What is the Cultural Heritage Cloud?
The Cultural Heritage Cloud – or “European Collaborative Cloud for Cultural Heritage” (ECCCH) – is a European Union initiative for the creation of 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.
The goal is to help cultural heritage institutions, research organisations and other professionals of all sizes and types of 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 aims 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.
This exciting new initiative, funded under 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.
Cultural Heritage Cloud projects and funding opportunities
Several projects are currently working to build the Cloud.
ECCCH call 2023
One project is preparing the main Cloud infrastructure:
- ECHOES - European Cloud for Heritage OpEn Science
Three projects are developing projects that will provide tools for the Cloud users:
- AUTOMATA - AUTOMated enriched digitisation of Archaeological liThics and cerAmics
- TEXTaiLES - TEXTile digitisAtIon tooLs and mEthodS for cultural heritage
- HERITALISE - Heritage buildings and objects' digitisation & visualisation within the cloud
ECCCH call 2024
The ECCCH call 2024 about creating innovative tools is closed and the selection process for projects is currently ongoing.
ECCCH call 2025
A new ECCCH call - HORIZON-CL2-2025-01-HERITAGE-03 - A European Collaborative Cloud for Cultural Heritage-Innovative use cases - is currently open to select more projects.
Structure of calls and foreseen budget
The Cloud is being developed across three Work Programmes:
- Call under WP2023
Desing and implementation of the basic architecture, data model and governance, including steering and coordination entity for all implementation actions.
Foreseen budget: 25+10 M€ - Call under WP2024
Research and develop basic tools and functionality that make the platform attractive, useful and user friendly.
Foreseen budget: 48 M€ - Call under WP2025
Develop and test real-world use cases of the platform together with stakeholders: pilot, test, improve and integrate.
Foreseen budget: 26 M€
All ECCCH calls 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 the calls, the collaborative space will be referred to as the “European Collaborative Cloud for Cultural Heritage” (ECCCH).
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. RTD-CULTURAL-HERITAGE-CLOUD
ec [dot] europa [dot] eu (Send us your story).
Key events and milestones related to the ECCCH initiative
This cutting-edge platform will work in tandem with other European initiatives, such as the common European dataspace for cultural heritage and the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC), to add a new dimension to 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 realize its potential.
- 2025
May 2025
- Launch of the third and last call about Use cases, Cluster 2 Work Programme
Budget available € 26 million - Info day 2025
September 2025
Deadline for applicants to submit a proposal for the last call about Innovative Use cases
- Launch of the third and last call about Use cases, Cluster 2 Work Programme
- 2024
April 2024
Publication of the second call about Innovative Tools, Cluster 2 Work Programme 2023-2025
Budget available € 48 millionMay 2024
Grant agreement signature for successful projects from the first call: Echoes, Automata, Heritalise, Textailes
June 2024
- Launch of the second call about Innovative Tools
Budget available € 48 million - Info day 2024
- Launch of the second call about Innovative Tools
- 2023
January 2023
Launch of the first calls, Cluster 2 Work Programme 2023 – 2024
Budget available € 35 millionMarch 2023
- A Cloud for All kick off 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 the European Commission regularly and are now part of the Cultural Heritage Cloud community.
Watch the replay - Collaborative Cloud Info Days
September 2023
Deadline for applicants to submit proposals for the first call.
44 proposals were submitted by the deadline of the call for proposals. - A Cloud for All kick off 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 the European Commission regularly and are now part of the Cultural Heritage Cloud community.
- 2022
March 2022
A 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 and publishing an ex-ante impact assessment:
Report on the European Collaborative Cloud on Cultural HeritageJune 2022
Commission joins forces with Member States to launch a Collaborative Cloud for Europe's cultural heritage: the Commission launched a dialogue with Member States on the joint creation of a Collaborative Cloud for Cultural Heritage to help safeguard European cultural treasures through a digital infrastructure.
September 2022
The first session dedicated to the Cultural Heritage Cloud took place following the Research and Innovation Days 2022.
December 2022
Publication of the European Commission Stakeholders’ survey on a European collaborative cloud for cultural heritage Report on the online survey results focusing on needs and challenges.
Good practices from Horizon projects
Are you interested in learning how the Cultural Heritage Cloud could benefit cultural heritage institutions and museums?
This video playlist will equip you with valuable insights and good practices from Horizon projects that have developed similar tools with the Cultural Heritage Cloud and demonstrated practical results.
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.
Documents
Exploring the nexus between the cultural heritage cloud, the common European data space for cultural heritage, and the European open science cloud.
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.
