JPI Cultural Heritage and Global Change

The Joint Programming Initiative on Cultural Heritage and Global Change (JPI CH) was created in 2010 based on an instrument launched by the European Commission.
It is a Member-State-driven initiative bringing together national research funding organisations, ministries, and research councils from Europe to address societal challenges in the European Research Area (ERA) frame.

Cultural heritage is an essential component of individual and collective identity, both tangible and intangible.
It brings societies together by reflecting and shaping common values, beliefs, traditions, and ways of living. Individually, it enables people to define a sense of identity and belonging. Cultural Heritage is composed of tangible, intangible, digital and natural heritage.

Apart from natural ageing, cultural heritage is exposed to many threats. Climate change and pollution, increasing urbanisation, mass tourism, human negligence, vandalism and even terrorism are challenging heritage assets worldwide. Research into strategies, methodologies and tools is required to protect, strengthen, and adapt cultural heritage to these threats in the most sustainable way.

To address these challenges, the JPI CH focuses on five main objectives:

• Improve the coordination of research on Cultural Heritage at the EU level by identifying short and long-term needs and priorities.
• Concentrate and increase human, material and financial resources allocated to Cultural Heritage research at the European level.
• Promote joint and multidisciplinary approaches to Cultural Heritage research and improve knowledge.
• Increase awareness of citizens, policymakers, and stakeholders.
• Build a European Research Area (ERA) to Cultural Heritage Research and bring it to the international level.

The JPI CH implements various activities. It publishes strategic research agendas, organises joint calls for research and innovations projects, scientific and policy conferences, workshops, dissemination activities, coordinates policy alignment between JPI CH partners, or establishes relationships with other regional, European and international networks, programmes and initiatives.

The JPI CH has also been a driving force in creating a new field of science: heritage science (…) Heritage science is an umbrella term encompassing all forms of scientific enquiry into human works and the combined works of nature and humans, of value to people.