This free online seminar presents new evidence on how competitive public funding decisions are shaped by the language of project applications and applicant attributes, based on research undertaken by Camille Pedersen (Aarhus University).
- 3pm, 11 December 2025
- Online via Teams
Drawing on a novel dataset of around 2,300 performing arts grant applications submitted to the Danish Arts Foundation, the study applies Large Language Model–driven topic modelling and econometric analysis to explore how formal evaluation criteria and other textual signals influence third-party assessments of artistic projects’ eligibility for subsidies. As the first large-scale text analysis of grant applications within the creative industries, the study offers new insights into how evaluation criteria are enacted in practice.
During the session, Camille Pedersen will discuss the study’s methodology, findings, and implications for decision-making in public arts funding. There will be time for a Q&A following the presentation.
This 1-hour talk is part of Creative PEC‘s new seminar series.
Speakers
Camille Pedersen
PhD Fellow in Economics and Business Economics
Aarhus University
Camille Pedersen is a PhD Fellow in Economics and Business Economics at Aarhus University. Her research combines methodological contributions in statistical modeling and machine learning with applied, data-driven studies of decision-making and performance in the creative industries. She has been a visiting PhD researcher at the Creative Industries Policy and Evidence Centre and has presented her work at international conferences in cultural economics.
Giorgio Fazio (chair)
Professor of Macroeconomics
Newcastle University
Giorgio Fazio is an applied economist with expertise in macroeconomics, trade and investment. He has published several articles in international peer-reviewed journals and chapters in edited books on issues such as exchange rates determination, crises and contagion, growth, and convergence at the national and regional levels, productivity, innovation, trade and FDI, civic and cultural capital, creative industries economics.
He has been a Creative PEC researcher since 2018, leading the work on international trade, investment and migration and contributing to economic research in the creative industries in PEC Discussion papers, blogs and peer reviewed journal articles.
Giorgio is Chair of Macroeconomics at Newcastle University Business School and since 2023 is the Research Director of the Creative Industries Policy Evidence Centre.
