New pilot 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.com/funding/funding-programmes/targeted-funding/four-nations-international-fund) will open in January 2026, supporting artistic collaboration for UK practitioners planning to collaborate with a wider range of international partners.