ARS ELECTRONICA LINZ GMBH & CO KG

Their core work

Ars Electronica is a world-renowned center for art, technology, and society based in Linz, Austria, operating a museum (Ars Electronica Center), a festival, a research lab (Futurelab), and an innovation consultancy. In H2020, they bridge creative industries with science and technology — running the EU's STARTS Prize (Science, Technology & the Arts), incubating digital transformation in cultural institutions, and designing participatory science education programs. Their core contribution is bringing arts-driven thinking and public engagement methods into research and innovation projects.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

In their early H2020 period (2017–2019), Ars Electronica focused on immersive media technologies and broad science outreach — particularly space-themed youth engagement covering gender, inclusion, and policy dimensions. From 2019 onward, their work shifted decisively toward arts-innovation ecosystems, digital transformation of cultural institutions, and interdisciplinary co-creation methods. The STARTS Prize grew from a single edition to a full ecosystem play, signaling their ambition to become the permanent EU infrastructure for art-technology crossover.

Ars Electronica is consolidating its position as the EU's go-to operator for programs that fuse creative industries with digital innovation and institutional transformation.

How they like to work

Ars Electronica operates comfortably in both coordinator and partner roles (3 coordinated, 5 as participant), showing flexibility in consortium dynamics. With 49 unique partners across 21 countries, they maintain a wide and diverse network rather than relying on repeat partnerships — typical of an organization that serves as a bridge between different communities (arts, tech, education, policy). Their predominantly CSA-funded portfolio (6 of 8 projects) means they specialize in coordination, community-building, and support actions rather than deep technical R&D.

Broad European network spanning 49 partners across 21 countries, reflecting their role as a connector between creative, educational, and technology communities across the continent.

What sets them apart

Ars Electronica occupies a rare niche: they are one of very few organizations in Europe that can credibly operate at the intersection of arts, technology, and society at scale. Their 40+ year brand as a festival and cultural institution gives them unmatched convening power for creative-technology crossover. For consortium builders, they bring public engagement infrastructure, exhibition spaces, and a global artist-technologist network that no traditional research center can replicate.

Highlights from their portfolio

• STARTS Prize
  Coordinated both editions (2017 and 2021) of the European Commission's flagship prize honoring innovation at the nexus of science, technology, and the arts — their largest funded activity at EUR 1.07M combined.
• DOORS
  Coordinated a digital incubator specifically for museums, representing their expansion from arts-tech events into institutional digital transformation consulting.
• Immersify
  Their largest single-project funding (EUR 542,500) for next-generation immersive audiovisual technologies, showcasing their technical capabilities beyond coordination roles.