Call 2027
A new call for proposals has been published under the Creative Europe Programme (Culture Strand) for the Circulation of European Literary Works 2027.
Deadline: 27 January 2027
Expected Impact:
Objective:
This action will support projects that will translate, publish, distribute, and promote European Literature. This action complements the other Creative Europe support actions to the book and publishing sector, such as reading promotion through the European Authors Day to younger audiences and the European Union Prize for Literature targeting European emerging authors.
The works covered by this call for proposals are European literary works, such as novels, short stories, theatre plays and radio plays, poetry, literary reportage, comic books as well as children and youth literature.
For the purposes of this call for proposals ‘European literary works’ refers to works written by authors who are linked to an eligible country (Creative Europe countries)[EU Member States (including overseas countries and territories (OCTs)) + non-EU countries: listed EEA countries and countries associated to the Creative Europe Programme (list of participating countries)], by their nationality or place of residence, or who are recognised as belonging to the European literary heritage.
Themes and priorities
In line with the current cultural policy priorities, applicants should propose projects contributing to:
1. EU Overarching priorities:
Applicants must describe in their application how, in the design and implementation of their projects, they intend to contribute to the EU’s Overarching priorities.
2. The following specific priorities:
- Increasing the transnational circulation and the diversity of European literary works, notably through the translation, publication, distribution and promotion of works written in less translated languages;
- Promoting reading and the linguistic and cultural diversity of European literature to a large audience, through increasing discoverability of the literary works supported;
- Supporting the profession of literary translator, in line with the principles of good working conditions and fair remuneration publishers should ensure that the names of the translators appear visibly in published books, and preferably on the cover, and that the source language is also clearly mentioned;
- Increasing the competitiveness of the book sector by encouraging cooperation between different actors within the book value chain, notably between publishers, booksellers, and libraries.
In addition, as part of the exceptional support to Ukraine, applicants are encouraged to propose activities facilitating the circulation of books from and/or into Ukraine, as well as their translation into or from Ukrainian. In addition, projects aimed at providing books in the Ukrainian language to Ukrainian refugees and displaced people will be encouraged. In this context, the printing in Ukrainian of (non-translated) Ukrainian books will be eligible.
To support the profession of literary translator, in accordance with the principles of good working conditions and fair remuneration, it is recommended that between 20 and 30%[This percentage will apply to novel literary genre.] of the total project budget is allocated to the remuneration of translators and that translators are given recognition and visibility, particularly being credited, preferably on the cover page.
To preserve the profession of literary translator, and the quality of translation, machine translation is excluded from this call. Publishers will have to sign contracts with professional human literary translators, and the data about the chosen translators must be clearly indicated in the overview of translations in the Creative Europe Database (see section 5. Admissibility and documents). In this regard, publishers should respect national standards and follow best practices, referring to and using, the ‘Translators on the cover’ report and, as an example, the ‘Guidelines for fair translation contracts’ drawn up by CEATL.
Scope:
Translation, publication, promotion, and distribution activities as well as activities addressing the themes and priorities described above. More specifically:
- Activities relating to literary works to be translated, published and promoted, as part of a robust publishing strategy and an effective distribution plan.
- Activities aimed at facilitating collaboration between the various stakeholders in the book and publishing value chain: authors, translators, publishers, distributors, booksellers, libraries, literary events and festivals.
CALL 2023
Objective:
This action will support projects that will translate, publish, distribute and promote works of fiction.
Themes and priorities
- strengthening the transnational circulation and diversity of European literary works;
- encouraging the translation and promotion of works in lesser-used languages to increase their circulation to larger markets in Europe and beyond;
- reaching new audiences for European literary works in Europe and beyond;
- strengthening the competitiveness of the book sector by encouraging cooperation within the book value chain.
In addition,
- The principle of fair remuneration of writers and translators should be respected in line with the “Translators on the cover” report by the EU Member States’ experts group on multilingualism and translation mandated by the Council under the Open Method of Coordination.
- Considering the exceptional circumstances in Europe, projects with the objective of providing European or Ukrainian books in Ukrainian language to Ukrainian refugees and displaced people will be encouraged. In this regard, the printing, distribution and promotion of European or Ukrainian works of fiction in Ukrainian will be eligible. NB: Projects should still satisfy the general eligibility conditions and include at least 5 translations.
Activities that can be funded
Translation, promotion and distribution of literary works of fiction as well as activities to help the sales of translation rights in Europe and beyond.
The proposed activities should be grouped, in the application form part B, in coherent work packages (i.e. major sub-division of the project). Each work package must have a corresponding list of activities, deliverables, milestones and critical risks.
Expected Impact
The action will support around 40 projects, implemented either by a single entity (mono-beneficiary) or by a grouping of organisations (multi-beneficiary).
Each project must be based on a sound editorial and promotional strategy covering a package of at least 5 eligible works of fiction translated from and into eligible languages, and must include the following elements:
- the proposed package contributes to the diversity of literature in the target country (or countries) by including works of fiction from countries that are underrepresented, and in particular works written in lesser-used languages,
- the distribution strategy ensures wide and easy access to the works for the general public,
- the promotion strategy contributes to an enlargement and renewal of the audience,
- the project encourages collaboration between authors, translators, publishers, distributors, booksellers, libraries, festivals, literary events, etc.,
- the project contributes to raising the profile of translators and respects the principle of fair remuneration,
- the project addresses the Creative Europe programme cross-cutting issues and the Culture Strand 2023 priorities (see section 1.Background for details).
Interested organisations can apply as an individual applicant or as member of a consortium of a minimum of 2 eligible organisations.
Applicants can apply with projects of different sizes with a different ceiling for the number of books translated and funding received
- small-scale projects: Projects proposing translation of up to 10 different books can receive up to €100,000
- medium-scale : Projects proposing translation of up to 20 different books can receive up to €200,000
- large scale : Projects proposing translation of at least 21 different books can receive up to €300,000
CALLS 2021-2022
Creative Europe supports literary translation, so as to promote the cross-border circulation of literary works in Europe and beyond. This kind of funding helps publishers to increase the translation, promotion and circulation of European literature, via traditional and digital channels. Funding is available with a view to translate works of fiction and also have promotional activities.
Eligibility criteria
Interested organisations can apply as an individual applicant or as member of a consortium of a minimum of 2 eligible organisations.
Applicants can apply with projects of different sizes with a different ceiling for the number of books translated and funding received
The strategy should be: translation, distribution and promotion of the translated package.
Interested organisations can apply as an individual applicant or as member of a consortium of a minimum of 2 eligible organisations.
Applicants can apply with projects of different sizes with a different ceiling for the number of books translated and funding received
- small-scale projects: Projects proposing translation of up to 10 different books can receive up to €100,000
- medium-scale : Projects proposing translation of up to 20 different books can receive up to €200,000
- large scale : Projects proposing translation of at least 21 different books can receive up to €300,000.
Eligible languages
Either the source or the target language must be officially recognised in an EU Member States or an EFTA country. Translations from Latin and ancient Greek (source language) into officially recognised languages are also possible.
The target language must be the mother tongue of the translator.
The translations should have a cross border orientation.
The literary works for translation, in printed or electronic form (e-books), should constitute a piece of fiction of high literary quality, and the original authors have to be nationals or residents of the aforementioned eligible countries. Also, the original work of the literary translation project has to have been already published but not yet translated (unless the need for a new translation after 50 years from the last one is justified).
You can find more information about the 2021 Call for Proposals, concerning the Literary translations projects here.