The 6th meeting of the Group took place on 5 and 6 November 2019, in Luxembourg.
The Commission provided updates relating to the two main upcoming programmes (Horizon Europe and Digital Europe), the two new calls for proposals for the area of digital for cultural heritage that opened on 5 November (DT-TRANSFORMATIONS-12-2018-2020 and DT-TRANSFORMATIONS-20-2020), the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF), the eArchiving initiative, and the work on the future portal for out-of-commerce works.
The Group welcomed UNESCO as a new observer, and UNESCO provided an update on their work relating to digital for cultural heritage. There were also updates from the Member States, including notably from the current and incoming Presidencies of the Council of the European Union and from the Republic of Serbia. The Europeana Sub-Group presented their draft recommendation for the next Europeana Strategy 2020-2025. The Europeana Foundation also gave a presentation on the recommendations drawn up at the Europeana meeting organised under the Romanian Presidency of the Council of the European Union.
The afternoon of the first day was dedicated to the process of evaluating and possibly revising the Commission Recommendation of 27 October 2011 on the digitisation and online accessibility of cultural material and digital preservation. The session consisted of a workshop in the course of which the participants exchanged and discussed opinions and ideas about the impact of the Recommendation and its future.
The morning of the second day was dedicated to the process of implementing the Declaration of Cooperation on advancing the digitisation of cultural heritage, launched at Digital Day on 9 April 2019 and signed by 26 European countries (as of 6 November 2019). There was a special focus on 3D digitisation, which is one of the key elements in the Declaration of Cooperation. Professor Roberto Di Giulio and Assistant Professor Marco Medici, from the University of Ferrara, started the session by giving a comprehensive presentation on technologies, processes and results in the area of 3D digitisation, based primarily on their work for Horizon 2020 project INCEPTION. That presentation was followed by a workshop in the course of which the participants exchanged and discussed ideas for implementing the main actions agreed in the Declaration of Cooperation, namely the development of a comprehensive, holistic approach to 3D documentation of cultural heritage assets, the drawing up of framework conditions for an open European repository of 3D models of cultural heritage, and the take-up of advanced digital technologies and capacity building in the cultural heritage sector (the reports are available below).
The agenda and the presentations are available below, and the minutes are available here.
- DCHE workshop report on the future of the Commission Recommendation of 27 October 2011 on the digitisation and online accessibility of cultural material and digital preservation (2011/711/EU) - 5 November 2019
- DCHE workshop report on the implementation of the Declaration of Cooperation on advancing the digitisation of cultural heritage - 6 November 2019