Ecosystemic approaches for culture and innovation policies are central. Intermediaries play a related crucial role to bring forward cultural development and policy. And therefore, it is a mistake to cut budgets for agencies, networks and support organisations. These are some of the key elements of an interview which I provided to the Horizon Europe research project ekip. One might think that it is an easy gain to cut budget for intermediaries in the CCS. I argue that this is shortsighted. We must understand cultural development as an ecosystem embedded in a multitude of actions, stakeholders and contexts. Radical future-orientation of intermediaries and beyond is another key feature to best support the cultural and creative sectors: the present is already past in a second! Ekip is – in that sense – a very promising research project as it aims at linking culture and innovation policies: “Our “ekip Engine” is an elaborated process where we co-create policy recommendations with broad groups of stakeholders. Built on open innovation, it sparks engagement, builds awareness, gathers feedback, and empowers people to shape policies that drive societal change through innovation.” Thank you to Bodil Malmström and the ekip team for the excellent exchange!