Documentation and conservation of Underwater Cultural Heritage (UCH) is crucial to preserve humankind’s history and traditions, safeguarding tangible testimonies of past human life while ensuring its accessibility to present and future generations. TECTONIC project will promote an intersectoral collaboration between academic and non-academic professionals (such as technical experts, archaeologists, conservator, geologists, engineers, computer scientists) working in different topics related to the UCHs to respond and find solutions to the complex issues still existing in the field of UCH. The overall aim is the exchange of skills and expertise, the training activities for the implementation, improvement and assessment of innovative materials, techniques, tools and methodologies to develop solutions and marketable products for the conservation, restoration and management of the UCH (objects, artefacts, structures, remains etc.). To achieve its overall aim, TECTONIC project will undertake innovation and development activities driven by the following objectives: Study, documentation and 3D reconstruction of the selected pilot sites; Decision support tool for UCH risk assessment in a changing environment; Conservation studies, protocols and suitable procedures for preservation/conservation activities; Development of open and low-cost robotic solutions for the inspection, documentation and monitoring of UCH; Raising the public awareness and knowledge about the importance to preserve the underwater historical and archaeological heritage. All the objectives will be devoted to stimulate new ideas that would bring to the development of new marketable products by capitalizing on the research results that will be achieved in the project, creating a link between business, research and higher education.

iMARECULTURE is focusing in raising European identity awareness using maritime and underwater cultural interaction and exchange in Mediterranean sea. Commercial ship routes joining Europe with other cultures are vivid examples of cultural interaction, while shipwrecks and submerged sites, unreachable to wide public are excellent samples that can benefit from immersive technologies, augmented and virtual reality. iMARECULTURE will bring inherently unreachable underwater cultural heritage within digital reach of the wide public using virtual visits and immersive technologies. Apart from reusing existing 3D data of underwater shipwrecks and sites, with respect to ethics, rights and licensing, to provide a personalized dry visit to a museum visitor or augmented reality to the diver, it also emphasizes on developing pre- and after- encounter of the digital visitor. The former one is implemented exploiting geospatial enabled technologies for developing a serious game of sailing over ancient Mediterranean and the latter for an underwater shipwreck excavation game. Both games are realized thought social media, in order to facilitate information exchange among users. iMARECULTURE supports dry visits by providing immersive experience through VR Cave and 3D info kiosks on museums or through the web. Additionally aims to significantly enhance the experience of the diver, visitor or scholar, using underwater augmented reality in a tablet and an underwater housing. iMARECULTURE is composed by universities and SMEs with experience in diverse underwater projects, existing digital libraries, and people many of which are divers themselves.

StratiGraph (Knowledge Graphs for Stratigraphy) aims to transform archaeological and paleontological documentation by developing innovative open collaborative tools that integrate advanced knowledge graphs, artificial intelligence, and 3D field documentation techniques. The project's "Data-Ready" approach enables clean, structured data collection during fieldwork for seamless integration into knowledge graphs without additional curation burden. Key innovations include tools that function effectively in all conditions - a "works-everywhere" solution allowing technology use even where power and connectivity pose challenges. The project will validate these tools through diverse case studies including the Basilica Iulia in Rome, Sarmizegetusa Regia in Romania, St. John Lampadistis Monastery in Cyprus, the Colonia Iulia Ilici Augusta in Spain, the Kraków Spadzista Palaeolithic site, the Santa Olalla site in Spain, and the dataset from Cesarea in Israel. StratiGraph will deliver: -Knowledge graph infrastructure to organize stratigraphic and spatial data -AI-powered tools for creating and enriching annotated bibliographies -Advanced 3D documentation capabilities for recording stratigraphy -Variable connectivity protocols for real-time and seamless offline/online work -Comprehensive training modules and technical support resources The project emphasizes open science principles, with all tools being open-source and data FAIR-compliant. Through integration with the ECCCH, StratiGraph will establish new standards for digital documentation while fostering a skilled, collaborative research community across Europe. This will significantly reduce the time from discovery to publication while improving documentation accuracy and interpretation of our shared cultural heritage. By maintaining exclusive data control and ownership within EU-based institutions, the project supports Europe's strategic autonomy and long-term data governance objectives.

This research project focuses on creating digital applications that enable users to explore significant “places of music” across European regions and cities. The applications aim to provide an interwoven narrative, encompassing the musical event itself, its cultural and historical context, the location, and physical museum objects. This multi-layered storytelling approach will draw upon a diverse range of sources, including musical scores, instruments, chronicles, diaries, letters, philosophical treatises, and images. The project involves geographically mapping musical locations and creating engaging thematic itineraries based on places, people, themes, and historical periods, encompassing a wealth of tangible and intangible heritages. It will be implemented through case studies which will be further adaptable and extensible in the future. The project will focus on developing cutting-edge digital tools to enrich the visitor experience at these places of music through virtual and augmented reality experiences, multimedia accessible through different applications and tools integrated in the ECCCH. This includes a particular emphasis on reconstructing historical soundscapes, as well as the acoustic properties of spaces for musical performances, exploring the interplay between music and architecture, and harnessing the potential of virtual and augmented reality technologies. Furthermore, the project will create design and simulation tools, conduct analysis and evaluation of the impact of audio-visual communication in museums. To achieve these aims, the project will cater to a diverse audience, encompassing scholars, museum curators, the entire educational sector, creative cultural industries, citizens and tourists. All datasets, metadata, and interaction tools will be Open Source and implemented in accordance with the FAIR principles, aligning with the knowledge base and requirements of the ECCCH.

The Cultural Heritage (CH) sector, including institutions such as Galleries, Libraries, Museums and Archives (GLAMs), is facing an increasing pressure to digitise their collections in order to make them more accessible to the public. REEVALUATE project aims to address the challenges faced by the Cultural Heritage (CH) sector in digitising their collections, by developing a framework for safe, open, collaborative and inclusive digitisation of CH. The framework will provide a structured approach for managing digitisation efforts in a responsible and sustainable way, with a focus on addressing potential risks and barriers related to issues such as intellectual property rights, cultural sensitivity, and appropriate use of digital technologies. The framework is designed to be participatory, inclusive, and co-creative, which means that it involves the active participation of stakeholders such as cultural heritage institutions, experts, and diverse communities. This approach helps to ensure that the framework is tailored to the specific needs and contexts of the cultural heritage sector in Europe and that it is widely accepted and adopted by relevant stakeholders. REEVALUATE will validate the results in 3 different real-life use cases, demonstrating the framework's ability to manage the challenges associated with digitization of CH artefacts and their reuse within 1) the Fashion and Gaming industries, 2) the Advertising industry and 3) the Tourism industry. To achieve this, the project relies on a consortium of 16 partners from 7 countries, bringing together key actors of the European CH and Digitisation Sectors: CH technical and business stakeholders, multiple key communities from (Gaming, Fashion, Advertising and Tourism Sectors), key experts in Legal and SSH aspects to guarantee legal and societal compliance, and facilitators on CH community building and standardisation activities to accelerate the transfer to the market.