On October 23rd, the workshop European Partnership for Resilient Cultural Heritage: New Opportunities for International Cooperation was held in Madrid, as part of the ARCHE project (Alliance for Research on Cultural Heritage in Europe) funded by Horizon Europe, organised by the Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology (FECYT) and the Spanish State Agency for Research (AEI).
The event involved countries from North America, South America and Africa and aimed to highlight their national research and innovation panoramas in cultural heritage, while seeking opportunities for collaboration within the future European Partnership for Resilient Cultural Heritage.
The workshop presented ARCHE as a preparatory project for the future European Partnership for Resilient Cultural Heritage (RCH), as well as the SRIA (Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda), the roadmap that will guide the partnership's activities. The focus during the SRIA presentation was on the consultation, ended in November, which aimed to gather input from communities on research and innovation in cultural heritage and climate change, in order to produce a comprehensive document that harmonizes heritage research policies across the continent in the coming years.
The series of presentations was followed by two panels on national and regional policies and priorities for cultural heritage research and innovation, with representatives of institutions from Brazil, Mexico, South Africa, Egypt, the United States and Canada, and a session was dedicated to international cooperation in the Spanish cultural heritage research and innovation landscape.
This was followed by the ARCHE project consortium meetings, which focused on the progress made by the project in the last months, key moments in the near future and the next steps regarding the RCH Partnership. The meetings presented the ongoing work on SRIA, as well as the main elements of governance for the future Alliance, communication activities and the activities of the coming months, which include the next workshop in Rome (3 December 2024) and five more workshops in 2025. The project will conclude in September 2025 with a public event and a policy roundtable, which will refine the ARCHE policy recommendations.
During the sessions focused on the RCH Partnership, the team discussed the updated version of the proposal, submitted to the European Commission in October, as well as the next steps in terms of forming a consortium and drafting the response to the call (which will be published as part of the Horizon Europe 2025 work programme).
In addition to plenary discussions on ARCHE progress, partners had the opportunity to visit the National Archaeological Museum on a guided tour that highlighted the richness of Spain's cultural heritage.
The three days of the ARCHE workshop and consortium meetings were a time of celebration and reflection, as well as preparation for a very intense third and final year of the project, but one that will certainly prove very rewarding in terms of building and supporting the community around cultural heritage research and innovation.