EU drives digitization of cultural heritage

The EU Commission and the EU member states want to significantly accelerate the digitization of Europe’s cultural heritage. According to the Commission, around 30 to 50 percent of cultural heritage has been digitized to date.

Digitization and delivery via cloud

Toward the end of last year, the EU Commission initiated a comprehensive digitization project. As part of the project, Europe’s cultural heritage is not only to be digitized, but also stored in a cloud and thus made available regardless of location. The main aim is to enable more comprehensive research into cultural heritage. In addition, there will be better availability for the interested public, which is to be achieved through better networking of experts from different fields. Mariya Gabriel, the responsible EU Commissioner, summarized the goal as follows: “This European initiative will facilitate collaboration between researchers, curators and museum professionals to protect our cultural heritage, provide easy access to cultural content and enable future generations to enjoy it. It will also provide new opportunities for smaller museums and cultural institutions to advance digitization and work on collaborative projects in a secure and highly professional working environment.”

The starting point for these efforts is the insufficient digitization of the relevant artifacts to date. In addition, the EU Commission criticized the form of digitization to date: “[T]he standards used today [are] predominantly not uniform, traceable or secure. This endangers Europe’s tangible and intangible cultural assets.”

From the funds of the Horizon Europe research program, the digitization project is to receive 110 million euros by 2025. Next year or the year after, the preliminary work of setting up the cloud infrastructure is to begin. The EU Commission will then call for proposals in this regard.

Council of experts comments on the project

To evaluate the project and explore its possibilities and problems, the EU has appointed a council of experts, which has now spoken out with an impact assessment. In addition to a comprehensive presentation of the status quo, the report contains a number of proposals for the implementation of the project. The experts have also commented on issues such as access to or sustainability of the project.