ECHOES (European Cloud for Heritage OpEn Science) will establish the infrastructure and legal entity for the European Collaborative Cloud for Cultural Heritage (ECCCH)—a collaborative workspace for heritage professionals to access data, tools and services to advance heritage science.
ECHOES promotes a holistic, co-creative approach to digital transformation by fostering the emergence of Digital Commons—open, participatory environments where humans and AI can collectively analyse, interpret and enrich cultural heritage. Rooted in Open Access and Open Science, this model encourages inclusive knowledge-sharing and cooperative innovation.
With transparent governance and strong alignment with European and national initiatives, ECHOES will enable seamless integration and collaboration across projects, advancing digital heritage research and practice across Europe, including with the common European data space for cultural heritage as the main entry point for accessing and reusing heritage data by educators, creatives, citizens and other data spaces. While distinct, the two initiatives complement each other, especially in terms of data-sharing, tools and services and capacity building.
Project goals
- Build an open-source infrastructure that enables the creation of practical applications, driven by the needs of cultural heritage communities for both tangible and intangible cultural heritage.
- Deliver a sustainable and inclusive legal entity that handles the development, deployment and maintenance of the ECCCH platform
- Build a community of cultural heritage stakeholders through networking and capacity-building activities.
- Integrate the results of past, current and future ECCCH-related projects relating to data, services, digital processes and applications.
- Enable and foster innovative, collaborative co-creation of new knowledge around Digital Commons.
“ECHOES is advancing how we access, share and reuse digital cultural heritage across Europe by laying the groundwork for the Cultural Heritage Cloud. Europeana is a key partner, contributing its established expertise, infrastructure and network to ensure cultural heritage remains open, accessible and ethically shared.”
Project partners
- Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), France - Co-ordinator
- Université de Tours, France
- CY Cergy Paris Université, France
- Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Italy
- Fondazione Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Italy
- Centro di Ricerca, Sviluppo e Studi Superiori in Sardegna Società a Responsabilità Limitata, Italy
- Fondation des Sciences du Patrimoine, France
- Institut National du Patrimoine, France
- Europeana Foundation, The Netherlands
- Vereniging Europeana Network, The Netherlands
- Instytut Chemii Bioorganicznej Polskiej Akademii Nauk, Poland
- Idryma Technologias kai Ereunas, Greece
- Fraunhofer Gesellschaft zur Förderung der Angewandten Forschung e.V., Germany
- Koninklijk Instituut voor het Kunstpatrimonium, Belgium
- The Cyprus Institute, Cyprus
- Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Spain
- Helsingin Yliopisto, Finland
- Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, Austria
- Media Solution Center Baden-Württemberg e.V., Germany
- Stichting Nederlands Instituut voor Beeld en Geluid, The Netherlands
- RI Ariadne Research Infrastructure, Belgium
- PIN soc. cons. a r.l. – Servizi didattici e scientifici per l’Università di Firenze, Italy
- Prisma Cultura S.r.l., Italy
- Deutscher Museumsbund e.V., Germany
- Confédération Européenne des Organisations de Conservateurs-Restaurateurs, Belgium
- Conseil International des Monuments et des Sites Association, France
- Réseau Européen pour le Management et les Politiques Culturelles, Belgium
- Universiteit Antwerpen, Belgium
- Universitat de Barcelona, Spain
- Stichting Archives Portal Europe Foundation, The Netherlands
- Comissão Nacional Portuguesa do Conselho Internacional de Museus, Portugal
- Stichting EGI, The Netherlands
- National Infrastructures for Research and Technology, Greece
- Digital Research Infrastructure for the Arts and Humanities, France
- Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Austria
- Centar za Digitalne Humanističke Nauke, Serbia
- ATHINA – Erevnitiko Kentro Kainotomias stis Technologies tis Pliroforias, ton Epikoinonion kai tis Gnosis, Greece
- CLARIN ERIC, The Netherlands
- ETT S.p.A., Italy
- M.E.T.A. S.r.l., Italy
- Talia S.r.l., Italy
- Time Machine Organisation (TMO), Austria
- University College Dublin, National University of Ireland, Dublin, Ireland
- Stichting LIBER, The Netherlands
- National Archives of Hungary, Hungary
- Riksantikvarieämbetet, Sweden
- Michael Culture, Belgium
- The National Gallery, UK
- University of York, UK
- Sparna, France
- Conferencia de Rectores de las Universidades del Suroeste Europeo, Spain
Funding information
| Funding stream | Horizon Europe (opens in new window) |
| Contract number | 101157364 |
| Funders | |

