Please note: the Samenwerking & Schaalvoordelen subsidy will close on 1 May 2025.

What is the Samenwerking & Schaalvoordelen subsidy?

More certainty around work and income results in structural costs. Think of the costs of hiring self-employed individuals, offering a pension scheme for employees or applying fair practice. By working together with other organisations, you can cope with these investments. Collaboration can lead to economies of scale and cost savings. Via this website, organisations in the cultural and creative sector can apply for a financial contribution to explore the possibilities of an organisational collaboration with other organisations. When that collaboration has taken concrete form, a second financial contribution is available.

Examples of organizational collaboration initiatives that lead to joint development and joint economies of scale may include:

• Organizations that jointly conclude a payroll administration, occupational health and safety services, or HRM services.
• Organizations that jointly organize training courses to promote inclusivity within the policies and operations of other organizations.
• Choirs that jointly hire a professional conductor or share rehearsal space.
• Venues and/or festivals that jointly invest in Augmented Reality (AR) to enhance audience participation and enrich live concerts.
• Organizations that align activities to attract a wider audience and achieve greater impact and reach on the arts and urban climate.
• Theaters that jointly hire an audience worker who works on audience reach for all theaters and, for example, cooperation with schools.
• Establishing a joint legal entity.
• Interest groups that merge become stronger together.
• Cultural institutions that want to jointly set up a new cultural hotspot.
• Organizations that want to explore whether there is a possibility of carrying out (part of) their business activity(ies) abroad.

Apply now

Based on the rulebook, you can easily determine whether your organization is eligible for a financial contribution. In short, you can submit an application if you want to collaborate with another organization in the cultural and creative sector with the aim of reducing your costs. This must involve organizational collaboration (rather than primarily substantive collaboration) that leads to joint development and shared economies of scale. The collaborating organizations must be active in the cultural and creative sector.

Please note: client-contractor relationships are not eligible for the subsidy.

What does Oog voor Impuls offer?

1. Exploratory contribution

The Exploratory Contribution can be requested via the website and is intended to investigate the possibilities of a collaboration. The Exploratory Contribution is a maximum of € 20,000 (incl. VAT) and is based on a Collaboration Plan. The Exploratory Contribution covers the costs of, for example, hiring an advisor or organizing meetings. In short, the Exploratory Contribution offers the opportunity to investigate whether the intended collaboration is feasible and leads to economies of scale before the collaboration actually starts.

Additional information on the collaboration plan: Describe in the collaboration plan how the collaboration can be shaped in order to demonstrably create economies of scale and bring about a businesslike approach to your plans. Indicate how you intend to investigate what the economies of scale are and how to achieve them. The costs you incur for this (excluding travel expenses), as well as your own hours (for a maximum amount of 50 euros excl. VAT), can be entered for this, for example. Purchasing materials and equipment is not covered by the subsidy, but investigating the possibilities for this is. A pxq justification is still required to substantiate the costs (e.g., price times the number of hours) per cost item.

2. Incentive contribution

The Incentive Contribution can be requested by email when the collaboration has taken concrete and structural form and when the exploration phase has shown that it yields the desired economies of scale. Instructions about this can be found in the email that the applicant received when the Exploratory Contribution was approved. The Incentive Contribution is 0.5% of the turnover of the collaborating self-employed individuals with a maximum of € 10,000 (incl. VAT). The Incentive Contribution is paid out after 1 year of collaboration. The collaboration must be recorded in a contract or a collaboration agreement. Good to know: Has the exploration phase shown that the intended collaboration is not feasible or does not lead to the desired economies of scale and that no collaboration is realized? Then no claim can be made for the Incentive Contribution. The Exploratory Contribution that was previously awarded does not, of course, have to be repaid. After all, it was used to conduct preliminary research. 

Before you apply, read the rulebook carefully. Make sure you have PDF versions of the Collaboration Plan and a KVK extract on hand.

Contact

The substantive assessment of the submitted applications is carried out in collaboration with the knowledge and service center CAOP. CAOP supports the applicant in refining the collaboration plan and provides financial and administrative expertise. Do you have a question about submitting an application or the collaboration plan, or would you simply like to exchange ideas about the collaboration you have in mind? Please contact CAOP at +31 (0)6 572 111 70 (available Monday to Thursday between 09:00 and 17:00). If there is no answer, you can also contact CAOP at +31 (0)6 225 975 02.