The partnership was established taking into account the complementarity of the four organisations, ideal to achieve Vania's goals.
Each partner has a specific responsibility within the project and the Fondation Marcel Hicter is coordinating the whole process.

The partners


Pilot of the project: The Fondation Marcel Hicter pour la Démocratie Culturelle - FMH is an NGO specialized in training cultural managers in Belgium, Europe and Africa; specially those running transational cultural projects. Its main programme in this field is the European Diploma in Cultural Project Management which has successfully trained more than 400 cultural managers from 38 countries with innovative and interactive, project based, methodology. This programme was, at its beginning a pilot project supported by the Council of Europe. The Fondation Marcel Hicter also produced with European partners a few action-researches in the cultural field. It is very active in many European cultural networks.
The FMH is a training and "life long learning" organisation supported by the French Community of Belgium where it makes links between its European actions and cultural operators working in Belgium.

Its role in Vania is the management of the project including its coordination, financial management and diffusion of the results. More specifically and based upon its experience in training , the FMH is in charge of the assessment of the training and learning methods produced to train cultural managers of transnational cultural projects and to take part at the handbook


Cupore was established in 2002 by the University of Jyväskylä and the Finnish Cultural Foundation. It is supported by the Ministry of Education and Culture. It carries out research in cultural development,
co-operates with European institutions, is involved in teaching and developing curricula for cultural policies and cultural management.
The research centre is located in Helsinki and the teaching part takes place at the University of Jyväskylä, Master's programme on Cultural Policy, Department of Social Sciences and
Philosophy. The centre's studies are very much focused on artistic and cultural labour markets, developing indicators to monitor cultural development, on mobility of artists etc. Its advisory board has 12 members, from all major universities and institutions giving training in the arts and culture.
Its links with CIRCLE network and its publishing activities enables Cupore to play an active role in the dissemination of the project's results.

In Vania's project, Cupore takes in charge the first part of the project with the mapping of the cultural cooperation training sector in Europe. Its mission is to create, send and analyse the results of two questionnaires: one dedicated to cultural training organisations in order to identify the training offer in the cultural cooperation project. The second questionnaire helps to list the differents skills and competencies needed by the cultural operators to develop cooperation projects.

Evremathia is a Vocational Training Centre certified by the National Accreditation Centre (EKEPIS). It aims to offer innovative solutions for continuing vocational training of employees and the unemployed, human resources development of enterprises and organisations, research and development in the fields of life-long learning, professional certification and e-learning. The company particularly pursues innovation through its participation in European Programmes and Community Initiatives. In this framework, it has gained expertise and know-how in project management experiences and international links with enterprises, training institutions, universities, social partners and European networks.
Evremathia operates at regional, national and international level. Up to now, the centre has developed programmes in the fields of Information Technology, Management & Finance, Culture, Tourism and Services. Its customers include the Ministry of Labour, the Ministry of Education, the European Union and other international public bodies, regional authorities, private enterprises and individuals wishing to develop their vocational skills.

Evremathia has a strong experience in designing and implementing accreditation and certification structures at both European and national levels. The company organizes special certification programmes, responding to modern needs for accreditation of vocational skills and human resources quality and productivity assurance.

For Vania, Evremathia, implements a procedure of recognition for the training programme in cultural cooperation. It is also involved in the dissemination of the project.



International Intelligence on Culture (IIC) is an independent research, consultancy, training and policy development organisation that works primarily for the public sector (usually government ministers of culture and/or education, arts councils or European institutions). Although a limited company, it is run on a not-for-profit basis.
Its work includes the organisation of professional development training seminars for cultural managers and policy makers on subjects such as European cultural co-operation, European networking, raising funds for transnational projects, and comparative cultural policies. Its Director has some 20 years' experience in higher education teaching and in-service professional training in the UK and internationally. He has written extensively including the compilation of the first directory of performing arts in Europe and the first directory of cultural networks in Europe.

IlC contributes to the project through assessing the essential skills that need to be acquired by managers of transnational cultural projects. It is also well equipped to play a role in the dissemination of the project's results notably through its newsletter (International Cultural Compass).