This project has received funding from the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme for research, technological development and demonstration under grant agreement no 612789

SECOND POLICY SEMINAR

NEW HORIZONS FOR CULTURAL HERITAGE – Recalibrating relationships: bringing cultural heritage and people together in a changing Europe

DATE: 23 May 2016

LOCATION: Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage (KIK-IRPA), Parc du Cinquantenaire 1, Brussels, Belgium

The scope of the seminar was to discuss how the RICHES project can provide insights to support evidence-based policymaking in Europe.

The seminar included political updates by representatives from the European Commission, the presentation of policy recommendations from the RICHES project and a Round Table discussion involving major stakeholders.

The programme offered to participants (more than 70 coming from all over Europe) the opportunity to challenge institutional points of view with some practical results of the research conducted by RICHES, with particular regard to the following themes:

Community-led developments: food and cultural heritage in the urban age – the role of local food movements.

Economics of culture: fiscal and economic issues in the digital age.

The use of craft skills in new contexts.

Institutional changes: exploring the status of digital heritage mediated by memory institutions.

European identity, belonging and the role for digital cultural heritage: structures for social and territorial cohesion and minority communities.

Two overarching themes (Citizenship and Safeguarding of CH) have been selected and discussed among the participants in world café style discussion groups with the aim of providing ‘joined-up’ policy recommendations to be used in the definition of the H2020 work programme for 2018-2020.

The seminar started with a pre-event consisting in a networking session of EC Projects, a follow up to the first such session, organised on the occasion of the first Policy Seminar in October 2015. The scope of this session was to reflect on how to sustain the organisation of these appointments in the future, after the end of the RICHES project. They represent a good opportunity to reflect on the impact that cultural heritage projects are delivering, identify opportunities to improve the effectiveness of their results, and identify synergies and the potential for collaboration among projects. More than 20 projects participated in this networking session.