Advice sought on application and assessment process BIS 25-28

The Culture Council is expected to issue an advice to state secretary Uslu (OCW) in March 2023 on the application and assessment process for the Cultural Basic Infrastructure for the period 2025-2028 (BIS 25-28). This was requested by the state secretary. To arrive at the advice, the council has, among other things, appointed a temporary committee for the part of its advice request that concerns the positioning of the so-called 'sector-wide supporting institutions'.

Opinion

As previously announced, the state secretary stressed in her request for advice that she does not want to change the structure and functions of the BIS scheme for the coming period.

However, the State Secretary does request advice on the application procedure and the assessment process. She asks the council to ensure a good balance in the advice between conditions, criteria and administrative burden for cultural institutions and to take into account the coherence with funding by other governments. She also asks the council to advise on tightening the assessment of the three codes of conduct on governance, fair practice and diversity and inclusion.

Sector-wide support institutions

One of the questions to the council focuses on the positioning and method of assessment and monitoring of the so-called 'sector-wide supporting institutions' in the BIS. These institutions have the function of supporting the sector in areas such as digitisation, cultural education, cultural participation, international cultural policy, research and entrepreneurship, among others.

To answer this particular question, the council is setting up a temporary committee to take a fresh look at this. It consists of Titia Bredée and Ryclef Rienstra. The first is director of Nuffic (the Dutch organisation for internationalisation in education), has broad knowledge of the education field and the working areas of the supporting institutions and acts as chairman. The second was director of the Film Fund and VandenEnde Foundation, among others, and has broad experience in advising in and about the cultural sector. The temporary committee will engage with sector-wide institutions and stakeholders from the field in the coming weeks. The council will take the results into account in its advice on BIS 25-28.

Continued

The council's opinion will be published in March 2023. The state secretary is expected to open the application procedure for BIS 25-28 by the end of 2023. Through the BIS scheme, the central government distributes a total of more than 400 million euros in cultural subsidies every year.