Consortium

INFN is the Italian national research institute on the study of the fundamental constituents of matter and the laws that govern them. The highly advanced measurement technologies developed as the result of experiments in physics are applied to the analysis of heritage artefacts. By the dedicated competence network INFN-CHNet—Cultural Heritage Network. INFN-CHNet consists of 20 units located at INFN facilities throughout Italy, providing a wide range of cutting-edge technologies and competencies to address the needs and requirements of archaeological, artistic, historical and conservative issues.

INCEPTION SRL is a university spin-off (University of Ferrara) aimed at developing and marketing the results achieved in the H2020 EU-funded project “INCEPTION: Inclusive Cultural Heritage in Europe through 3D semantic model”. The strategic goal of INCEPTION is to offer services and products related to the digitization process of existing building stock with a main focus on Cultural Heritage.

PIN is a research agency, a consortium created by the University of Florence with other public bodies and industrial associations to support the implementation of advanced research projects. Research activity is organized in laboratories, the one in charge of Digital Cultural Heritage applications being VAST-LAB, which has been the coordinator of several EU-funded projects on the topic.

PRISMA, a spin-off of VAST-LAB in charge of cultural heritage valorisation, participates in 4CH as a third-party partner.

TECNALIA is a private, independent, non-profit applied research centre of international excellence. Legally a Foundation, TECNALIA is the leading private and independent research and technology organisation in Spain and one of the largest in Europe. The Building Technologies division, in charge of 4CH, covers the whole value chain of the construction sector, from materials building and products to the buildings themselves, the city and the civil infrastructures.

Visual Dimension is a SME active in architecture and digital cultural heritage, focusing on two domains: virtual 3D reconstruction and interaction with digital heritage. It specializes in the interpretation and virtual reconstruction of historical sites and objects, in digital restoration and virtual re-contextualisation of museum objects and innovative interactive storytelling.

RDF Ltd. Is a software developer specialized in libraries to manage large amounts of object based data based on open standards, including Boolean Operations in 2D and 3D, triangulations, NURBS, Splines, Swept Blends and repairing of boundary representations.

Iron Will is a company specialized in heritage IT applications such as educational content, VR Simulation, AR interactivity, complex multi-user and cross-platform structures, block- chain and art.

Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS), an institute of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW), supports researchers in making their digital research data Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable (FAIR), providing expert advice and certified services.

The University of Bologna (UNIBO) is known as the oldest University of the western world. Nowadays, UNIBO still remains one of the most important institutions of higher education across Europe and the second largest university in Italy. The department in charge of 4CH is the Department of Architecture (DA), a leader for research and teaching activities in the fields of architectural and urban planning, architectural technology, maintenance and building restoration, representation and architectural techniques, building production, territorial planning, GIS, assessment of environmental and urban policies, history of architecture, advanced design.

Athena Research Centre (ARC) is a public research centre specializing in information technologies. It participates in 4CH through the Digital Curation Unit (DCU), a division of the Information Systems Management Institute of ARC, which conducts research, develops technologies and applications, provides services and training, and acts as a focus point in the field of digital curation. DCU adopts a multidisciplinary approach addressing the full lifecycle of digital assets, such as records, digital surrogates and scholarly/scientific datasets.

LNEC is a public research and consultancy institute encompassing all branches of Civil and Materials Engineering, Architecture and Social Sciences. It is one of the leading European organizations in its field with a long experience in laboratory and field research work, physical and mathematical modelling and seismic vulnerability evaluation of structures, hydraulics, as well as assessment of safety conditions of both new and heritage constructions.

The Cyprus Institute is a non-profit research and educational institution with scientific and technological focus. It consists of issue-oriented research centres that address challenging problems both at the regional and international levels. The Science and Technology in Archaeology and Culture Research Center (STARC) is devoted to the development, introduction and use of advanced science and technologies in the field of archaeology and cultural heritage. Key areas of research are Digital Cultural Heritage, Bioarchaeology, Art Characterization, Virtual Environments and Archaeological Materials Sciences.

FORTH is one of the largest research centers in Greece with six Research Institutes. FORTH will participate in 4CH with the Institute of Computer Science (ICS), Information Systems Laboratory (ISL) – Centre for Cultural Informatics (CCI), a specialized unit in the ISL with expertise in knowledge representation, ontology engineering, knowledge organization systems, database technology and web technology focusing on cultural heritage, and FORTH-IESL, a leading research institute serving the fields of lasers, photonics and materials science in diagnostics and conservation of cultural heritage.

ICCU is an Institute of the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage, Activities and Tourism (MiC); it manages the National Library Service, the union catalogue of over 6.200 Italian libraries, with extensive experience in the coordination and partnership of top level European projects in digital cultural heritage.

In 4CH ICCU will work jointly with the Central Institute for Cataloguing and Documentation of Italian cultural heritage (ICCD), also part of MiC, managing the national catalogue of archaeological, architectural, historical, artistic and ethno- anthropological heritage.

CARARE is a non-profit association registered in the Republic of Ireland that brings together agencies and organisations, research institutions, specialist digital archives and others with an interest in the archaeological and architectural heritage. Its main objective is to advance professional practice and foster appreciation of the digital archaeological and architectural heritage in Europe and internationally.

CARARE supports the creation, connection, enhancement and use of digital archaeological and architectural heritage resources, for work, research, learning and for enjoyment.

Michael Culture Association is a not-for-profit European organization registered in Belgium, gathering members and experts from over 150 cultural institutions private and public – museums, libraries, Achieves, Research centres – ministries of culture from Europe. It aims at promoting and valorising European cultural heritage by its digitization and dissemination to a European and worldwide audience.

INP, the National Heritage Institute of Romania is a public institution of national importance, subordinated to the Ministry of Culture. The Institute manages the funds for research, expertise and execution of consolidation-restoration works and promotion of historical monuments; collects, processes and distributes the information regarding the movable and intangible cultural heritage, cultural institutions, theatre collections, cultural personalities; creates the platforms for content uploading and administrates the inventory of intangible heritage. INP’s Digital Heritage Department has created and is administrating the national databases of cultural heritage.

The University of Tours participates in 4CH with the CNRS USR MSH VdL, the House of Human Sciences Val de Loire, leading the MASA Consortium (Memory of Archaeologists and Archaeological Sites); the CNRS UMR CITERES, with his archaeological lab (LAT); and LIFAT, the Laboratory of Fundamental and Applied Informatics, focusing on the design and the development of models, methods and algorithms to extract information, draw knowledge from data, and solve combinatorial optimization. LIFAT also includes the ILIAD3 Competence Centre (3D digitization).

Leica Geosystems, part of Hexagon, a global leader in sensor, software and autonomous solutions, provides surveying solutions including total stations, laser scanners and the related software, widely adopted in industry and research for the precise and accurate instruments, sophisticated software, and trusted services.