Between November and December 2020, we will launch a series of open calls intended for various target groups ranging from cultural operators to social entrepreneurs based in Cluj-Napoca and across Romania. The calls were developed to engage individuals and organizations outside the 10-partner consortium within the Cluj Future of Work (FoW) Project, and each of them addresses a different facet of FoW’s areas of action.

1. Cluj Innovation Fellowships

What is our starting point?

  • Cluj Resilience Tracker – Documenting how the Cluj community has responded to the COVID-19 pandemic in order to identify the required medium-term changes.
  • Urban Thinkers Campus – Workshop aimed at identifying commonalities among the national and local initiatives that documented the COVID-19 pandemic response and how the lessons learned can be put into practice.
  • Mapping the response to the COVID-19 pandemic – Research conducted in partnership with ARC and ICF in order to map the collaboration networks and determine the skills of the first responders to the pandemic.

What innovation mechanism do we propose?

The Cluj Innovation Fellowships support, in 2021, the deepening of the lessons learned about the collaboration between the public and private sectors in contexts marked by uncertainty. The fellowships are part of the Cluj Future of Work Project, which studies and tests opportunities for the city in preparation for what work and collaboration will look like in the future.
Through this mechanism, we support potential innovators in addressing the four areas of focus, providing them with opportunities to increase their capacities for strategic interventions, behavioral change and new forms of collaboration and use of resources.

What is the target audience?

The Cluj Innovation Fellowships are targeted to Romanian individuals or legal persons who work in the public or private sector, in academia or in civil society. Applicants have experience or are interested in creating change in one of the proposed areas of focus: (1) procurement based on innovative principles, (2) solutions journalism, (3) collaboration protocols and (4) open data protocols.

Timeline

Pre–launch period: 4 November – 10 December 2020
Open call for projects: 21 December 2020 – 29 January 2021

2. re:form – Experimental Program for Rethinking Work in the Cultural Sector

What is our starting point?

  • The research conducted within the Cluj Future of Work Project about the work in the cultural and creative sector. (read more).
  • The Future Scenarios Workshop organized within the Cluj Future of Work Project, dedicated to reimagining work in the future by exploring the main challenges related to this topic and by providing the community at large with ideas about the kind of transformations that will shape our future in terms of work.
  • Cluj Cultural Centre`s activity through programs aimed at increasing the capacity of the cultural sector in Cluj, such as the Academy of Change.

What innovation mechanism do we propose?

re:form is a facilitation and microfinance program for rethinking work practices in culture. It provides financial support and specialized consultancy to cultural organizations that seek to develop and implement experimental solutions to the challenges of the work in the cultural sector.
With this mechanism, we intend to support processes that aspire to go beyond the traditional models of organizational development and take into account the specifics of the independent cultural sector and the fragile conditions in which they operate in Romania.

What is the target audience?

The program is targeted to independent cultural organizations that are active in Cluj-Napoca and in the metropolitan area. Public cultural institutions which meet the criteria can benefit from this program if the project submitted involves collaboration with the independent sector and the growth of this sector.
Furthermore, we are looking for organizations that:
  • Have experience in the cultural sector and can become role models in the community by sharing the innovative work practices adopted.
  • Show flexibility and are open to trying, developing and adopting new work practices.
  • Are willing to allocate resources and collective effort within the organization to initiate the changes implied by the project and have the capacity and willingness to integrate the new practices into the life of the organization in the long term.

Timeline

Open call for projects: 21 October 2020 – 17 November 2021

3. Artworks about the Future of Work

What is our starting point?

  • The research carried out within the Cluj Future of Work Project on all three scenarios of the project (read more)
  • The Future Scenarios Workshop organized within the Cluj Future of Work Project, dedicated to reimagining work in the future by exploring the main challenges related to this topic and by providing the community at large with ideas about the kind of transformations that will shape our future in terms of work.
  • All the activities that have been carried out by the consortium of partners within the Cluj Future of Work Project so far.

What innovation mechanism do we propose?

The activity aims at using artistic means to disseminate the results of the Cluj Future of Work Project to the Cluj public. The goal is to stimulate the Cluj community to reflect on the future of work through immersive and participative artistic experiences.
The activity involves the production and display of 10 artwork projects at the Cluj Future of Work Festival in October 2021. These projects will provide the local community with immersive contexts to explore and reflect on the future of work.

What is the target audience?

  • The Cluj community as both spectators and participants in the immersive artistic experiences offered during the exhibition.
  • The international arts community as producers of the arts projects. Artists will be selected following an international open call whose themes will be developed based on the research and other activities within the FoW Project.

Timeline

Open call for projects: 15 January – 15 February 2021

4. Future Scenarios Workshops

What is our starting point?

  • Have experience in the cultural sector and can become role models in the community by sharing the innovative work practices adopted.

What innovation mechanism do we propose?

To understand the challenges of work in the future, we are organizing a series of three forecasting workshops dedicated to the three scenarios of the project: Informal Work, Cultural and Creative Industries and Work 4.0. Depending on its topic, each workshop will be attended by professionals in the respective field, experts in the sociology of work, business strategists, artists and designers who, through a specific facilitated process, will identify trends, describe the context of work in the future in the sector of focus and design and write scenarios for the future.
The three workshops aim to popularize the use of forecasting techniques as ways of reporting on and preparing local public actions and policies for the challenges of the future.

What is the target audience?

  • Professionals interested in the general topics addressed by the workshops (Informal Work, Cultural and Creative Industries and Work 4.0).
  • The results will be shared with the public interested in these topics during the Cluj Future of Work Festival in October 2021.
  • The process and facilitation technique will be discussed publicly in an online webinar attended by the workshop facilitators and by former participants in the workshop dedicated to the cultural and creative industries.

Timeline

  • The workshop on Informal Work will take place between 15 and 30 June 2021.
  • The workshop on Cultural and Creative Industries and the one dedicated to Work 4.0 will take place between 15 and 31 May 2021.
*The exact dates and the workshop sign-up process will be announced in advance, in 2021.

5. Culturepreneurs

What is our starting point?

  • The research conducted within the Cluj Future of Work Project about the work in the cultural and creative sector. (read more).
  • The CCC activity through the Academy of Change Program, which aims to increase the capacity of the cultural sector in Cluj, and the Culturepreneurs Program of the previous years, an entrepreneurial education initiative dedicated to professionals in the cultural and creative sectors.

What innovation mechanism do we propose?

Culturepreneurs provides new development opportunities for entrepreneurs in the cultural and creative industries both in terms of managing their own business or project and in terms of accessing and adopting new technologies in the creative processes.
The Project supports the creation and development of non-social or social businesses in design, film, music, crafts, publishing and other creative sectors, providing access to coworking spaces and laboratories, training and consulting in management, technology and societal challenges, and organizing opportunities to meet and network with relevant stakeholders.

What is the target audience?

  • Beginner or advanced entrepreneurs in the cultural and creative sectors who are open to technology and entrepreneurship and are interested in developing sustainable projects.
  • Participants can have experience in one of the cultural and creative fields or in IT&C.

Timeline

The program was launched in April 2020 and is now ongoing.
The innovation and transfer mechanisms described above are those directly coordinated and implemented by the Cluj Cultural Centre within WP4 – Re-imagining Work, as an implementation partner in the Cluj Future of Work Project.
Cluj Future of Work is a project co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund through the Urban Innovative Actions Initiative.
Cluj Future of Work studies and tests methods through which the city can prepare for the future challenges of the labor market. We particularly look at today’s cultural and social aspects: what are the sustainable jobs that can be developed in the cultural and creative sectors, what will happen in the sectors affected by automation, what will happen with the vulnerable people who are already excluded from the labour market.
Cluj Future of Work is an initiative of the Urban Innovation Unit in Cluj-Napoca, created by the Cluj Cultural Centre in partnership with the Center for Innovation and Civic Imagination of the Municipality of Cluj-Napoca.
The project is co-managed by the Municipality of Cluj-Napoca and Cluj Cultural Centre in a consortium with eight other local organizations: Art and Design University of Cluj-Napoca, Cluj IT Cluster, Intercommunity Development Association Cluj Metropolitan Area (ADI ZMC), Transylvania Creative Industries Cluster, Transylvanian Furniture Cluster, Transilvania International Film Festival, Transylvania IT Cluster, ZAIN Transylvanian Creativity Festival.