The common European data space for cultural heritage is a flagship initiative of the European Commission to accelerate the digital transformation of Europe’s cultural sector and a key initiative in the EU’s Culture Compass. It is deployed by a consortium of 18 partners from nine EU countries, coordinated by the Europeana Foundation. The work of the consortium is supported by the Europeana Network Association (ENA), a strong and democratic community of 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 is guided by the common European data space for cultural heritage Strategy 2025-2030.
Project goals
- Provide a robust, interoperable data space infrastructure while increasing the diversity and quality of data.
- Facilitate access to cultural heritage data and enable its reuse across sectors.
- Support the digital transformation of the cultural heritage sector through capacity building, networking and innovation.
Project partners
- Europeana Foundation, The Netherlands
- AIT Angewandte Informationstechnik Forschungsgesellschaft mbH (AIT-Graz) - Austria
- AIT Austrian Institute of Technology GmbH (AIT-Vienna) - Austria
- Archives Portal Europe Foundation (APEF) - The Netherlands
- Capgemini Nederland BV (CAPG) - The Netherlands
- Connecting Archaeology and Architecture in Europe (CARARE) - Ireland
- Digital Research Infrastructure for the Arts and Humanities (DARIAH) - France
- Datoptron P.C (DATO) - Greece
- Deutsches Filminstitut & Filmmuseum e.V (DFF) - Germany
- European Fashion Heritage Association (EFHA) - Italy
- EUN Partnership AISBL (EUN) - Belgium
- Euroclio European Association of History Educators (EuroClio) - The Netherlands
- Facts & Files Digital Services GmbH (F&F) - Germany
- Inception s.r.l (INCEPTION) - Italy
- Michael Culture AISBL (MCA) - Belgium
- Stichting Nederlands Instituut voor Beeld en Geluid (NISV) - The Netherlands
- International Consortium for Photographic Heritage Photoconsortium (Photocons) - Italy
- Instytut Chemii Bioorganicznej Polskiej Akademii Nauk - Poznańskie Centrum (PSNC) - Poland
- Time Machine Organisation (TMO) - Austria
Funding information
| Funding stream | The Digital Europe Programme (DIGITAL) (opens in new window) |
| Contract number | LC-01901432 |
| Funders | |
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Key project impact
| Cultural heritage items providing open and democratised access to cultural heritage data across Europe | 61,000,000 |
| Uptime of reliable infrastructure and good quality services | 99% |
| Network members engaged in diverse communities to foster innovation, data reuse and digital transformation | 5,500 |
| API requests per month, enabling data flows that support reuse, value creation, and innovation | 25,000,000 |
| Satisfaction rate with data space products and services | 75% + |
| Impressions on social media, demonstrating outreach to and engagement of audiences | 480,000,000 |
| Annual visits to Europeana.eu, establishing it as the leading space for data in the cultural heritage sector | 5,000,000 |