Enhancing access to Europe’s shared cultural heritage for everyone to enjoy and be inspired by is a major EU policy goal. From increasing access to culture and improving engagement, to supporting preservation and fostering reuse, 3D offers unprecedented opportunities to advance this objective. 3D models are not just digital copies of heritage assets. They capture intricate details about the object and its story, as well as the digital documentation process, offering new knowledge and fresh insights.
In 2019, EU Member States acknowledged the potential of 3D for digital preservation that reflects the multidimensionality of cultural heritage, and called for ‘a pan-European initiative for 3D digitisation of cultural heritage artefacts, monuments and sites’ (Declaration of Cooperation on advancing digitisation of cultural heritage (2019)).
The European Commission Recommendation of 2021 on a common European data space for cultural heritage invites EU Member States to digitise in 3D all monuments and sites deemed at risk, and half of the most physically visited by 2030. It also sets ambitious targets for 3D content contribution to Europeana and the data space.
To contribute to these targets, the European Commission and the Europeana Initiative launched the Twin it! 3D for Europe’s culture campaign in June 2023, in cooperation with the Swedish, Spanish and Belgian Presidencies of the Council of the EU. Twin it! invited EU Member States to submit at least one 3D-digitised heritage asset to the data space, resulting in an exceptional collection of 37 emblematic and high-quality assets.
Twin it! enhanced 3D commitment and capabilities across Member States, heritage institutions, the Europeana ecosystem and the professional community. Ahead of the Recommendation 2025 interim targets, we must seize this moment to assess our joint progress, leverage insights, and set future directions.
This Call to Action draws inspiration from the collective expertise of Twin it! partners: the Europeana Initiative (consisting of three interlinked organisations: the Europeana Foundation, the Europeana Network Association and the Europeana Aggregators’ Forum), the European Commission, the three rotating Presidencies, Twin it! contact points in Member States, contributing cultural heritage institutions, as well as the members of the Expert Group on a common European Data Space for Cultural Heritage (CEDCHE). It reflects the input from leading experts from the data space 3D Working Group, the 4CH Competence Centre for the Conservation of Cultural Heritage, and the 5DCulture and Eureka3D EU-funded projects. It also builds on the exchanges held at the Twin it! high-level event on 14 May 2024 in Brussels. This high-level event gathered Ministers of Culture, policy makers at all levels, experts and key stakeholders to explore critical questions around 3D digitisation in our sector.
On this basis, the Twin it! Call to Action sets out seven key priorities to advance the Recommendation’s goals. It also represents a strong commitment from all parties involved towards these goals and principles.
