The consortium of Horizon-funded ARCHE project (Alliance for Research on Cultural Heritage in Europe) met between 16-18 October in Paris, on the premises of the French Ministry of Culture, in order to assess the first year of implementation and set the stage for the upcoming steps. The meetings brought together the project’s General Assembly (the prime responsible body for all of ARCHE’s scientific, research, technical, administrative, and financial issues) and Executive Board (the supervisory body for the execution of the Project), and coincided with the Steering Committee and Governing Board meetings of the Joint Programming Initiative on Cultural Heritage and Global Change (JPI CH).
The meetings addressed the finished and upcoming deliverables, as well as the completed and ongoing tasks. ARCHE’s first year focused on conducting a comprehensive mapping and assessment of the research and innovation landscape in cultural heritage across Europe, as well as to organising several rounds of engagement with stakeholders via four virtual workshops.
Future steps were also approached, as throughout 2024, ARCHE will organize four in-person workshops across Europe in order to refine a first, currently in-progress version of the new Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda (SRIA) for cultural heritage. This document is one of the project’s most important outputs, since it strives to act as a roadmap for harmonising heritage research policies across the continent in the coming years.
ARCHE partners also used this opportunity to engage with the JPI CH members and to brainstorm new ways of boosting the cooperation between the two large-scale initiatives.
Besides discussing the project’s main achievements in the past year, the exchanges in Paris also addressed the future European Partnership on Resilient Cultural Heritage, for which ARCHE aims at paving the way. In this sense, the Consortium benefitted from the valuable insights offered by Irena Kowalczyk-Kedziora, Policy Officer in the European Commission, DG Research and Innovation, Unit D3 – Fair Societies and Cultural Heritage, and Fabienne Gautier, Head of Unit in the European Commission, DG Research and Innovation, Unit G4 – Common Missions and Partnerships.
In addition to the plenary discussions on the progress of ARCHE, partners also engaged in smaller, thematic working sessions, that further strengthened the team spirit already present in the consortium. Arguably the most pleasant surprise of this reunion was the visit at the Cluny Museum, which proved to be a great insight into medieval art and the relevance of museum research for the broader field of cultural heritage.
The Cyprus Institute participates in three work packages, contributing to assessing the research and innovation landscape in cultural heritage in Europe and investigating Cyprus’s current situation. APAC Labs team participates in evaluating R&I gaps and needs for the next decade to design a Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda (SRIA) for joint programming to increase heritage awareness and a European sense of belonging.
Altogether, the three days of the ARCHE and JPI CH meetings proved to be very engaging and inspiring, and the partners are very much looking forward to an intense, but rewarding second year.
The ARCHE project started in September 2022 and lasts until August 2025. Its purpose is to develop a pan-European framework for a holistic approach to cultural heritage research and innovation, by creating the Alliance for Research on Cultural Heritage in Europe, a spearheading coordination network of researchers, innovators, heritage professionals, institutional bodies and citizens. The aim is to engage a large variety of cultural heritage actors in Member States / Associated Countries in the co-design of research and innovation strategies and roadmaps that lead to research and innovation initiatives requiring multidisciplinary approaches and skills.
Source: The Cyprus Institute | News (https://shorturl.at/cfKST)