3D4CH Winter School: from strategy to practice and thriving EU-funded projects

The Royal Museums of Art and History, in Brussels, opened their doors to the first edition of 3D4CH Winter School. Policymakers, project coordinators, 3D specialists, and the heritage community gathered onsite and online to discuss EU-funded projects on 3D, as well as good practice case studies, ranging from 3D mass digitisation to community-driven tools for 3D, accessibility and reuse. 

After this intensive round of presentations and discussions, the Winter School continued with hands-on workshops and collaborative sessions aimed at training in 3D cultural heritage practices while contributing to the development of the 3D Online Competence Centre.

Reflections on progress so far and the future of heritage

Rehana Schwinninger-Ladak, from the European Commission, opened the event by encouraging reflection on the past year and, on that basis, planning for the future ahead. The European Commission is calling for sustainability and accessibility in digital heritage and, in this context, the Common European Data Space for Cultural Heritage – Strategy 2025–2030 is a vital document, setting out priorities such as a robust and interoperable infrastructure while increasing the diversity and quality of data, making cultural heritage data easier to access, and strengthening capacity building. As concrete initiatives to put this vision into practice, the Twin it! Part II campaign and the Virtual Worlds Partnership offer opportunities for Member States and the heritage community to have a say and participate.

The event continued with Géraldine David, Director of the Royal Museums of Art and History, welcoming the Winter School as a unique combination of policy, research and practice, particularly valuable for the cultural heritage domain. The museum director continued with a comparative reflection, likening the plaster casts used during the 19th century to study and preserve heritage artefacts to the recording technology that 3D represents for the 21st century:

“3D technologies will redefine access to material culture itself.”

Digital Europe projects showcase

The event continued with the presentation of a series of flagship initiatives shaping the European data space for cultural heritage, with a particular emphasis on 3D digitisation and extended reality.

Valentine Charles, from Europeana, opened the discussion with an overview of the Common European Data Space for Cultural Heritage and the second Twin It! campaign, highlighting efforts to scale up high-quality 3D content and foster its reuse across Europe. The main point of this presentation was to urge the community to democratise access to cultural heritage data and to advance 3D digitisation through a call to action on how to build capacity in using 3D. She also emphasised the urgency of calibrating efforts by defining objectives and quality needs and, in doing so, setting clear expectations and usability goals.

Marco Medici, from 3D-4CH, then presented the project’s online competence centre, designed to support institutions and professionals working with 3D cultural heritage. The presentation included the identification of three main pillars:

1. Training and capacity building
2. The 3D4CH curriculum (including certification)
3. 3D deployment

This was followed by Fabio Remondino, from XRculture, who explored how 3D cultural heritage assets can be accessed, reused and experienced through XR within the data space. The objectives of the project are to enrich the data space for cultural heritage, increase the quality of 3D models with AI, and develop an open framework for 3D visualisation.

Alexandru Stan then introduced 3DBigDataSpace, focusing on the challenges and opportunities of managing and exploiting large volumes of 3D data to enrich the European ecosystem. The integration of objects and their mapping along the Camino de Santiago was presented as a successful use case.

The session concluded with Antonella Fresa, from EUreka3D-XR, who illustrated how reconstructed 3D content can be transformed into engaging XR experiences for education, research and public engagement. The Project Coordinator used the opportunity to encourage the community to consider European solutions for storage and accessibility, to avoid losing sovereignty over digital objects.

Horizon Europe projects showcase

The programme continued with a thematic session aimed at strengthening connections with Horizon Europe projects in the field of 3D cultural heritage. Franco Niccolucci presented ARTEMIS, illustrating how reactive digital twins can enhance monument information systems. Emanuel Demetrescu introduced StratiGraph, focusing on the use of knowledge graphs to document and interpret archaeological stratigraphy. George Ioannakis followed with Textailes, presenting tools and methods for the digitisation of textile heritage.

Best practices, applications and new tools

In the afternoon, the focus shifted from strategy to practice with a session on best practices and lessons learned in introducing 3D technologies in cultural institutions. Albert Sierra Reguera, from the Giravolt Programme at the Agència Catalana del Patrimoni Cultural, outlined the Giravolt approach to engaging the heritage sector with 3D technologies. He stressed that 3D scans should be mandatory before any renovations, as studies show that most damage to monuments results from such interventions, particularly fires. The project is also making significant efforts to reach young audiences and practitioners, with four mobile spaces itinerant around Catalonia, visiting schools and having reached around 9.000 students. The goal is not to force museums to use 3D, but to ensure that, when 3D is needed, it is available.

Fabio Remondino and Elisa Farella shared best practices in thedigitisation of museum objects, while Nicolò dell’Unto, from Lund University, discussed the concept of dynamic collections and the creation of “living” 3D archives for cultural heritage institutions. Users are able to annotate the model, and that enrichment can be shared, reused and cited through a DOI connected to the respective collection.

Anestis Koutsoudis, from the ATHENA Research Centre, concluded the session by presenting innovative methods for improving access to cultural heritage for visually impaired individuals. The once used “Please, do not touch” signs to preserve artefacts are now being replaced by incentives to listen, touch and feel 3D replicas.

The final session of the day focused on storage solutions and web viewers for 3D cultural heritage. Matevž Straus introduced the 3D Heritage platform, followed by a presentation of the Share3D Dashboard v2.0 and the Repox Store by Kate Fernie (CARARE) and Vangelis Nomikos (TALENT). The programme closed with Dominik Ukolov (FSU Jena), who presented the Heritage Data Processor, highlighting tools to support the management and reuse of 3D cultural heritage data.

To learn more about the programme and explore the full range of 3D cultural heritage initiatives presented at the Winter School, visit the official event page and the participating projects’ websites.