DATA SPACE FOR CULTURAL HERITAGE

The common European Data Space for Cultural Heritage is the new flagship initiative of the European Commission to accelerate the digital transformation of Europe’s cultural sector, and foster the creation and reuse of content in the cultural and creative sectors. The project builds on and expands the existing functionalities and services of the Europeana DSI Digital Service Infrastructure. The new service is provided by a consortium of 19 partners, coordinated by the Europeana Foundation.

Work to deploy the common Europeana data space for cultural heritage is led by the Europeana Foundation in collaboration with a consortium of 18 partners from nine EU countries. The work of the consortium is supported by the Europeana Network Association (ENA), a strong and democratic community of 3,500+ experts working in the field of digital heritage, and the Europeana Aggregators’ Forum (EAF), the network of national, domain and thematic aggregators who support cultural institutions providing data. The data space is overseen by the Member States in the framework of the Commission Expert Group on the common European data space for cultural heritage (CEDCHE).

The data space for cultural heritage builds on the Europeana Digital Service Infrastructure (Europeana DSI) and the Europeana Strategy 2020-2025. It will link to relevant European, national and regional initiatives and platforms, providing interoperable access to cultural heritage data.

Four strands of work

Deployment and maintenance of the common European data space for cultural heritage is split into four work packages:

• Development and operation of the data space infrastructure: this work package aims to provide a reliable data space infrastructure and quality of service, as well as foster innovation, interoperability and compliance with other data spaces.
• Integration of high-quality data: this work package aims to contribute to a significant and sustained increase in high-quality, usable and accessible data in the data space.
• Capacity building and fostering reuse: this work package aims to strengthen the capacity and capabilities of professionals and reuse communities working with digital cultural heritage.
• Digital services for the public: this work package aims to engage audiences with digital cultural heritage by expanding pan-European themes and perspectives, inspiring use, reuse, and participation.

The deployment of the common European data space for cultural heritage is funded under the Digital Europe Programme (DIGITAL) of the European Union.

The data space will initially run for two years and is led by Europeana Foundation from the Netherlands.

PHOTOCONSORTIUM, in its role of the expert hub for photography, is again involved in the project to:

• prosecute the action for publication of high quality content datasets in Europeana website
• deploy actions for capacity building, fostering content reuse in editorials and in an educational context
• participate to capacity building and awareness raising about collecting, maintaining, and increasing discoverability of content in the context of the Data Space.