The CreaDemo and DigiDemo grants are funded by a special appropriation from the Ministry of Education and Culture. According to Director of AVEK Ulla Simonen, people find the grants to be important and apply for them readily.
“The large number of applicants indicates a need for support and enthusiasm towards development in creative industries. That said, the special appropriate has been cut back significantly,” Simonen says, referring to the decision to halve the appropriation three years ago based on decreased gaming profits.
“The grants are constantly at risk of cuts, even though the application quality increases every year and the number of applicants keeps soaring.”
Expert of business in the creative industries Kati Uusi-Rauva, who has been involved in expert jurys since 2006, has witnessed the impacts of the grant on the sector. According to Uusi-Rauva, who was a member of this year’s CreaDemo grant panel, the financial support has been a significant enabler of business and product innovations in the creative industries.
“The support has helped to employ creative professionals, establish companies and engage the customers in cooperation. In early product development, the grant sums do not need to be especially large. The most important thing is how the funds are used and what the goals of the development project are,” Uusi-Rauva says.
Due to the large number of applicants and small appropriation, concept grants were only awarded to a fraction of the applicants. There were 87 projects applying for CreaDemo, and grants were awarded to 8 projects, totalling €40,000. A total of 148 projects applied for DigiDemo, and grants were awarded to 12 projects, totalling €60,000. The application period for concept grants was open from 26 February to 5 April 2024.
DigiDemo is a unique grant form for the games industry
DigiDemo is a product development grant for the development of new audiovisual or other cultural content and its narrative forms.
“This year, the competition was extremely fierce, which lead to close scrutiny of the cultural and narrative novelty value of the applications, the feasibility of the execution plan and the suitability of the application for the concept grant,” says games expert Taina Myöhänen, who is part of the expert jury for the DigiDemo grant.
The games industry was widely represented during the concept grant round, and there were projects such as games based on films among the applications. According to Myöhänen, the large number of applications is explained by the importance of DigiDemo in the games industry, because it is the only source of public support for content creation.
“For many game developers, this may be the only opportunity to develop a creative idea that is not derived from existing game ideas or monetisation models. The next hit game cannot be made without creativity and bold experimentation,” Myöhänen says.
Alongside Myöhänen, the DigiDemo expert jury includes Marcus Korhonen, Director of Aalto Studios and Antti Hirvonen, COO of Creative Content and Media at Yle.
The CreaDemo applications indicated a need to develop the competitiveness of companies
CreaDemo grants are awarded for product development projects that seek new product or service innovations in the creative industries and cultural entrepreneurship. The aim is to create new products, methods or services that are based on or utilise creative expertise.
“Within the creative industries, there is now a dire need to develop competitiveness and bolster competence – this was clearly evident in some applications which sought financial support for various community platform and coaching concepts. Small business owners feel that it is their responsibility to provide support in the field themselves, instead of being the target of development efforts,” Uusi-Rauva says.
In addition to Uusi-Rauva, the expert jury in charge of grant decisions featured Humak’s expert Leena Janhila and the senior consultant of strategic design of LINK Design and Development Oy, Petteri Kolinen. The CreaDemo and DigiDemo expert juries also included AVEK’s Media Art Commissioner Milla Moilanen.
The applications for the demo grants will open on Monday 20 May
The application period for CreaDemo and DigiDemo demo and pilot grants will be open from 20 May to 6 September 2024. All applications must be submitted via our application system by 16:00 on the last application day. Those who have applied for and received concept support can also apply for a demo grant, provided that the concept support has been reported before the deadline for the demo support application.
The aim of the demo grants is to develop a content plan into a demo, prototype or pilot to present the project to parties such as financiers and distributors for production on a commercial scale.
View all concept grant decisions (in Finnish)