Climate change is a pressing threat, and Europe faces a significant challenge to address it urgently. The EU has set ambitious climate goals, such as the Green Deal's target to reduce net greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55% by 2030. But this challenge also involves deep social and cultural transformations. Within this context, the Cultural and Creative Industries (CCIs) play a crucial role in the climate transition by raising awareness, changing imaginaries and contributing to economic sustainability and innovation. However, CCIs, particularly small and medium-sized organisations, are vulnerable due to limited resources and fragmentation, emphasized by the negative consequences of climate change. They urgently require tested tools to enhance their capacity for rapid adaptation and making meaningful contributions to the climate transition. Cultural and Artistic Social Enterprises within CCIs, work in close proximity to citizens and cooperation with local actors, which makes them uniquely able to identify emerging social and environmental demands. Based on this citizen and creative-driven knowledge, they propose innovative and creative solutions, having a unique potential of influencing values and attitudes and inspiring blueprints within the sector and beyond. The EMCCINNO project (EMpowering CCIs to boost systemic INNOvation for sustainable climate transition) brings together the fields of CCIs, climate transition, and social enterprises. It aims to refine, test, validate and scale sustainable business models, implementing them into prototypes for real-world impact within small and medium-sized CCIs. Focusing on cultural and artistic social enterprises, the project involves five diverse organisations from five EU Member States that will design, and test prototypes based on their sustainability transition needs, supported by researchers throughout the process, thus contributing to the EU's climate goals.