The HERA Joint Research Programme Cultural Encounters (HERA JRP CE) consortium will establish a single joint transnational programme for multi-disciplinary research into the causes and consequences of cultural encounters. To understand cultural encounters is to understand the history and meaning of Europe itself, from the earliest periods of human settlement to the present day. Its effects impact on the activities of everyday life to the broader arenas of ideology and societal institutions.The proposed JRP will invite transnational project proposals that address general historical and theoretical issues, as well as those that investigate more focused aspects of cultural encounters. The programme will investigate the phenomenon of cultural encounters in spatial terms as well as temporal terms. The new knowledge generated by the HERA JRP Cultural Encounters will be disseminated to inform and develop effective European policies in all these areas.Research Funding Organisations from 18 countries have pooled a substantial amount of their national funding (€ 13.955.935) for this transnational funding scheme thus increasing the efficiency and impact of public research funding. EC support is requested to the level of 33% of the total contribution to the joint call budget. Commission support will be used to top-up research funding alone. All other costs will be carried by the HERA JRP CE partners.The selection phase for the HERA JRP CE involves the final preparatory activities for the Call for Proposals, capacity building activities to inform researchers in all participating countries and a commonly-agreed two-stage evaluation process involving an independent, international Review Panel and remote assessments by experts. In the research phase, the HERA JRP CE also supports scientific networking activities in order to foster new innovative research and implement knowledge transfer activities to stimulate wider public awareness about the important contributions of new humanities research.