CREATHRIV-EU Funding Support Scheme will provide financial support to the SMEs in the CCIs in the form of prize. The Cross-fertilisation prize will award the best experiences of collaboration between SMEs from CCIs with another sector for projects and activities that addressed one one of the following specific objectives:
1. Network for resilience to improve the resilience of the EU creative and cultural industrial ecosystems by developing value chains interlinkages in the EU Single Market. The aim is to improve the CCI value chains’ ability to cope with challenges and undergo transitions in a sustainable manner through the integration of different actors, competences and solutions;

2. Innovate for strategic autonomy to build capacity in the most critical supplies and technologies of creative and cultural industry ecosystems. The aim is to reduce the dependency of companies on critical inputs and critical technologies through a development of novel ideas, substitutes, innovative products or services;

3. Adopt processes and technologies to reinforce transformation into a greener and more digital economy. The aim is to adopt processes and technologies that improve the creative and cultural industry value chains’ efficiency in the use of resources, open markets for green technologies and services and uptake of digital solutions;

4. Train to foster up- and reskilling of the workforce while attracting talents;

5. Go international to boost access to global supply and value chains. The aim is to support the internationalisation of SMEs towards specific third countries, and/or strengthen the resilience in global CCI value chains they are already active in.

The type of cross-fertilisation prizes available are:
15 travel vouchers of 600 € to attend the final event. This amount is meant as financial support to travel to Liége and cover the entrance fee to Wallifornia Music and Innovation Summit
The travel grant will be assigned according to the travel distance as follows:
- 0- 400 KM: 300 €
- 401 - 600 KM: 450 €
- More than 600 KM: 600 €
The 15 finalist will pitch their projects during the final event in front of a jury of experts. The prizes available for the finalists are as follows:
* 1st Place: €13.000
* 2nd Place: € 9,000
* 3rd Place: € 7,000
* 4th Place: €5,000
* 5th Place: € 3,000
Special prizes:
* Green Innovation Award €7,000
* Woman Innovator Award €7,000
Submission via https://www.f6s.com/cross-fertilisation-prize/apply
As per the project proposal submitted, the evaluation of each submitted application will be carried out by an International Evaluation Panel consisting of 2 experts from the CREATHRIV-EU consortium partners. The assessment period shall take 3 weeks starting from the closing date of the call. The applicants will receive an email about the outcome of the assessment directly after the assessment is finalised along with instructions for the next steps in the case the applicant is awarded. Top ranked proposals will be granted until the budget for the respective financial support type is exhausted. The successful applicants will be requested to sign a formal sub-grant agreement with the CREATHIRIV-EU coordinator within 30 days after the announcement of the results.
Once the applicants have submitted their proposals, the CREATHRIV-EU Evaluation team will proceed to:
1. Check eligibility and admissibility and, if successful;
2. Initiate the evaluation of the content of the proposals.
3.   Consensus group of the ranking list
The outcome of the call will be published on the ECCP site of the project.
The purpose of the evaluation is to assess the EXCELLENCE, IMPACT and IMPLEMENTATION of each proposal that successfully passed the admissibility and eligibility criteria. The maximum score in each section is 5. The threshold for each individual section will be 3.
At the end of the evaluation process, the proposals will be ranked taking into account the revised scores from the online consensus meeting. The criteria for the ranking of the proposals will be semi-automatic following the rules below:
- Rule 1: The proposals will be ranked based on their overall score;
- Rule 2: In case following Rule 1 there are proposals in the same position priority will be given to the proposal with higher score in the impact section;
- Rule 3: In case following Rule 2 there are proposals in the same position priority will be given to the proposal with higher score in the excellence section;
- Rule 4: In case following Rule 3 there are proposals in the same position priority will be given to the proposal involving SMEs from a less-developed region;
- Rule 5: In case following Rule 4 there are proposals in the same position priority will be given to the proposal involving SMEs from a EU-13 country;
- Rule 6: In case following Rule 5 there are proposals in the same position priority will be given to the proposal involving SMEs from regions CREATHRIV-EU partners had no previous cooperation with, as further detailed in the Annex 3 of the Guide for Applicants