AVENUE: Audiovisual Education and Training Network for European Vocational Excellence

Barry Dignam and Damien Byrne represent Dún Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design and Technology, IADT, in AVENUE, a four-year Erasmus+ Centre of Vocational Excellence project supporting education, professional development and innovation in Europe’s creative visual industries.

AVENUE brings together five national skills ecosystems in Denmark, France, Ireland, Italy and the Netherlands. Each ecosystem focuses on a particular area of creative visual production: animation in Denmark, video games in France, visual storytelling in Ireland, extended reality in Italy and virtual production in the Netherlands.

The project aims to strengthen cooperation between education providers, industry organisations and creative professionals. It will develop flexible vocational and professional training, new teaching approaches, micro-credentials, mobility opportunities and open-access learning provision. Its activities are intended to help formal education respond more effectively to technological change and to support learners and professionals in content creation, entrepreneurship and innovation.

AVENUE aims to provide skills-development opportunities for more than 2,000 professionals ,employees, students and emerging creative talent. It also seeks to establish a lasting European network through which the five national ecosystems can exchange knowledge, develop training and support the competitiveness, sustainability and working practices of the European creative visual industries.

IADT participates in the Irish Visual Storytelling Centre of Vocational Excellence alongside industry and skills-development organisations, including Cultural& Creative Industries Skillnet and Studio Meala.

Funder: European Union, Erasmus+ programme

Funding strand: Centres of Vocational Excellence

Project duration: 1 February 2025–1 February 2029

Project coordinator: VIA University College–The Animation Workshop, Denmark

AVENUE brings together five creative-industry ecosystems across Europe, comprising fully fledged and associated project partners.

Animation — Denmark

VIA University College — The Animation Workshop (coordinator/lead)

Creative Viborg

Beyond Horizon

Tumblehead

Viborg Kommune (associated partner)

Games — France

Cnam-Enjmin (coordinator)

Pôle créatif Magelis

Ubisoft Paris

BoCAJ — Bouleversement Carbone dans l’Animation et le Jeu vidéo (associated partner)

Virtual Production — Netherlands

Breda University of Applied Sciences (BUas) (coordinator)

Filmmore

Epic Games (associated partner)

Extended Reality — Italy

Politecnico di Torino (coordinator)

Film Commission Torino Piemonte

Prodea Group S.p.A.

CSC Animazione / Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia – Piemonte Animation

Cartoon Italia

Visual Storytelling — Ireland

Dún Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design + Technology (IADT) (coordinator)

 Cultural & Creative Industries Skillnet

 Studio Meala