Call: European cultural heritage, access and analysis for a richer interpretation of the past

1. Excellent Science
2. Industrial Leadership
3. Societal Challenges

Reducing inequalities and social exclusion in Europe, overcoming the economic and financial crisis and tackling unemployment are crucial challenges for the future of Europe. At the same time, there is great potential for Europe through opportunities provided, for example, by new forms of innovation and by the engagement of citizens. Supporting inclusive, innovative and reflective societies is a prerequisite for a sustainable European integration.

The emergence of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS), and therefore of a multipolar world, the ageing of the EU population and the need for more innovation call for a renewed understanding of this rapidly changing world. This understanding is supported by strong multidisciplinary approaches, including social sciences and humanities and information and communication technologies. European and national policies need to continue modernisation while acknowledging the socio-economic and cultural diversity in Europe, and improved knowledge about how our modern societies work.

EU research and innovation will address social exclusion, discriminations and various forms of inequalities. It will explore new forms of innovation and strengthen the evidence base for the Innovation Union, the European Research Area and other relevant EU policies. It will promote coherent and effective cooperation with third countries. Finally, it will address the issues of memories, identities, tolerance and cultural heritage.

The approach adopted in the present calls is in line with the Horizon 2020 Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) cross-cutting issue, engaging multiple actors including society, integrating the gender and ethical dimensions, ensuring the access to research outcomes. Some Topics deal specifically with formal and informal (science) education.

Research in the humanities and social sciences is well-placed for making important contributions to creating a new narrative for Europe by studying the drivers of and obstacles to the emergence of a European public sphere and a European cultural space. The role that technology can play in promoting a better understanding of the richness of Europe’s heritage and diversity equally deserves further exploration as well as solutions-driven options. A thorough and continuous reflection of Europe's cultural and social diversity and its past facilitates tackling societal challenges that European societies face today and will face tomorrow due to endogenous as well as external factors.

Proposals are invited against the following topic(s):

• Democratic discourses and the rule of law
• Improving mutual understanding among Europeans by working through troubled pasts
• Cultural literacy of young generations in Europe
• Contemporary histories of Europe in artistic and creative practices
• Religious diversity in Europe - past, present and future
• Participatory approaches and social innovation in culture
• Cultural heritage of European coastal and maritime regions
• Virtual museums and social platform on European digital heritage, memory, identity and cultural interaction.
• European cultural heritage, access and analysis for a richer interpretation of the past.
• Culture, integration and European public space
• Understanding the transformation of European public administrations

Collections in archives, museums, and at cultural heritage sites contain a wealth of digital texts, images, audio-visual content and 3D representations of objects or scenes as well as other information such as multispectral or thermal imaging revealing the actual state of conservation, which are largely inaccessible to both computers and humans. In addition, human beings as members of their societies can be regarded as natural archives entail information about the complex semantic and conceptual knowledge organizing a society in its cultural settings and stored in non-verbal practices and rites as well as in language.

New technologies can be a valuable instrument to process large amounts of data in order to identify new correlations and interpretations and extract new meaning from our cultural and intellectual heritage. To close, or at least narrow, the "semantic gap" would present a major step forward in digital humanities and other sciences related to European heritage, memory, identity and cultural interaction. In order to better understand and inform the present by richer interpretations of the past, actions should create affordable and efficient digital access, documentary methods analysis and preservation services for cultural resources. This should be achieved by tackling issues such as automatic contextualisation and identification of content and by developing analytical tools.

At least three legal entities. Each of the three must be established in a different EU Member State or Horizon 2020 associated country. All three legal entities must be independent of each other. 

The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of between 2 and 3 million € would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. This does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.

EU funding rate: 100%.

Electronic application here. 

Link to the National Contact Point Finder.