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The Cultural Heritage Cloud

Whether you are looking to explore the capabilities of the Cloud, learn about its applications, stay up-to-date with the latest research, or share with the community, we have got you covered. 

What is the Cultural Heritage Cloud?

The Cultural Heritage Cloud is a European Union initiative for a digital infrastructure that will connect cultural heritage institutions and professionals across the EU. It will develop specific digital collaborative tools for the sector while removing barriers for smaller and remote institutions.

Our goal is to help cultural heritage institutions, research organisations and other professionals of all sizes and types work with their digital objects in a more visible, interconnected, harmonised, and informed way, allowing them to successfully cope with the challenges the digital transition poses to the sector.

The Cultural Heritage Cloud will aim to add a new digital dimension to cultural heritage preservation, conservation, restoration and enhancement by providing cutting-edge technologies for digitising artefacts and researching artworks,

Our exciting new initiative, funded by Horizon Europe, is paving the way for unprecedented transdisciplinary collaboration in the field of cultural heritage, bringing together specialists from a range of disciplines, including scholars, curators, archivists, and conservators.

Join the Cultural Heritage Cloud Community

Please fill out this form if you wish to be added to our community.

We want to hear from you. Connect with the community to share your experiences, insights, and ideas. Send your story to RTD-CULTURAL-HERITAGE-CLOUDatec [dot] europa [dot] eu (RTD-CULTURAL-HERITAGE-CLOUD[at]ec[dot]europa[dot]eu)

Working with other European initiatives and preparatory work

This cutting-edge platform will work in tandem with other European initiatives, such as Europeana and the Common European Dataspace for Cultural Heritage, to add a new dimension the way we approach, conserve and enhance our shared cultural heritage. We've already started building this ambitious project, but further investment is needed to fully realise its potential.

The European Commission launched this initiative at the request of the European Parliament and the Council of the EU, and we are proud to be a part of it.

Our team of independent renowned experts in the field of cultural heritage has laid the basis for the concept of this initiative by helping identify the existing needs in the field, with an ex-ante impact assessment: Report on the European Collaborative Cloud on Cultural Heritage

Mariya Gabriel, Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth, has launched a dialogue with EU countries on the joint creation of a Cultural Heritage Cloud to help safeguard European cultural treasures through a digital infrastructure.

Following the Research and Innovation Days session dedicated to the Cultural Heritage Cloud, the European Commission launched an online survey to collect detailed feedback among a broader number of stakeholders focusing on their needs and challenges.

The in-depth survey with over 1000 respondents added  a bottom-up approach to the Commission's initiative. Additionally, the recent A Cloud for All event with over 1000 participants was essential to the gradual building up of a community of practice to create ownership of the Cultural Heritage Cloud.

Following the event, more than 1200 cultural heritage experts signed up to work with us regularly, resulting in an increase in the number of experts who are now part of the Cultural Heritage Cloud community. This community will aim at working together with the Commission, EU countries, cultural heritage professionals, and their organisations to make the Cultural Heritage Cloud, its tools, and services a joint project.

Good practices from Horizon projects

The Cultural Heritage Cloud will speed up discoveries, facilitate understanding, enrich cultural experiences and promote access to Europe’s cultural treasures. It will also help unify the fragmented landscape of the cultural heritage research projects. This will be achieved by establishing a European infrastructure that facilitates the exchange of interoperable data between cultural heritage professionals and institutions.

The platform will provide a legally secure space where professionals can collaborate, create projects, and combine their research efforts to fully exploit the potential of Europe's rich cultural heritage.

Funding opportunities

The topics under the call HORIZON-CL2-2024-HERITAGE-ECCCH-01 aim to support the establishment of a European Collaborative platform for Cultural Heritage, by also contributing to the vision and objectives of the Commission on a common European data space for cultural heritage.

For the purpose of this call, the collaborative space will be referred to as the “European Collaborative Cloud for Cultural Heritage” (ECCCH)

Open and forthcoming calls for the Cultural Heritage Cloud

Documents

Publication cover
  • Factsheet
  • 9 August 2024
Shaping the future of cultural heritage

Exploring the nexus between the cultural heritage cloud, the common European data space for cultural heritage, and the European open science cloud.

Publication cover
  • Factsheet
  • 21 June 2022
Collaborative Cloud for Cultural Heritage

The European Collaborative Cloud for Cultural Heritage will be a one-of-a-kind framework that will enable unparalleled transdisciplinary and large-scale collaboration between cultural heritage professionals on shared topics.

Events