TOWCHED will demonstrate transformative potential of inclusive, arts-based and heritage collections-mediated educational interventions for children and youth, using SDGs as the results framework. These interventions, piloted in collaboration between Creative and Cultural Industries (CCIs), Collections-based Organizations (CBOs) and educational institutions across Europe, will be critically assessed,providing a field-tested and well-supported roadmap to enriching our learning ecology with creative use of heritage, thus making Europe, and our world, a better place for all. Our innovative approach relies on the application of the Human Rights-based Approach (HRBA) as a project planning tool, which is foundational in Agenda2030 and the SDGs. TOWCHED will actively engage with children, young people, educators, creatives, heritage professionals, policymakers and professional development providers to ensure our goals and impacts are not only achieved, but that stakeholders can shape these goals in line with the principles of Leave No-one Behind, and the Right to Development. Furthermore, we will focus on lifelong perspectives, from early childhood education and care to young adult education in formal and non-formal learning environments. We will seek to empower CBOs to be more effective in supporting sustainable development through educational activities that foster people’s active, free, and meaningful participation. Our transdisciplinary approach will lead to creation of community of practice for competence-based sustainable development education and life-long learning rooted in our rich European heritage. The project will provide practical tools, and develop capacities to use these tools. In pursuit of these objectives, we will work closely with the transdisciplinary New European Bauhaus (NEB) and other similar initiatives. By integrating our project into this broader European movement, we aspire to contribute to the transformation of societies for a sustainable future.

What if EU citizens could collaborate with scientists in the preservation of cultural heritage? Could conservation professionals be provided with actionable technologies, skills and frameworks that upgrade their efficiency? Europe's cultural heritage is a rich and diverse melting pot of traditions, monuments and communities where we have boiled our identity, well-being and sense of belonging. Nonetheless, in recent years, we have witnessed a series of natural and human-induced disasters that threaten it. Improving cultural heritage resilience to climate change and anthropogenic hazards requires a shift in conservation practices towards more holistic ones. ChemiNova aims to develop an intelligent computational system that goes beyond current technologies to improve the conservation, analysis and monitoring of European cultural heritage assets. Using a myriad of data, we will tackle structural and chemical damages, focusing on two specific human-induced threats: climate change and civil conflicts. Furthermore, our impact lies in the fact that we will not build an ad hoc device, but our technology is adapted so that anyone can access it from anywhere. We will involve local communities in conservation practices, from providing data (citizen science) to raising awareness on the effects of climate change, natural and human hazards affecting CH. As a main objective, we will develop novel and cost-effective ways for remote and on-site monitoring of cultural heritage assets by reusing existing technologies and providing conservators with advanced analysis of structural and chemical damages due to human-induced threats. Also, it will involve heritage practitioners and non-experts in conservation processes, while considering end-users at the centre of our tools and methods. ChemiNova considers a set of non-destructive and portable technologies in a modular way that will allow adaptable inspections according to the different case scenarios, monuments, buildings and artefacts.

The European Research Infrastructure for Heritage Science (E-RIHS) was designed as a pan-European distributed infrastructure with the vision of replacing the traditional science-for-art approach to conservation through the new widely interdisciplinary sector of Heritage Science (HS) to improve the understanding and sustainable preservation of cultural heritage. E-RIHS was admitted in the 2016 ESFRI Roadmap and is now preparing its step 2 application to take the legal form of an ERIC. The E-RIHS Implementation Phase (E-RIHS IP) consortium brings together representatives of the national nodes of the countries that expressed their willingness to support the establishment of the ERIC and one permanent observer. It aims at enabling the E-RIHS implementation phase and preparing the operation of E-RIHS ERIC, also in support of its positioning as the reference RI for the HS domain at the EU and global level. The objectives and methodology underpinning the E-RIHS IP work plan target and intend to overcome the bottlenecks highlighted in the recommendations of the 2020 ESFRI monitoring report, the EC High Level Expert Group report (2020) and the ERIC step 1 assessment (2021). Coordinated actions are dedicated to: (i) implement the E-RIHS governance structure and finalise its distributed architecture; (ii) support the E-RIHS management with strategies and related implementation plans regarding HR, procurement, risk management and quality system; (iii) maintain and build upon the established E-RIHS excellence in user access and foster FAIR open access with the design of the DIGILAB platform; (iv) strengthen international cooperation, cultivate synergies and consolidate the HS community around E-RIHS, while establishing E-RIHS in the landscape of EU RIs and global initiatives; (v) secure the ERIC sustainability and unlock its socioeconomic impact potential by providing E-RIHS with an updated business plan and a marketing strategy tailored for its new lifecycle phase.

Most Cultural Heritage objects housed by museums are often stored under unsuitable climate conditions. APACHE will develop a cutting edge technology to control and prevent the degradation of such patrimony. The novel approach is based on three pillars: 1) advanced sensing and absorbing materials to control the artifacts’ environment; 2) modeling to define the threshold of artifacts’ degradation and to discriminate between the need for preventive or remedial conservation; 3) remote control of the works of art stressors. The unique combination of these pillars will reduce to the lowest possible level the costs actually required by conventional technology for art conservation. New generation of active and intelligent display cases, crates, and storage boxes, will be implemented thanks to: i) The unique APACHE partnership, comprising the most important experts in the three aforementioned pillars; ii) The development of easy-to-use sensing devices able to communicate through Wireless Sensor Networks and Radio Frequency Identification Devices thanks to Industry 4.0-5.0 ICT technologies, granting the optimal environmental conditions around the art objects. Multiscale models integrated in an open simulation environment will be used to predict the degradation of artefacts and set the properties of sensors (detection limits) and polyfunctional absorbents. APACHE includes small, medium, and large museums exhibiting representative variety of display and storage conditions. For instance, the Venice Peggy Guggenheim Collection features one of the most important collections of modern/contemporary art, which experiences highly unfavorable environmental conditions, difficult to control with conventional tools. Centre Pompidou and National Museum of Hungary possess a vast amount of artefacts stored in deposits (e.g. in crates and boxes). Moreover, a decision-making tool composed by a modular set of decision trees will be offered to end-users to guide them through the best solutions.

The Cultural Heritage (CH) Research and Innovation (R&I) landscape has changed significantly over the past few years. New political, technological and socio-economic parameters put emphasis on improving protection, conservation and restoration efficiency of European CH with green technologies, as well as developing and further exploiting high quality digitisation, open access and curation of digital assets. The need also exists to enhance the innovation potential and competitive edge of the Cultural and Creative Sector (CCS) to drive sustainable growth and job creation against global competition. Responding to these challenges, the project will develop a pan European framework for a holistic approach to CH R&I, by creating the Alliance for Research on Cultural Heritage in Europe (ARCHE), a spearheading coordination network of researchers, innovators, heritage professionals, institutional bodies and citizens. The objective is to engage all CH actors in member States / Associated Countries in the co-design of R&I strategies and roadmaps that lead to R&I initiatives requiring multidisciplinary approaches and skills A detailed assessment of R&I gaps and needs for the next decade will be the basis for designing a Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda (SRIA) for joint programming aiming to increase awareness of heritage and European sense of belonging. A new purpose-built governance structure will be proposed that will effectively involve existing networks and new partners from relevant scientific disciplines and industries. It will also promote intensive and wide-ranging collaboration between cultural heritage, the arts, and the CCS. The SRIA and governance structure will be tested in a pilot operation in the third and final year. ARCHE will be a strong basis for a European Partnership in CH, by pooling, developing and upscaling transnational collaboration on CH R&I and by involving all stakeholders and funding mechanisms related to CH R&I policy and action.