SHIFT is strategically conceived to deliver a set of loosely coupled, technological tools, that offers cultural heritage institutions the necessary impetus to stimulate growth, and embrace the latest innovations in artificial intelligence, machine learning, multi-modal data processing, digital content transformation methodologies, semantic representation, linguistic analysis of historical records, and the use of haptics interfaces to effectively and efficiently communicate new experiences to all citizens (including people with disabilities). The development of SHIFT tools will be carried out in close consultation with the stakeholder communities represented in the project. The two CH networks (BMN, ANBPR) will launch open consultation to aggregate views from their members, while together with the cultural heritage institutions (SOMKL, SMB) and heritage professionals (Heritage Management), will provide requirements based on the cultural assets being maintained within each organisation. The diversity of digital media transformation and the semantic formalisation of the cultural assets will be individually demonstrated across each museum and library. Additionally, the inclusion by design principles adopted within the project, will be evaluated by CH networks and vulnerable group partner (DBSV), who will engage with the various tools developed in the project. In complementary to the stakeholders and end-users, the SHIFT project also brings together leading industrial (SIMAVI) and academic institutions (FORTH, UAU, QMUL). The consortium is complemented by SMEs (MDS, AUD) with high-tech product development teams and ethical expertise (ERC). Collectively, the project will release 12 technology solutions clustered into five thematic areas (computer vision, audio, text-to-speech, haptics, semantics and linguistics) that support accessibility and inclusion by design to overcome the shortcomings and limitations of CCI sector to enable growth and stimulation.

Artifacts are constantly threatened by anthropogenic actions. Looting, smuggling, and illicit trade of cultural goods pose major risks to our cultural goods and our cultural identity. One of the major consequences of these illegal activities is the dissociation, meaning the loss of information associated with an object, such as provenance, identification, or location information, without which the object loses significance or is lost. Thus, art property marking and tracking are crucial to ensure the object identification, collection management and protection, while maintaining their state of conservation. Several actions have been adopted during the years to strengthen the protection of cultural property and cultural heritage, but they often lack effectiveness. The AURORA project wants to fill this gap by demonstrating how chemical marking, miniaturized device, art deep-scan technique, cloud and blockchain based platforms can be combined to create a cost-effective, non-destructive, and non-invasive countermeasure against illegal activities while preserving artifacts. The technologies researched and implemented in AURORA will converge in a digital tool allowing relevant stakeholders, art dealers, curators, auction houses, logistic services, and enforcement agents, to easily verify artwork authenticity and provenance, enabling art piece movement tracking. In close collaboration with relevant cultural institutions partners, AURORA will showcase real setting applications to validate the non-invasiveness, low cost, long-term stability, confidentiality, and data security features of the proposed solutions. In parallel, AURORA will foster technological democratization among cultural institutions, by creating a knowledge bridge between technical competencies and cultural heritage professionals. Specific awareness-raising activities will demonstrate how the AURORA solutions can be a means to preserve cultural identities mixtures through cultural heritage preservation.