Safeguarding Cultural Heritage

Europe is an epicentre of rich and varied cultural heritage. This cultural heritage includes tangible assets such as movable objects (including paintings, sculptures, manuscripts) and immovable structures (such as settlement areas, architectural complexes, monuments, archaeological sites, landscapes, underwater ruins and cities) as well as intangible heritage that is manifested in oral traditions and expressions, performing arts, social practices, rituals and festive events, or traditional craftsmanship. Both tangible and intangible cultural heritage comprise not only works of great intrinsic value, but also items that acquired cultural significance with the passage of time from the point of view of history, art, archaeology, or science, to name a few.

Europe’s cultural heritage is increasingly facing a number of challenges, as a consequence of deterioration caused by natural disasters, man-made actions, climate change or pollution and,  lack of public understanding and appreciation. The safeguard of Europe’s cultural heritage for future generations is an urgent public policy goal to which research and innovation activities can make a strong contribution through different measures, including the identification, documentation, preservation, protection, promotion, enhancement or transmission of the various aspects of such invaluable legacy.

The aim of this collection is to bring diverse research together and shed light on the myriad ways in which universities, scientific communities and industry at European, national, regional and local levels are working to safeguard Europe’s cultural heritage with the support of Horizon programmes. The collection aims to encourage dialogue around protection methods and promote awareness about cultural heritage, allowing for those invested in safeguarding Europe’s cultural heritage to share expertise and knowledge.

Potential topics include but are not limited to:

• Safeguarding cultural heritage
• Preservation and conservation of cultural heritage
• Archaeological heritage
• Landscape Heritage
• Urban Heritage
• Architectural heritage
• Movable heritage
• Intangible cultural heritage
• Interpretation of cultural heritage
• Inclusive cultural heritage
• Novel methodologies for monitoring
• Digital technologies for cultural heritage
• Digitisation of cultural heritage
• Climate change and cultural heritage
• Sustainable development of cultural heritage
• Political economy of cultural heritage
• Resilient and viable cultural heritage
• Infrastructures for presenting cultural heritage

Collection advisors: Estefanía López Salas (Universidade da Coruña, Spain), Bojana Bojanic Obad-Scitaroci (University of Zagreb, Croatia)