ECHOES (European Cloud for Heritage OpEn Science), led by CNRS, has been awarded €25 million over five years (2024-2029) after a successful application to the Horizon Europe 2023 call "A European Collaborative Cloud for Cultural Heritage". The cloud will act as a European reference platform for both tangible and intangible cultural heritage professionals.
As a pilot project, ECHOES aspires to create the infrastructure and legal entity for the cloud in collaboration with and for the cultural heritage communities. ECHOES promotes a holistic approach to digital transformation, encouraging the co-construction of knowledge.
The ECHOES project will foster the emergence of Digital Commons through this digital environment, allowing collective enrichment and analysis of cultural heritage objects, facts, or phenomena. Actors—both human and artificial intelligence (AI)—will be able to develop their interpretations and thus contribute to the construction of knowledge.
The European Commission’s commitment to supporting the creation of a collaborative cloud for cultural heritage started in 2022 and will in the long run establish a digital ecosystem to interconnect and harmonise practices related to digital objects. Overall, the Cloud for Cultural Heritage has been allocated a budget of €110 million until 2025, marking it the largest investment ever made in Europe for a cultural heritage initiative and more broadly in the humanities and social sciences.
The website and first activities will be announced later this year.
