Various censuses in EU-countries reveal that employment in the creative industries (design, cultural heritage, visual and performing arts, print media, television, cinema, new and digital media) has grown rapidly in the last few years. Nonetheless, ethnic minorities are still significantly underrepresented within this sector in Europe today. To address this issue, the two-year-project DIVERSITY IN THE CREATIVE INDUSTRIES focuses on actively supporting this inadequately represented young workforce in Sweden, Spain and The Netherlands. The partner organisations involved in this project are: SwIdeas (Sweden), Euroaccion Murcia (Spain) and Capture22 (The Netherlands). With regard to the primary target group - young people, aged 18 to 30, who have had higher educational training in the creative industries and who are at an early stage of their careers – the main impact objectives are: • Improved career-oriented capacities and competences linked to their professional profiles (including: portfolio-building, networking/self-promotion skills, sense of entrepreneurship, growth mindset, finding funding). • Greater understanding of the labour market and (potential) career paths (career-building). • Increased employability and opportunities for professional development. • Increased visibility and improved access to professional networks. This project will also target organisations (non-profits and companies) within the creative and cultural industries with the aim to empower them to understand the business case for wider representation and inclusion. Key impact objectives are: • Benchmarking tools for diversity management in order to manage the sector's needs on how to promote integration. • Strategic partnerships and exchange of Best-Practices between organisations and stakeholders from partner countries. • Improved interaction between facilitators, industry and policy makers and awareness of urgency to secure diversification of workforce within the creative industries on a long-term basis. The project will first set out to map the creative industries in each partner country and establish a network of participants. A key element is the Online Talent Hub: a knowledge resource portal which implements innovative practices to engage young creative talents improve their capacities (e.g. mentorship-interface for non-formal learning). It also serves as talent pool/ professional marketplace and a space for virtual mobility and knowledge-transfer between young talents and the industry. There are three key learning/teaching/training-activities: • The mentorship programme for talents allows for progress of professional competencies as a long-term investment. In each partner country a selection of talents follows a mentorship trajectory guided by experienced professionals. Validation: Youthpass. • The mobility programme: In each of the two years SwIdeas, Euroaccion and Capture22 will select three young talents from each partner country and cover funding for travel and accommodation for two-month work residencies at cultural institutions,or creative agencies within the partner region. Validation: Europass Mobility. • Capacity building workshops for talents and diversity management workshops for leaders in the industry. Annual symposiums (in each country) will serve as multiplier events connecting the local creative industry, policy makers and young talents. Participants will share knowledge on key-issues (diversity management, talent development, Best Practices) while talents will get the opportunity to network and showcase their creative ideas and skills with PechaKucha-style presentations and think tank labs. The results of the multiplier events will be shared on the Online Talent Hub, through video registration, blog posts and live tweets from the event. The project will be completed with digital publication which will deliver results from the mapping research, share information, resources (training toolkits, learning material) and Best Practices collected during the two-year-project, and deliver a set of priorities on the diversity agenda for the creative industry network to focus on. Considering the highly sensitive nature of issues related to integration and inclusion and the resulting sensitivities of governments with regard to local policies, it is in the project’s best interest to place young people from within the participating countries at the forefront of efforts and allow them to drive these initiatives beyond the two years of the project. In addition to the intellectual outputs (Online Talent Hub, publication) the multipliers events, mobility and mentorship programmes and local workshops will contribute effectively to the multiplier methods towards sustainability. The project will reach out to an extended network of communities of practice, institutions, civil society organisations and young people-serving organisations to actively participate to get engaged and to build on the project’s outputs.