Digital meets Culture

14 May 2025, online and in Brussels

Preserving Digital Foundations with eArchiving – shaping Europe’s digital future

Creative Commons Zero (CC0) licenses bysolotravel_photalkgraphy on Unsplash

Organized by eArchiving Initiative funded under DIGITAL, this year’s event will focus on two main topics, namely database preservation and the EUDI electronic archiving trust service.

The morning session of this event will consider the state of the art in database preservation. Database preservation involves a series of practices and strategies to ensure that data remains usable and intact over time despite technological changes and potential data degradation. There will be presentations to explore this topic from members of the DILCIS Board who maintain SIARD specification (Software Independent Archiving of Relational Databases) and from members of the Database Archiving Working Group. These will be complemented by presentations of use cases.

The afternoon session will focus on the new trust service in the EUDI based on the eIDAS: the electronic archiving trust service. The EUDI Regulation aims to ensure the proper functioning of the internal market and the provision of trust services used across the European Union. Different stakeholders will present their views on the impact of this new trust service. The event will conclude with a reflection on how the eArchiving Initiative has incorporated the outcomes of the 2024 Brussels event and the plans for the coming year.

The event is open to anyone and is free of charge. Register and get more info at this link.

Climate change, the influence on cultural heritage and its impact

“Innovation through Heritage: Resilience in Times of Climate Change” Conference dealing with relevant topics for EUreka3D-XR

With EUreka3D-XR keeping up the work of EUreka3D and embracing its values, the awareness on climate change and its impact on the Cultural Heritage sector is still in the project’s priorities.

As an important event to follow closely about this matter, “Innovation through Heritage: Resilience in Times of Climate Change” International Conference will explore how national and European research and funding policies can unite to make cultural heritage resilient in the face of climate change.

Organized by the Alliance for Research on Cultural Heritage in Europe (ARCHE) and hosted by Time Machine Organization, the conference will discuss various relevant themes that the EUreka3D-XR pays close attention to, about the impact of climate change on the environment and how the cultural heritage sector is addressing its challenges.

Read more about the Conference at this link.

3-5 March (13:00 -12:00 CET), online and Former Austrian Länderbank and Museum of Applied Art in Vienna

ARCHE Conference “Innovation through Heritage: Resilience in Times of Climate Change”

In a rapidly evolving world where technological advancements and environmental challenges continually reshape society, preserving and leveraging cultural heritage as a resource for research, societal benefit, and economic growth is more vital than ever.

The Alliance for Research on Cultural Heritage in Europe (ARCHE) invites you to join the “Innovation through Heritage: Resilience in Times of Climate Change” International Conference, hosted by the Time Machine Organisation (TMO), where it’ll be possible explore how national and European research and funding policies can unite to make cultural heritage resilient in the face of climate change. This event marks a significant step forward as the ARCHE consortium works toward establishing a European Partnership Framework — a masterplan enabling Member States and the European Commission to jointly support innovative initiatives aimed at strengthening cultural heritage resilience.

“Innovation through Heritage” brings together policymakers, thought leaders, innovators, and stakeholders from across Europe to shape the future of cultural heritage. With a focus on critical themes such as digitization, technology, climate adaptation, and resilience, this conference provides a unique platform to collaborate and define a sustainable roadmap for cultural heritage research and innovation, shaping its transformative potential for 2040 and beyond.

Read more at this link.

Pisa and online, 27 February 2025

EUreka3D-XR kick-off meeting and public workshop

EUreka3D-XR – European Union’s REKonstructed content in 3D to produce XR experiences is the continuation project of EUreka3D, funded by the Digital Europe Programme of the European Union, to develop innovative re-use scenarios and tools that enable the creation of extended reality (XR) applications, through expanding the features and services already developed and tested in the EUreka3D project. EUreka3D-XR kickoff event will take place on 26-27 February 2025 at Museo della Grafica, Pisa (Italy), hosted by project coordinator Photoconsortium. The first day is fully dedicated to project partners and the HaDEA officers, to review the workplan and set the next milestones and activities to be achieved in the first months of the project.

On the second day, 27th February, a public workshop in hybrid format will present the project and in particular the three use cases that make use of the project’s tool to create XR experiences in France, Spain and Cyprus. The main research area of the new action in EUreka3D-XR is in facts focused on transforming cultural contents such 2D, 3D, video, texts, maps, stories into compelling narratives and extended reality scenarios, and to deliver said scenarios to the common European data space for cultural heritage, to enrich the corpus of open access digital cultural contents online and to inspire others in experimenting new technologies.

Recordings of the workshop will be available after the event.

AGENDA 27th February 2025, h. 11,00 – 12,30 CET

11.00 Welcome message, by Alessandro Tosi, Director of Museo della Grafica

11.10 Introduction and scope of the workshop, by Antonella Fresa, Photoconsortium, EUreka3D-XR Project Coordinator

11.20 The virtual visualisation of the middle-ages walls of the city of Girona, by David Iglesias Franch, CRDI Ajuntament de Girona

11.40 The XR narrative of archaeological excavations in process in the Celtic city of Bibracte, by Vincent Guichard, BIBRACTE EPCC

12.00 The creation of a new life of Saint Neophytos Englystra in Cyprus in the virtual space, by Marinos Ioannides, Cyprus University of Technology

12.20 Q&A

12.30 End of the meeting

Invito Pisa (PDF 600 KB)

From 13th to 14th May, online

Digital Storytelling Festival 2025- an event by Europeana

The Digital Storytelling Festival is a yearly event, organized by Europeana. It aims to encourage cultural heritage professionals, educators, creatives, and students from Europe and beyond to boost their storytelling skills and tell stories exploring culture, hoping to inspire participants to create connections between art, culture and history and the contemporary world.

The event this year will take place on May 13 and 14. Be the first to register at this link.

The webinar will take place on February 26, from 3PM to 4PM

Online Creative Residency 2025 – Information Session by Europeana

The Online Creative Residency, as part of the Digital Storytelling Festival ran by Europeana, brings students and new professionals who want to gain storytelling skills in a professional setting together with experts. Working with these experts, residency participants develop stories with cultural heritage in different digital formats.

During the webinar last year’s Creative Online Residency will be showcased, and the application process for this year will be launched.

Get your tickets at this link.

Exhibition in Pescia (Italy), 8 Febrary to 2 June 2025

Ungaretti, Il Porto Sepolto 1923. Storia di un’edizione

img. EUreka3D project / Museo della Carta

The Museo della Carta in Pescia holds a rich heritage of paper goods consisting of watermarked paper moulds, watermark waxes, punches, watermarked metal sheets, about 7,000 pieces, witnessing the history of paper manufacturing in Tuscany.

One of the items digitized and shared to Europeana in the context of EUreka3D project is a paper mould produced in 1923. It features the watermark with a stylized anchor, flanked at the bottom by the letters “E” and “S”. These are the initials of Ettore Serra (1890-1980), poet, critic, antiquarian, multifaceted and cosmopolitan intellectual, and most of all founder of the publishing house Stamperia Apuana, which published the second and expanded edition of Giuseppe Ungaretti’s collection of poems Il Porto Sepolto printed on a high quality paper specially manufactured by the Magnani Paper Mill in Pescia, using the paper mould currently preserved at the Museo della Carta, and digitized in 3D for EUreka3D project.

The 3D digitization of this paper mould supported in the Museum additional research about the story of the object itself and of this publication of Il Porto Sepolto. As a direct outcome of this research, an exhibition and catalogue was derived, showcasing the original model, the various documents and stories that surrounded it and the book published by Ettore Serra, and of course the 3D model itself digited in the EUreka3D project. The exhibition Ungaretti, Il Porto Sepolto 1923. Storia di un’edizione opens on 8th February until 2 June 2025 and is part of a series of exhibitions dedicated to artworks, events and important figures in the local history of 1900.

Website: https://museodellacarta.org/en

This policy for persistent identifiers in the data space can guide cultural heritage institutions to ensure that resources are reliably identified and remain accessible online now and in the future.

A policy for PIDs in cultural collections by Europeana

In the digital transformation of the cultural heritage sector, the concept of Persistent Identifiers (PIDs) is becoming more known and used by heritage institutions to enrich their online collections and improving their discoverability, accessibility, interoperability and reusability over time and across different systems and throughout time.

With the scope of establishing a shared understanding and provide guidance that also set the basis for best practice adoption and identifiers management, the Europeana Initiative is introducing a policy for persistent identifiers in the data space. The policy was collaboratively developed by Europeana team and key partners of the data space project, particularly consulting aggregators and other initiatives that use PIDs in their workflow, such as EUreka3D and EUreka3D-XR projects where PIDs are automatically assigned to the 3D collections published in Europeana via the EUreka3D Data Hub infrastructure.

The policy contains 20 principles which provide a framework to assess the resilience and trustworthiness of persistent identifiers in the common data space for cultural heritage, also raising awareness about the importance of PIDs and support the adoption of identifiers by cultural heritage institutions. The next phase involves the assessment of current practices in CHIs to determine how they align with the policy’s principles, identifying barriers and exploring solutions to address their challenges in adopting PIDs.

Read more and access the Policy in this Europeana Blog

extended deadline 11/3/2025

Call for Proposals 2025 from Europeana

Europeana 2025 – Preserve, Protect, Reuse Conference will be held on 11-12 June 2025 during the Polish Presidency of the Council of the EU.

Some of the main themes are:

Technical innovations to support and enrich the cultural heritage data in the common European data space for cultural heritage
Sustainability
Use of AI and 3D to preserve and protect cultural heritage
Fostering of digital and media literacy by cultural herotage institutions

The deadline for paper submission is set on the 25th of February.

To apply, have additional information, and more visit this link.

11-12 June, POLIN Museum (Warsaw, Poland) and online

Europeana 2025 – Preserve, Protect, Reuse conference

Europeana 2025 – Preserve, Protect, Reuse will be held on 11-12 June 2025 during the Polish Presidency of the Council of the EU. The Conference is going to be hybrid and is organised in collaboration and partnership with the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage of Poland, the National Institute of Cultural Heritage and the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw, who will host the conference.

The conference will explore critical questions facing the digital heritage sector and society at large, and how the data space can contribute to addressing them. It will delve into the preservation, protection and reuse of digital cultural heritage, both within the data space and beyond.

The conference is for professionals, students and policymakers working in, with and around cultural heritage, and interested in exploring the work of the common European data space for cultural heritage. We want the conference programme to be diverse and inclusive, and co-curate it with and for our sector through an open call for proposals. On this page, you can find all the information you need to submit your proposal for an interactive and engaging talk, webinar, workshop, session or intervention to be held online or in person during Europeana 2025.

Learn more and register at this link.