The launch of this comprehensive list of resources on mobility in Asia and Europe follows a series of important meetings that have happened in 2013 and 2014. Initiated in 2013 by ASEF with the Platform meeting of Asian and European cultural mobility funders in Prague, Czech Republic (5-6 June 2013) co-organised with the Arts and Theatre Institute-Prague and the Kelola Foundation, the conversation among funders and policy makers has further developed in 2014, with the brainstorming meeting on Access and Reciprocity organised by On the Move in partnership with Asialink and ResArtis in Melbourne, Australia (12 May 2014). The meeting supported by ASEF was part of the Inaugural Meeting of the Asia-Europe-Australia Creative Residency Network (AAECRN) and in conjunction with the IETM Asia Satellite Meeting co-organised by IETM (International Network for Contemporary Performing Arts) and the Australia Council for the Arts.

Among the key findings of the Melbourne meeting was that multiple types of partnerships are necessary at different levels: international, national, regional but also between public and private funders and cultural organisations and artists and cultural professionals. National and international agencies funding mobility should consider the benefits of investing not only on ‘their’ national artists and ‘their’ country but go beyond the idea of “export” and define how to build long-lasting collaborations with different partners at different levels.

Over 50 cultural mobility funders, stakeholders and professionals from Asia, Australia and Europe agreed on the need to reinforce and diversify networks through the support of new types of networks’ initiatives and their potential for connections within the region Australia-Asia-Europe. In this context, the international approach of the mobility funding guides is crucial, as it positions the discourse on the funding of cultural mobility in a global perspective in order to better respond to local needs and interests from the cultural sector.