ekip Policy Recommendations: Spaces, Infrastructures, and Ecosystems

Infrastructures play an important role in enabling innovation by providing environments for experimentation, collaboration, learning, and knowledge exchange. In the context of Cultural and Creative Industries (CCIs), infrastructures are understood as shared, hybrid environments that combine physical and/or digital facilities, equipment, capabilities, and support services enabling experimentation, creation, collaboration, and learning. These may include creative hubs, makerspaces, fab labs, living labs, urban innovation hubs and accelerators with a CCI interface, cultural venues as innovation infrastructures (incl. museums and cultural centres), and other hybrid community spaces.

The 10th ekip Policy Lab explored how spaces, infrastructures, and ecosystems can better support CCIs within the European Union (EU) innovation and policy landscape. The Policy Lab looked at the role of infrastructures as environments for experimentation and collaboration, the relationship between infrastructures and ecosystems, and opportunities for stronger connections between creative, technological, and innovation-oriented environments.

This report presents the recommendations developed at the Policy Lab on CCI spaces, infrastructures, and ecosystems, held online on March 30th and April 2nd, 2026, as well as a follow-up Community Review workshop organised on April 20th, 2026. The process brought together CCI infrastructure operators, artists, policymakers, researchers, intermediary organisations, innovation stakeholders, and representatives of CCI associations to identify key issues and co-develop policy recommendations.

For more information on ekip’s policy areas, visit: ekipengine.eu/policy-areas/