Open call for Emerging Design Practices ABCSSS

Designers present their development plan to a jury and have a chance to receive a grant which they can use to professionalize their practice. With this open call, the fund wants to stimulate talent development in the design sector.

Funding Information

• Total budget: €100,000
• Grant amount: €25,000
• Duration: The period in which designers can implement their plan, starts on 1 September 2025 and runs up to 1 November 2026.

Eligible Activities

• Designers can use the grant to deepen and professionalize their own starting design practice. They can do this, for example, by means of mentoring and coaching, taking workshops to learn new skills or to improve them, and by making and presenting new work.

Ineligible Activities

• You may not use the grant for:
  • Standard operating costs
  • Acquiring property, materials or equipment that will also have a value outside the context of the development plan.

Eligible Countries

• The Creative Industries Fund NL is calling for starting designers based in Aruba, Bonaire, Curaçao, Saba, Sint Eustatius or Sint Maarten.

Eligibility Criteria

• Starting designers from the Caribbean part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands (one to four years active within the design and creative field), who independently develop creative or artistic products. They could, for example, be fashion designers, animators and cartoonists, architects or game designers. However, creative entrepreneurs who focus on issues around the climate, nature, food, heritage and sharing neglected stories are also eligible.
• Conditions:
  • You are 18 years or older
  • You are established in the Caribbean part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands
  • You have been active in the design and creative field for one to four years.

Ineligibility Criteria

• Applications may not be submitted by:
  • Designers who have already received a grant for the implementation of a development plan under an earlier edition or a forerunner of this open call, the Talent Development Grant Scheme or an Artist Start contribution from the Mondriaan Fund
  • Visual artists, documentary makers, filmmakers, writers and journalists, theatre makers, musicians and DJs, dancers, photographers
  • Cultural institutions
  • Applicants who are registered for or during the grant period will register for a fulltime or part-time course at a school accredited by the Accreditation Organisation of the Netherlands and Flanders [NVAO] or an acknowledged senior secondary vocational education course or have been or will be admitted to postgraduate institutions during the grant period.

Application Requirements

• In the mail, you include:
  • URL to your motivation video or a motivation letter in PDF (no more than 3 minutes or 3 pages). In it, you explain in words and/or images:
    • What you make
    • What story you want to tell with your work
    • How long you have been active
    • Which development question you want to investigate
  • CV (no more than 2 pages, in PDF) including your email address and telephone number.
  • Images of your work (no more than 10 images, in PDF). They may also be sketches or a link to a website.
  • Optional: an extract from the Commercial Register of the Dutch Chamber of Commerce or from one of the Commercial Registers that fall within the Kingdom.

For more information, visit Creative Industry Stimulation Fund.