Creative Skills Week (CSW2026) is Europe’s leading event dedicated to the future of skills for the Cultural and Creative Sectors and Industries (CCSI).
Taking place in Brussels from 7 to 9 September 2026, it will bring together European institutions, policymakers, education providers, cultural organisations, researchers, industry leaders and creative practitioners to explore how creative skills can drive Europe’s competitiveness, strengthen democratic resilience, advance technological sovereignty and help address today’s complex social, environmental and economic challenges.
Organised by CYANOTYPES partners, EIT Culture & Creativity and the Creative Futures Academy, in collaboration with the Creative Pact for Skills, the CREDEX and GreenCCIrcle projects, and curated by ELIA, Creative Skills Week has become the leading European platform where policy, education and practice converge to shape the future of creative skills. This year it is also recognised as an Associated Event of the Irish Presidency of the Council of the European Union 2026.
The 2026 edition is centred on the concept of creative confidence as the capacity to translate creative thinking into meaningful action by connecting disciplines, sectors and expertise. Through this lens, Creative Skills Week will explore how creative skills can generate innovative responses to Europe’s most pressing challenges, empowering individuals, organisations and ecosystems to navigate change, strengthen resilience and shape a more sustainable, competitive and inclusive future.
2026 Edition – Why Creative Skills Matter
The programme is organised around three interconnected themes that trace a journey from recognising the strategic value of creative skills to exploring how they can be embedded into systems and translated into long-term policy and societal impact.
Day One – Why Creative Skills Matter
It explores the contribution of creative skills to Europe’s competitiveness, democratic resilience, sustainability and technological transformation. Through keynote speeches, high-level policy dialogues and cross-sector exchanges, the programme examines why investing in creative capabilities is essential to addressing today’s complex challenges.
Read the full programme of Day One >>
Day Two – How Creative Skills Become Systems
It shifts the focus from vision to implementation, showcasing how creative competences can be embedded in education, entrepreneurship, regional innovation ecosystems and sustainability transitions through collaborative partnerships, experimental approaches and scalable learning models.
Read the full programme of Day Two >>
Day Three – What Must Change Next
It looks ahead to the policies, governance frameworks and investment priorities needed to strengthen Europe’s creative skills ecosystem. The programme concludes by identifying strategic recommendations, future alliances and implementation pathways to inform the European Union’s post-2027 agenda for skills, innovation and competitiveness.
Read the full programme of Day Three >>
Materahub at Creative Skills Week 2026
Throughout the week, Materahub will play a prominent role by co-organising strategic sessions on:
- green skills;
- regional skills partnerships;
- micro-credentials;
- regenerative rural development.
Through these contributions, the organisation will demonstrate how European cooperation projects can move beyond experimentation to deliver practical tools, foster collaborative ecosystems and generate evidence-based policy recommendations that support Europe’s future skills agenda and investment priorities.
Throughout Creative Skills Week 2026, Materahub will contribute to the programme through a series of strategic sessions showcasing how creative confidence can be transformed into collaborative ecosystems, practical solutions and policy innovation.
Across regional cooperation, rural development, sustainability transformation and skills recognition, these contributions highlight complementary pathways for strengthening Europe’s creative skills ecosystem and enabling creative actors to respond to complex societal challenges.
Building Regional Skills Partnerships for Europe’s Creative Ecosystems
Materahub will lead a strategic session dedicated to Regional Skills Partnerships (RSPs), bringing together European policymakers, regional authorities, creative hubs, education providers and ecosystem actors to explore how territorial collaboration can accelerate skills development in the Cultural and Creative Sectors and Industries.
Moving between European policy perspectives and real-world regional experiences, the session will examine governance approaches, stakeholder engagement models and funding pathways that enable long-term cooperation. By showcasing pioneering regional initiatives, it will demonstrate how RSPs can bridge the gap between skills needs, local ecosystems and European priorities.
A key outcome of the session will be the official relaunch of the Working Group on Regional Skills Partnerships within the Creative Pact for Skills, creating a dedicated space for knowledge exchange, policy dialogue and partnership building across Europe.
Weaving the Rural Tapestry: Cross-Sectoral Skills and Ecosystems for Rural Entrepreneurship
Materahub will also bring a territorial perspective to Creative Skills Week through a dedicated dialogue on rural entrepreneurship and cross-sectoral ecosystems. Bringing together actors from Culture, Social Economy, Tourism and the EU Rural Pact, the session will explore how Large Scale Partnerships can collaborate to equip rural creative entrepreneurs with the skills, networks and opportunities needed to build sustainable futures.
Moderated by Materahub, the discussion will highlight that creative ecosystems thrive through connections between sectors, communities and local development strategies. By linking the Creative Pact for Skills with the Rural Pact and other sectoral partnerships, the session will explore new approaches to tackling rural brain drain, strengthening local resilience and fostering sustainable business models rooted in culture, social innovation and territorial assets.
The conversation will identify practical pathways for moving beyond isolated initiatives towards integrated regional skill ecosystems, focusing on three key dimensions: stronger collaboration between culture, tourism and social economy; greater alignment between European policy frameworks; and actionable upskilling approaches that empower rural communities to generate long-term value.
From Narrative to Action: Enabling Sustainable Transformation
Through the GreenCCIrcle project and the Creative Pact for Skills Green Skills Working Group, Materahub will co-curate a session exploring how creative sectors can contribute to the green transition by turning sustainability ambitions into concrete practices.
The session will present the GreenCCIrcle ecosystem—comprising the Academy, Hub and Living Labs—as a set of interconnected instruments supporting skills development, experimentation and organisational transformation. Through practitioner experiences, case studies and policy dialogue, it will showcase how creative competences can drive resilience, regenerative approaches and new collaboration models, while contributing to evidence-based recommendations for future European policies on green skills.
From Recognition to Action: Building Creative Skills Ecosystems through Micro-Credentials
Through the CREDEX project, Materahub will address a key challenge for the Cultural and Creative Sectors and Industries: ensuring that diverse and evolving creative skills become more visible, recognised and transferable across education systems and labour markets.
Across two interconnected sessions, policymakers, educators and sector representatives will explore how micro-credentials can support more flexible, inclusive and learner-centred approaches to lifelong learning.
Moving from policy reflection and European practices to practical tools—including the CREDEX Micro-Credentials Providers’ Database—and participatory roadmap development, the sessions will examine how recognition systems can better reflect the realities of creative careers.
By combining dialogue, experimentation and co-design, the CREDEX contribution will demonstrate how micro-credentials can become connectors between education, industry, creative practice and policy, strengthening more responsive and interconnected skills ecosystems across Europe.
From European Experience to Future Skills Agendas
Built on decades of experience working across European ecosystems, Materahub brings to Creative Skills Week 2026 a distinctive perspective shaped by long-term cooperation, experimentation and engagement with policy and practice.
Through its collaboration with communities, creative professionals, institutions and European networks, Materahub has developed and tested approaches that connect skills development, innovation and territorial transformation.
As Europe enters a decisive phase in defining the priorities, investment frameworks and strategic objectives of the next Multiannual Financial Framework and programming period, the experiences and models brought together at CSW2026 provide valuable evidence on how future skills ecosystems can be designed, connected and strengthened. They demonstrate the importance of moving towards more integrated, cross-sectoral approaches where culture and creativity are recognised as strategic assets for Europe’s competitiveness, resilience and sustainable development.
