Our partners Europeana, CNRS (the French National Centre for Scientific Research), CNR (the National Research Council of Italy), FSP (Fondation des Sciences du Patrimoine) and further initiatives have answered a call by the European Commission to establish a European Collaborative Cloud for Cultural Heritage. The joint proposal is called European Cloud for Heritage OpEn Science (ECHOES).
ECHOES has launched a mapping of interest with the intention to learn more about which stakeholders might be interested in their activities. This list of interested stakeholders will fortify the project proposal as it may serve as proof of relevance.
Deadline to notify the project coordinators about your potential interest is 15 July. Please find further information on the project proposal and procedure to express your interest below.
The Time Machine Organisation has already submitted their expression of interest and we encourage our members to do so as well!
About the Call
The future European Collaborative Cloud for Cultural Heritage will be a digital workspace connecting heritage professionals and researchers across Europe, and will provide access to AI-based and other collaborative digital tools to support conservation and restoration processes.
The Call aims to establish the core infrastructure and the governance model for the Cloud. It will be funded under the EU’s Horizon Europe, with a total budget of 25 000 000 EUR and an expected duration of five years. The Call is open until 21 September 2023.
Proposed Project and Consortium
The Europeana Initiative is currently working with a number of European partners to respond to this Call with the ECHOES project proposal. The consortium is led by the CNRS and includes the CNR, the FSP and main infrastructures and heritage umbrella organisations such as ARIADNE-RI AISBL, CLARIN ERIC, DARIAH ERIC, NEMO, E-RIHS, JPI CH, and ARCHE. In addition, ECHOES will collaborate with other cultural heritage actors who will contribute to the project with their expertise and respective networks in the form of affiliated and associated partners.
If selected, ECHOES will set-up an open-source platform for heritage professionals to access tools to build a variety of specialised applications. Imagine an international group of researchers who are studying a large corpus of data composed of hundreds of objects from many different museums from all over Europe and beyond. Through the Cloud, they could have access to online tools and/ or develop applications that would facilitate their joint work: from exchanging datasets and data files, to accessing collaborative workspaces and workgroups, as well as having direct interaction possibilities, along with storing data under European jurisdiction.
Get involved!
Cultural heritage institutions who may be interested in benefiting from ECHOES proposed tools and services are invited to respond to a mapping of interest.
This mapping of interest is addressed to any institution working with tangible and intangible cultural heritage – from curation, restoration, conservation, research, management and education to heritage data management, visualisation, analysis, enrichment or preservation.
If you’d like to be involved, please send an email to the project proposal coordinators at the CNRS (the French National Centre for Scientific Research) by 15 July 2023, for the attention of:
- Xavier Rodier (Project Proposal Coordinator): xavier.rodier@univ-tours.fr
- Sarah Daoud (Project Management Officer): sarah.daoud@univ-tours.fr and
- Milena Popova (Programme Manager, Europeana Foundation): milena.popova@europeana.eu
The email should include a cover letter (no longer than one page) describing your institution (the type of structure, the team members etc.) as well as your work on cultural heritage. Your potential connection to the ECHOES project proposal, according to your specific skills, competences and interests, as well as your expectations towards this project proposal should be specified.
Please note that your personal data will not be disclosed and will remain confidential. The collected information will only be used in the context of ECHOES, with the sole purpose of contacting you when carrying out the project.