Promoting Inclusive Innovation in Digital Technologies for Heritage Preservation

Policy frameworks to support cultural heritage, foster innovation, and promote digital inclusion abound in the European heritage and innovation context. Ensuring collaboration between technological firms, research institutes, universities, and cultural sectors and creating services for cultural heritage preservation are among the desired outcomes of such policies. However, supporting cultural heritage through innovation also stems from the need to enhance digital inclusion and literacy in the cultural heritage and creative sectors, addressing skills gaps, fostering innovation, and promoting inclusivity through interdisciplinary education, digital transformation, common infrastructures, and accessibility. Building upon these needs, this policy brief suggests potential policy actions to bridge expertise gaps, build capacity, and promote inclusion to enhance the cultural heritage sector. The cluster, bringing together the MEMENTOES, MEMORISE, MuseIT, PREMIERE, and SHIFT projects (still ongoing) supported by the EU under the call HORIZON-CL2-2021-HERITAGE-01-04— Preserving and enhancing cultural heritage with advanced digital technologies, aims to promote extensive digitisation of cultural heritage, including “born digital” heritage, to ensure its sustainable preservation, restoration, and wide accessibility.