Call: Green technologies and materials for cultural heritage

Europe’s rich cultural heritage, with its common values, its wealth of monuments and sites and its creative diversity of traditions, crafts, arts, architecture, literature, languages, theatre, films and music, not only reflects our past but also shapes our present and builds our future. It is a creative way of cultivating independent thinking and dialogue, while promoting our interests across the world. Access to experience with cultural heritage contributes to social cohesion and inclusion, by strengthening resilience and the sense of belonging, bringing people together and improving well-being.

Europe’s common research and innovation (R&I) action to protect, conserve, restore and repair its important cultural heritage, promote its use as one of the substantial European resources, boost its traditional and contemporary arts and create wider awareness is still limited in scope and impact. Moreover, European tangible and intangible cultural heritage is increasingly facing a number of challenges such as deterioration due to climate change, pollution, natural or man-made disasters, looting and illicit trafficking, lack of finance or insufficient valorisation. In addition, Europe’s cultural production (in particular film and music) lags behind in international competitiveness despite its high quality and quantity.

European R&I[[In this context, innovation should be understood as any new creative idea, which can take the form of products, processes, services, technologies, organisational or business models that are made available to markets, governments and society.]] activities will make a strong contribution in all these areas by strengthening our common knowledge and expertise, as well as by providing solid evidence for policy-making. They will promote and valorise our cultural heritage and arts, while increasing their international competitiveness and firming the social fabric at European, national, regional or local level. Through a broad co-operation of a wide set of stakeholders and efficient coordination between EU Member States, R&I activities will be oriented towards interdisciplinary research and actively involve the cultural and creative industries (CCIs)[[CCIs defined as in the European Commission Green Paper ‘Unlocking the Potential of Cultural and Creative Industries’: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:52010DC0183&from=ENl]]. They will connect cultural heritage with the CCIs by supporting new forms of cultural and artistic expression that build on existing cultural assets and provide access to both tangible and intangible heritage. R&I will also promote the competitiveness of cultural and creative industries. It will provide evidence about their role as innovation drivers in the wider economy. In line with the Commission priorities, the R&I activities of this Destination will help promote the European way of life, contribute to achieving the Green Deal goals and support an economy that works for people. They will also contribute to the New European Bauhaus[[The New European Bauhaus initiative was launched by European Commission President von der Leyen in her State of the European Union speech autumn 2020. More information here:https://europa.eu/new-european-bauhaus/index_en]] initiative, to realising the UN Sustainable Development Goals and to building a stronger crisis-resilient society and economy by taking into account experiences, challenges and lessons learnt also from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Concretely, R&I activities under this Destination and its calls will support these policy objectives by monitoring, safeguarding and transmitting cultural heritage, fostering the CCIs and promoting cultural diversity. They will aim at protecting historical sites and monuments, artefacts, heritage sites, cultural landscapes, museums and other cultural institutions, languages, customs, traditions and values. Through new or existing cutting-edge conservation and restoration technologies and methods, they will help restore and preserve monuments and artefacts in a green way. They will advance the protection of cultural heritage from natural hazards and anthropogenic threats, including the looting and illicit trafficking of cultural goods. Research and innovation across the cultural and creative sectors will foster their inbuilt innovation potential and will promote transformation in many parts of the economy and social development across Europe. Through new approaches, R&I will offer innovative, integrated, sustainable and participative management and business models for museums and other cultural institutions, with a view to spur inclusive growth, jobs, social cohesion and diversity. It will also contribute to develop a sustainable and quality-driven intervention on built environment in line with the New European Bauhaus initiative. Research in old and new forms of cultural and artistic expression will promote intercultural cooperation, while engaging citizens and young people. It will valorise traditional skills and the reuse of existing assets. Exploring the economic role of CCIs and investigating the impact of creative and artistic intervention into innovation processes will provide capacities to boost Europe’s competitiveness. European cultural heritage, arts and creativity can be harnessed to further develop the design and identity of products, and to shape the public image of our countries and regions. Cultural and intellectual experiences can be marketed at a premium: CCIs are at the frontline of this action, by investing in knowledge and creativity. Furthermore, the use of existing and the development of new digital methodologies will offer innovative approaches to share and increase access to and engagement with cultural heritage. Altogether, these actions will enable real cooperation and participation of a wide range of communities, including stakeholders, citizens and industry.

Through all these activities, research and innovation will underpin the European Union’s leading role in protecting, preserving and enhancing Europe’s cultural heritage and scale-up the competitiveness of its cultural and creative industries.

Proposals under this destination should consider and promote in a cross-cutting way, and whenever appropriate and applicable:

• The use of digital and cutting-edge technologies;
• An active and sustainable engagement with stakeholders, social innovators and citizens;
• The active involvement of local, regional or national authorities and sectoral social partners, particularly in the uptake and implementation of research results and recommendations;
• A clear strategy for the uptake of research outcomes, recommendations or results, in particular where CCIs are participating or are concerned;
• Training and education activities for targeted groups of users and/or stakeholders;
• A robust plan for how projects will use or build on outputs and results from research already undertaken and technology already available;
• Increased participation of CCIs, SMEs and industry;
• Lessons learnt from the COVID-19 crisis in view of a sustainable management of the post-crisis society;
• Contribution to the European Green Deal, the New European Bauhaus as well as the Sustainable Development Goals.

Expected impacts:

Proposals for topics under this Destination should set out a credible pathway to contributing to the following expected impact of the Horizon Europe Strategic Plan:

The full potential of cultural heritage, arts and cultural and creative sectors as a driver of sustainable innovation and a European sense of belonging is realised through a continuous engagement with society, citizens and economic sectors as well as through better protection, restoration and promotion of cultural heritage.