Reprex Joins RECREO Research Consortium To Develop Innovation Indicators

The Scuola Superiore di Studi Universitari e di Perfezionamento Sant’Anna and Università degli Studi di Trento (Italy); University of Glasgow (United Kingdom); Universiteit van Amsterdam and Stichting Europeana from the Netherlands; the National University of Ireland Maynooth (Ireland); Tartu Ulikool (Estonia); Szegedi Tudományegyetem (Hungary); Fundacion Santa Maria La Real del Patrimonio Historico from Spain; the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, (Belgium); Culture Action Europe AISBL and IDEA Strategische Economische Consulting (Belgium) and Reprex created theREshaping CCSI REsearch: Open data, policy analysis and methods for evidence-based decision-making consortium consortium, which will mainly develop new policy evidence in the field of innovation and inclusiveness for the creative and cultural sectors, industries. The Consortium applies for a Horizon Europe grant with the HORIZON-CL2-2021-HERITAGE-01-03 Cultural and creative industries as a driver of innovation and competitiveness call of the European Commission.

Policymakers face challenges when trying to implement a strict evidence-based approach to decision-making in the field of cultural and creative sectors and industries (CCSI). This is mostly due to four phenomena:

1. Evidence dissonances in mapping, measuring and analysis of key indicators, which lead to improper generalizations and gaps in decisionmakers’ knowledge and stakeholders’ awareness
2. Fragmentation of hubs of production and concentration of platforms, which create statistical biases and have features that hardly fit with traditional impact assessment methods;
3. Datafication, which is revolutionizing CCSI but remains difficult to investigate, thus broadening knowledge gaps; and
4. Stakeholders’ fragmentation and conflicting interests, which hinders their engagement, awareness-raising and uptake of policy inputs.With its cross-disciplinary consortium of academics, practitioners and a strong network of stakeholders, engaged via participatory research strategies, RECREO will help policymakers and stakeholders tackling such challenges, by generating new knowledge and methods to fill in knowledge and awareness gaps. RECREO will achieve this goal through four actions.

First, it will generate a wide array of horizontal and sector-specific datasets, made openly accessible via the CCSI Data Observatory and the Evidence Synthesis Platform. Second, it will offer an unprecedented EU and comparative mapping and impact assessment of key regulatory and policy measures relevant for CCSI, made available on the Law and Policy Observatory. Third, it will develop innovative methods to measure and assess CCSI innovation, competitiveness and spill-over effects, emphasizing inclusiveness, diversity and sustainability. Last, it will offer policy recommendations and best practices aimed at supporting the sustainable growth and competitiveness of culturally diverse CCSI, and their cross-fertilization with cultural heritage promotion and preservation.