TIDAL ArtS Lighthouse Calls

The latest data from the TIDAL ArtS Lighthouse call gives us a real insight into the potential to combine art and science. Spread across four regions: Atlantic-Arctic, Baltic-North Sea, Danube-Black Sea, and Mediterranean – the programme pulled in serious interest from artists and cultural workers right across the continent.

DOWNLOAD TIDAL ArtS Lighthouse Data Summary

The Response Was Huge

Nearly 630 people applied. So many ideas, so much ambition. After eligibility checks, 10 applicants from each region made it to interviews, and from there, just 5 were chosen. It was a competitive process.

Women Are Leading the Way

One thing really jumps out: women made up the majority of applicants in every single region.

• Atlantic-Arctic: 70.6%
• Baltic-North Sea: 65.2%
• Danube-Black Sea: 51.3%
• Mediterranean: 70.7%

It’s clear that women are driving a lot of the creative energy in Europe’s coastal and marine cultural projects. There were also non-binary applicants, especially in the Mediterranean (6.3%) and Atlantic-Arctic (6%), which signals a shift toward more inclusive participation compared to many traditional EU funding schemes.

Where Applications Came From

Interest came from all over, but a few countries really stood out:

• Atlantic-Arctic: UK (51), Portugal (40), Ireland (28)
• Baltic-North Sea: Netherlands (29), Germany (26), Sweden (21)
• Danube-Black Sea: Hungary (17), Romania (15), Bulgaria (9)
• Mediterranean: Italy (47), Spain (31), Greece (26)

You can see both the breadth of the programme’s reach and the natural clusters forming around certain coastal hubs.

A Competitive Call

Each region had between 158–167 eligible applications. Only 10 got interviews. And just 5 made the cut.

If you’re thinking of applying to something like this in the future, the takeaway is clear: your proposal needs to be sharp, original, and deeply aligned with what the programme is actually about.

So What Does This All Mean?

The Lighthouse Calls show us a cultural sector that’s:

• Led by women, who are clearly at the forefront of innovation in this space
• More inclusive, with growing representation
• Pan-European in spirit, with strong engagement across borders and seas
• In high demand, with far more great ideas than available spots

The five selected projects per region aren’t just going to make art, they’re going to help shape how we think about our relationship with our seas, rivers and ecosystems.