STARTS is a platform that aims to link technology and artistic practice more closely. It is implemented by European policy to promote innovations that also benefit the art world. It supports collaboration between artists, scientists, engineers and researchers to develop more creative, inclusive and sustainable technologies, and focuses on people and projects that help address the social, environmental and economic challenges with which the European continent is confronted. Ars Electronica has been an active partner of the initiative since 2015, hosts and organizes the annual STARTS Prize as a leading partner with Waag and BOZAR, contributes to the development of a sustainable and long-term strategy for the STARTS initiative as a partner within the STARTS ecosystem, and has most recently advanced the STARTS agenda at a local level in the city of Linz as a Regional STARTS Center.

Credits

STARTS is an initiative of the European Commission under the Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. It was launched in 2015, following up the findings of previous activities funded by the European Commission, namely ICT&Art 2012, FET-ART, ICT ART CONNECT 2013 and ICT ART CONNECT study, whose results demonstrated the worldwide emergence of communities of hybrid collaborations among science, technology and arts and their relevance.