Most open calls we list offer money, a show, or a few weeks somewhere. EMAP — the European Media Art Platform — offers something rarer: two months of funded production time inside an institution that has the equipment and the technicians, which for anyone making robotic, bio or heavily technical work is worth considerably more than a cash prize.
The 2027 call opened September 3 and closes November 6, 2026 at 2pm CET.
The essentials
- Deadline: November 6, 2026, 2pm CET, applications at call.emare.eu
- What: a two-month production residency at one of 15 host organisations across Europe
- Field: digital, media, robotic and bio art
- Who can apply: artists, artist duos, collectives and other artistic collaborations
- Eligibility: residents or taxpayers of an EU member state, or of an eligible non-EU country under Creative Europe
- Not eligible: undergraduate and Master’s students. PhD candidates and emerging artists of any age or academic background are welcome — there’s no age cap, which is unusual and worth noting if you came to this work later.
- Co-funded by the European Union’s Creative Europe programme
The 2027 twist: bring a collaborator
Collaboration is central to this round — every applicant works together with a collaborating partner. That’s a structural change rather than a preference, so read the guidelines closely before assuming your usual solo application will fit.
It also changes who this suits. If you’ve been meaning to work with a researcher, an engineer, a scientist or another artist whose skills complement yours, this call effectively funds that pairing. If you work alone by temperament, this particular round may not be your year.
Why EMAP is worth the effort
The hosts are serious institutions — the network includes organisations like Ars Electronica, LABoral, WRO Art Center and the Onassis Foundation among its members over the years — and the residency is a production residency, not a retreat. You go somewhere with a workshop, a lab and staff who have installed difficult work before.
The track record backs it up: EMAP states that work produced through its residencies has collected 85 awards, nominations and honorary mentions since 2018. For media art, that’s the strongest completion signal a residency programme can show.
Practical note: seven weeks is enough time to do this properly, and these applications reward specificity. Name the host you want and say why their facilities suit the work, describe the production plan in terms of what will physically exist at the end, and make the collaboration read as genuinely necessary to the project rather than assembled for the form.