The EUROMED 2012 conference delegates gathered in Limassol Cyprus on November 3, 2012, unanimously have pleaded that cultural heritage research and innovation in all its aspects should be explicitly included in HORIZON 2020.
EU Research to sustain our cultural heritage is highly appreciated within Europe and far beyond. The new framework programme for research and innovation HORIZON 2020, currently under approval by the European Union, should have a significant impact on the future of this field of research and innovation.
- Although the research in cultural heritage has developed significantly over the years, further research and innovation are absolutely needed to respond to the grand challenges of our time.
- Cultural Heritage research in HORIZON 2020 will increasingly have to address and integrate a wide range of digital, intangible and tangible aspects. In particular, research on tangible heritage will also have to focus on societal challenges and technological developments as well as the impacts of climate and environmental changes, resource and energy efficiency, adaptation and upgrading of heritage resilience.
- Easier and open access to results, knowledge resources and data of scientific activities, from EU and Member States, by end-users and stakeholders will enable better exploitation of results from research to enhance growth and job creation. To achieve this in the future, action has to be taken from the start of HORIZON 2020, in order to gather results of projects in an interdisciplinary consistent, standardised and computer intelligent manner through strong EU coordination and financial support.
- A new scheme for additional funding should be established, via a simplified evaluation procedure during the final phase of the projects, in order to valorize the most promising EU projects. This would enable full exploitation of the innovation and economic potential of their research development.
- Without sustained and appropriate funding, all the investments made in the past and possibly in the future will be completely wasted. This conference has offered an ideal opportunity to enhance interlinking the different fields of cultural heritage and to foster synergies and mutual benefits being expected from this interdisciplinary approach.
- The protection of cultural heritage has to be integrated with the development of the tourism industry, with special emphasis on cultural tourism as well as the development of creative and multimedia industry revealing cultural contents, semantics and values.
- Documentation, protection, preservation and presentation of cultural heritage have to be recognized as a vital strategy for a sustainable and creative Europe. This will promote multicultural, multilingual and multilateral education, lifelong learning and enabling social policies to enhance cohesion and economic growth.
The international dimension of the conference underlines the need to strengthen international cooperation to safeguard the world’s cultural heritage.
All delegates of the EUROMED 2012 conference call the European Institutions to mainstream their decision and action towards an integrated environment of research, education and policies concerning cultural heritage in Europe and towards maintaining its leading role in the world.
