Moving towards a new European collaborative cloud for cultural heritage
Dialogue between the European Commission and EU Member States has started to build a one-of-a-kind framework that will enable collaboration between cultural heritage professionals from across Europe.
Discussions with EU Member States started at a launch event on 21 June on the joint creation of a Collaborative Cloud for Cultural Heritage to help safeguard European cultural treasures through a digital infrastructure.
Europe's rich cultural heritage will enter a new digital dimension with the European Collaborative Cloud for Cultural Heritage
announced Mariya Gabriel, European Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth at the launch event.
She also stressed how this project can
make European cultural heritage a world leader in deploying digital technologies to create value to the benefits of all citizens.
Cutting-edge tools for cultural heritage
The project will provide cutting-edge tools for digitising artefacts, studying artworks, and documenting data, all of which will improve preservation, conservation and restoration procedures.
So far, only 30% to 50% of the cultural collections in Europe have been digitised. Even among these, most standards in use are not uniform, traceable or secure. This situation puts Europe's tangible and intangible cultural treasures at risk.
This cloud project will act as a lever for small and remote museums to tap into EU funding for going digital, by bringing together well developed, but often isolated solutions into a genuine network. It will link new technologies and tools to existing data spaces at the EU and Member States’ levels.
€110 million for Horizon Europe calls until 2025
Following an impact assessment by 8 prominent experts, published in April 2022, the European Commission plans to launch several calls under Horizon Europe. These will be run in the framework of the actions for Cultural Heritage, Cultural and Creative Industries in 2023, 2024 and 2025. The total envisaged budget is € 110 million.