Citizen Science Practices in Cultural Heritage: towards a Sustainable Model in Higher Education’ Erasmus Project

Project Title

Citizen Science Practices in Cultural Heritage: towards a Sustainable Model in Higher Education’

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for higher education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2020

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses; Creativity and culture; Civic engagement / responsible citizenship

Project Summary

Convincing exemplary projects have demonstrated how citizen engagement appeals and digital participation are essential in crisis situations such as climate change and pandemics. Yet the potential nor the scope of community involvement in scientific research haven’t been fully explored so far. CitizenHeritage takes the citizen science approach to the world of cultural heritage, where the digital realm creates new opportunities to reach out to broader audiences and facilitate community building. The project encourages citizen science in cultural heritage through the application of crowdsourcing and co-creation tools to some of Europe’s largest open digital collections. It contributes to the notion of European citizenship by enabling stakeholder communities to jointly take responsibility for their heritage, advocating an open approach to otherness and a European community spirit surmounting regional and national differences.

CitizenHeritage will address researchers in the field of Cultural Heritage, including PhD and Master students from different relevant research fields (Cultural Studies, (Art) History, Memory studies, but also Digital Humanities, Cultural Economics and software engineering) to train them in inducing, governing and leveraging on citizen participation, digital crowdsourcing and co-creation. These methods and activities will teach students how to take sustainable and economic viable decisions when engaging citizens. In order to optimize efficiency, CitizenHeritage will map and critically assess current practices with regards to their educational value and user friendliness. But the project will also develop and test new methods and activities, making use of large European digital collections that help to highlight the relevance and power of cultural diversity.

While the cultural heritage professionals of tomorrow – students and PhDs – are a vital target audience both in terms of developing and transferring the insights gained through the project, other stakeholder communities will be involved in CitizenHeritage too, including amateur culture enthusiasts and non-specialized European citizens. The consortium governing the project is adequately equipped for such a strategy, as Higher Education Institutions join hands with a web education specialist (Web2Learn) and two professional networks for Cultural Heritage Institutions: Photoconsortium and the European Fashion Heritage Association. This mix of knowledge, skills, experiences and networks guarantees a layered approach toward a diverse range of stakeholders.

An important driver for developing, testing, applying and teaching methodologies for citizen science in a cultural heritage context, are the 10 Citizen Science Workshops to be organized in different European cities. The results will be evaluated and presented in online teaching and learning materials shared on the CitizenHeritage educational portal. To maximise impact, they will subsequently be disseminated in academic and educational conferences and papers, and presented in 3 multiplier events organized by the universities and their network partners.

The long-term benefits of CitizenHeritage are twofold. Firstly, the replicability of the citizen science workshop formats will allow to prolong and scale the efforts beyond the scope of the project. To achieve this, the collaboration with active networks serving large audiences, such as Photoconsortium and EFHA, will be crucial. In addition, the involvement of students and PhD researchers from the participating universities will guarantee that the methodologies become more solidly entrenched in scientific practice. The second long-term outcome is an increased awareness of issues regarding the social and economic aspects of cultural heritage combined with a heightened citizen empowerment. CitizenHeritage will have succeeded when its proven concepts and tools help citizens, Higher Education Institutions and Cultural Heritage Institutions to undertake more – and more informed – actions towards a responsible and sustainable cultural heritage approach.

The project will address the following objectives:

1. Review of practices of Higher Education engagement in citizen enhanced open science in the area of cultural heritage

2. Production of a methodology, user requirements and guidelines for Cultural Heritage Institutions and universities

3. Development and testing of participatory approaches

4. Dissemination and creation of educational and promotional materials

5. Drawing lessons from the use of digital technologies in crowd science in cultural heritage and education

6. Assessment of the economic and social sustainability of citizen enhanced open heritage projects

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 261065 Eur

Project Coordinator

KATHOLIEKE UNIVERSITEIT LEUVEN & Country: BE

Project Partners

• PHOTOCONSORTIUM International Consortium for Photographic Heritage
• NATIONAL TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY OF ATHENS – NTUA
• Web2Learn
• European Fashion Heritage Association
• ERASMUS UNIVERSITEIT ROTTERDAM