Virtual Lab on the Collection and Commercialization of digital tools for Citizen education in Cultural Heritage
Submitted under the call for Creative Innovation Labs within the framework of the Creative Europe funding scheme, C4Education is aimed at stakeholders and companies in the field of digital, audiovisual and cultural heritage in Europe.
Through the composition of the consortium encompassing two international associations with together more than 600 institutional members from the cultural heritage, education and research sector including GLAM institutions, SMEs etc. as well as the innovative Netherlands’ Institute for Sound and Vision, the project, led by the Friedrich Schiller University Jena, promises a high international reach and resonance.
Within the runtime of 24 months, the project intends to tackle the following challenges the digital audiovisual and cultural heritage sector are currently faced with:
- Limited visibility and outreach
- Lack of affordable and ready-to-use digital applications that can be used and individually adapted without extensive specialist knowledge
- Lack of sources of revenue
- Lack of a training platform covering the needs of companies in the field of digital, audiovisual and cultural heritage
Project Objectives
Having identified above named challenges and deficits within a one-year scoping activity within the frame of the S3 Pilot Action “Virtual and Smart Cultural Tourism“, C4Education now aims to:
- Facilitate the uptake of technological and digital innovations in the cultural, creative and audio-visual sectors for GLAM institutions, SMEs and industrial players.
- Explore and implement cross-sector hybridization and collaboration pathways between cultural heritage and audio-visual sectors.
- Showcase specific ways and means of introducing digital and innovative tools and accelerate their uptake.
- Promote innovative tools, methodologies, access and dissemination of customized educational material and information on cultural heritage.
- Open up new user groups through audience development, outreach models and activities, especially targeting younger and older generations.
- Increase the visibility of and engagement with European cultural heritage through increased use of digital tools and applications.
Project Outcome
Concretely, C4Education will develop and run a Virtual Lab comprising an Application Marketplace for digital tools for (further) education on cultural heritage, e.g. museum applications, city guides or virtual exhibitions, including accreditation criteria and sales models, and a corresponding Training Platform, including self-steered tutorials and webinars. A set of high-quality demo cases will populate the Marketplace and Training Platform and a long-term business model shall ensure the sustainable operation and growth of the Virtual Lab beyond the project runtime.
