount applied for must be at least DKK 20,000.
• It is expected that the projects have at least 25 per cent co-financing from another party, for example, own financing, co-financing from foreign collaboration partners or other fund financing.
• Projects may not be started before the application deadline.
• Projects must take place abroad and in collaboration with international partners. The elements of visiting programmes intended to ensure networks between Danish and international actors can take place in Denmark.

Applications may be submitted for:

Applications may be submitted for carrying out projects. This means, for example, expenses for transport, travel and accommodation, targeted communication and marketing. The managing group only subsidises meals, rent of venues and production costs to a limited extent. Danish missions and the Danish Cultural Institute may not apply for salary funding and travel expenses.

Applications may be submitted for three different types of activities:
Cultural projects abroad, visiting programmes in Denmark and Danish missions’ responsive work with cultural diplomacy.

For cultural actors, it is assumed that there has been a prior dialogue with relevant embassies before submitting an application. If possible, a statement of interest may be included.

Travel and accommodation expenses for participating artists and cultural actors must follow the Danish state travel allowance rates.

The purpose of the funding scheme is to ensure and support Danish art and cultural collaboration abroad in interaction with the government’s current priorities and foreign policy interests.

Applications may be made for support for carrying out projects that support the priorities of cultural diplomacy and Denmark’s cultural exports.

Cultural diplomacy

Endeavours of this type are intended to support the government’s current international priorities, including varying regional and national focus areas and Denmark’s bilateral interests. It must be stated clearly how culture supports either a current initiative or a more long-term endeavour.

Applications may be submitted for supporting:

• Specific cultural projects that support major political initiatives abroad and special areas of endeavour. This is the case for, for example, events and diplomatic endeavours, such as Danish chairmanships, major international sport events, Danish participation in international forums, etc. Here, culture may contribute to supporting the story of Danish positions, solutions and values.
• The strategic cultural endeavours of the missions. This includes long-term work to create and strengthen Denmark’s bilateral and multilateral relations in the cultural area. This may take place through the formation of Danish mission’s artist and institution networks and cultural collaboration, for example, through networking events and visiting programmes in Denmark and abroad.
• Danish missions’ responsive work with cultural diplomacy. Danish missions abroad with special cultural interests, the presence of significant markets and employee resources in the cultural areas may apply for an annual framework amount for responsive cultural diplomatic and network supporting work, such as support for requests for contributions to cultural events from Danish and local actors and for strengthening the embassy’s visibility with regard to or access to local actors in the area of cultural life, cultural funds or authorities, political actors, the business community and research related to working on the promotion of culture. The individual activity must, as a rule, be aligned with the mission’s overall priorities within cultural work and may be incorporated as an integral part of and be co-financed with, for example, the area of public diplomacy if this strengthens cultural work.
  A maximum of DKK 50,000 per year may be applied for per mission. The total allocation comprises DKK 250,000 per year.

Cultural export

Endeavours in this area must support opportunities to develop and promote Denmark’s cultural exports within the areas of art and culture.

Specifically, applications may be submitted for subsidising the strategic work of professional actors with cultural exports and the positioning of Danish art and culture. This may take place through:

• Networking and marketing activities, for example, visiting programmes for Denmark or abroad for professional sector actors.
• Visualisation of export potential in Danish art and culture in the cultural professions on significant platforms where professional actors meet.
• Activities may include participation in central sector events, such as showcase festivals with live participation, for example music or performing arts. They may also be significant professional conferences or meeting places, where the placement of Danish content or networking activities may serve as marketing or exposure.
• Cultural actors who apply for subsidies for cultural export are expected to have had a prior dialogue with the local Danish mission.

You can read the Ministry of Culture Denmark and Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark's strategic framework agreement for international cultural cooperation here: Strategic Framework for the Ministry of Culture Denmark and Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark's International Cultural Cooperation 2025-2027.

All supported projects must follow the four principles for international cultural cooperation in the collaboration agreement between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark and the Ministry of Culture Denmark.

• 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 funding scheme. For professional artistic and cultural content in projects, part of the assessment of high professional quality will include the assessment 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 assessment 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 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.
• The actors behind the activities must ensure visualisation through targeted communication.

Emphasis is also placed on:

• The project must at least promote one of the two purposes of the funding scheme.
  Therefore the assessment places emphasis on a clear activity plan and considerations regarding how cultural diplomacy or cultural export is supported through the project.
• Projects must have a clear communication potential.
• Projects that reflect the government’s current priorities and foreign policy interests are emphasised.
• The project’s participating Danish artistic or cultural actors must have a professional role as a profession or commercially.
• The project 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, visiting programmes or professional gatherings.
• For major projects – with regard to scope and/or amount applied for – the emphasis is on projects with a number of Danish and foreign actors.

Applications for support for project management are assessed based on reasonable salary levels – in Denmark corresponding to government collective agreements for similar work.

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

The Agency for Culture and Palaces reserves the right to share the applications with other authorities as part of processing them.

The funding scheme does not support the following:

• Projects if the primary professional content is sport or food. With regard to food, please see the information provided by the Danish Ministry of Industry, Business and Financial Affairs.
• The funding scheme does not support film or media production. Please see the Danish Film Institute’s funding schemes.
• Danish missions and the Danish Cultural Institute's own expenses for project management or own expenses for travel, accommodation or participation in connection with strategic development projects.
• Direct or purely commercial sales activities.

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. Among other things, you need to fill in a short project summary in the application form of no more than 500 characters, as well as a list of the (main) cooperation partners in the project.

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)
  • When applying for several independent projects in the same application, the applicant must only complete one combined document with project descriptions and one combined budget form with tabs per project.
• A short CV for project participants/cooperation partners
• Optionally a statement of interest from a Danish mission.

Any additional material will not be included in the assessment of the application. Applications that do not include the required information will not be processed.

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 templates provide 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 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.

Get the project template here

Get the budget template here

Get guidelines on completing the budget template here

FINANCES

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.

The funding scheme has two yearly deadlines during the period of 2025-2027. Applications to the funding scheme will be processed twice a year.

The deadlines for 2025 are the following:

• 5 June 2025
• 22 October 2025

You can expect to receive a reply to your application no later than eight weeks after the deadline.

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

The scheme is, which regards to EU state aid, covered under COMMISSION REGULATION (EU) No 651/2014 of 17 June 2014 declaring certain categories of aid compatible with the internal market in application of Articles 107 and 108 of the Treaty with subsequent amendments (the General Block Exemption Regulation - GBER).

If your project is approved, the following conditions apply:

• It is required that communication of the project is adjusted and coordinated with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark’s local mission.
• The Agency for Culture and Palaces reserves the right to enter into a dialogue with the applicants regarding the projects. This also includes the involvement of the embassies in the projects applied for by cultural actors. In case of major grant approvals, applicants must be aware that the projects mature and are developed in collaboration with the Agency for Culture and Palaces and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark in order to ensure the best possible synergy.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark 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 agency. These statements will be included in the total assessment of all applications. The Agency for Culture and Palaces will also obtain statements from Danish missions abroad as needed.