OPENCULT focuses on the use of the open method of coordination (OMC) as one of the new cultural policy tools employed by the EU in the wake of the European Agenda for Culture in a Globalizing World (COM(2007) 242). The project will study the configuration of the cultural OMC, the institutional structures and policy objectives that define it, and the complex array of policy processes and instruments that it involves. It will explore whether the cultural OMC has led to the development of more culture-sensitive policies at the national level, and will examine its effects on the formation and evolution of the EU cultural policy as well. The central assumption of OPENCULT is that besides being perceived as a motor to rejuvenate Member States’ cultural cooperation, the cultural OMC has also been instituted as a means to revamp EU cultural action and steer the development of EU cultural policy. Adopting a comparative, multi-disciplinary approach, OPENCULT will probe into analytical perspectives that seek to conceptualise and explain the dynamics of national and EU cultural policy-making in the light of the cultural OMC, and will empirically explore the effects of the cultural OMC on the formulation of Member States’ cultural policies and EU cultural activity. The project will make a significant contribution to cultural policy development by advancing knowledge on how cultural diversity can be safeguarded in Europe. It will thus be of particular interest to state and European policy makers, civil society and the public at large. Also, it will make a precious contribution to the career development of the fellow that will carry out the research proposed and will strengthen the attractiveness of the European Research Area a) by bringing for the first time culture and cultural diversity into theoretical inquiries about the OMC; and b) by advancing knowledge on the institutional and policy arrangements that can help protect and promote cultural diversity in Europe.