Matching Fund of the International Heritage Cooperation

The International Heritage Cooperation Matching Fund is meant for projects that contribute to the visibility of the history and heritage that connects the Netherlands with the partner and focus countries included in the Dutch International Cultural Policy. Because visibility is the central goal of the scheme, we expect applications to place a strong emphasis on reciprocal representation, multiperspectivity and historical awareness.

In the previous policy period (2017-2020), this scheme used to be called the Shared Cultural Heritage Matching Fund.

Legal entities established in the Netherlands can apply to a project. This may be a heritage institution or heritage professional and/or a cultural institution or cultural professional. Annually, there are 180,000 euros available for this scheme. 75% of the available budget is reserved for projects with the partner countries and a maximum of 25% of the annual budget is available for projects with the focus countries.

Partner countries: Australia, Brazil, India, Indonesia, Japan, Russia*, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Suriname, United States, Ukraine.

Focal countries: Belgium, China, Egypt, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Morocco, Poland, South Korea, Spain, Turkey, United Kingdom.

*For cooperation with Russia, DutchCulture follows the Dutch government's declaration of solidarity for Ukraine and principles of cultural cooperation with the Russian Federation and Belarus.

The International Heritage Cooperation programme is part of the Netherlands’ international cultural policy. The Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science have formulated this policy for the period 2021 – 2024 with a main focus on ten partner countries:

Australia, Brazil, India, Indonesia, Japan, Russia, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Suriname, Ukraine and the United States.

Yet, in this policy period, we will also cooperate with the other priority countries of the Dutch government’s international cultural policy: Belgium, China, Germany, Egypt, France, Hungary, Italy, Morocco, Poland, Spain, Turkey, the United Kingdom and South Korea.

The cooperation partners are the embassies of the Netherlands of the ten partner countries, the National Archives of the Netherlands, the Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands, the Dutch Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage and DutchCulture. Jointly, these organisations aim to foster local demands in the partner countries and link the individual projects.

The latest deadline for the Matching Fund was 24 March 2024. We will keep you informed of the next deadline.

If you think you are eligible for the Matching Fund, please schedule an advisory meeting with Anne Maamke Boonstra, our Advisor International Heritage Cooperation, first. At this meeting, we can indicate how promising the project proposal is, provide information about the schemes offered by DutchCulture and provide information on potential Dutch or international partners when relevant. Without this meeting, applications will not be considered. An independent programme council will advise on the allocation of the funds available.

Please contact us via internationalheritage@dutchculture.nl if you have any questions about the Matching Fund.