LUCA SCHOOL OF ARTS

Their core work

LUCA School of Arts is a Belgian higher arts education institution based in Brussels that conducts practice-based artistic research and contributes creative, cultural, and design perspectives to interdisciplinary European research consortia. Their work sits at the intersection of arts education, social engagement, and media — they bring methods from artistic research into contexts that technical or social science partners typically cannot cover. In the MUV project, they contributed to exploring human values around urban mobility; in FILMEU_RIT, they joined a European film education alliance focused on research, innovation, and transformation within film and media arts. They function as a creative and humanistic counterweight in otherwise technical consortia.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

LUCA's H2020 participation started in the transport sector with MUV (2017-2020), where no domain-specific keywords were recorded — suggesting a supporting or engagement role rather than a technical lead. Their second and larger project, FILMEU_RIT (2021-2024), marks a clear shift toward their core institutional identity: artistic research, film, media, and cultural transformation. The trend is a move from externally-facing interdisciplinary participation (contributing arts perspective to a transport project) toward projects that are intrinsically about arts education and research as a discipline in its own right.

LUCA is consolidating around arts education research alliances — future collaborations are likely to come through film, media, and cultural institution networks rather than cross-sector technical consortia.

How they like to work

LUCA has participated exclusively as a consortium partner, never as coordinator, across both of its H2020 projects — suggesting a preference or institutional capacity for specialist contribution rather than project management. With 16 unique partners across 10 countries from only 2 projects, they engage in mid-to-large, internationally diverse consortia. There is no evidence of repeated partnerships, which points to a network-building approach rather than deep bilateral ties.

LUCA has built a network of 16 unique consortium partners across 10 countries from just two projects, indicating broad European exposure relative to their project volume. Their network spans transport, society, and arts sectors, consistent with participation in diverse thematic consortia.

What sets them apart

LUCA is one of the few higher arts education institutions in Belgium with documented H2020 participation, making them a rare bridge between professional arts training and EU-funded research. Their value in a consortium is the ability to bring artistic research methodologies, cultural framing, and engagement design to projects that need a humanistic or creative dimension. For consortium builders in education, media, culture, or citizen engagement, LUCA fills a gap that universities of science or technology cannot.

Highlights from their portfolio

• FILMEU_RIT
  Their largest project by funding (EUR 614,500) and most strategically aligned — LUCA is part of the FILMEU European Film University alliance, a high-profile initiative reshaping film education and research across Europe.
• MUV
  An early cross-sector move into transport and urban mobility, demonstrating LUCA's willingness to contribute arts and values-based perspectives to non-arts consortia.