On November 18, 2024, iPhotoCult participated at the introductory online meeting of the Green Cluster on Cultural Heritage. The overall goal is to support transdisciplinary joint efforts of researchers to develop sustainable preservation and adaptation plans, and to bring community involvement and inclusiveness to the forefront of large collaborative research projects funded by the EU. The long-term outcome will be the creation of a sustainable cultural heritage research ecosystem.

This event was organized by the REA European Research Executive Agency, established by the European Commission and included the EU projects ARGUS, ChemiNova and NERITES under the same Horizon Europe HORIZON-CL2-2023-HERITAGE-01-01 call for ‘’Advanced technologies for remote monitoring of heritage monuments and artefacts’’.

At the online meeting, an overview of the Commission’s policy priorities was presented as well as detailed descriptions by each project coordinator concerning the projects concept ideas, proposed solutions and specific challenges.

iPhotoCult pointed out the vision of ‘’diagnostic tools and technologies in the service of the future of our past’’ to preserve and access all cultural heritage items and information across time and space. Specifically, it was underlined that Cultural Heritage items are distributed and diverse and that within the current multi-crisis environment, a holistic strategy for their protection and conservation requires complete data. Therefore, effective and concerted strategies of Cultural Heritage preservation, research and training are needed in FP10.

During the open discussion focusing on future goals and collaborative actions, iPhotoCult highlighted its contribution to the sustainable management of Europe’s Cultural Heritage by offering (a) advanced safe and non-invasive photonics tools and technologies and (b) intelligent data processing, visualization and prediction software services platform capable of proximal and/or remote monitoring and diagnosis, so as to ensure efficient adaptation of sustainable management plans and establish effective conservation strategies.