The first in presence meeting of the PROCULTHER-NET Community
Building a Cultural Heritage Protection focused thematic community within the Union Civil Protection Knowledge Network
On September 20 and 21 the operational headquarters of the Civil Protection Department hosted the PROCULTHER-NET Initial Planning Meeting; two days of work dedicated to planning the next activities of the European project on the protection of cultural heritage in emergencies.
The event was attended by representatives of the Consortium partners involved in activities aimed at safeguarding cultural heritage at risk: Department of Civil Protection, as coordinator, ICCROM- International Center for the Study of Conservation and Restoration of Cultural Heritage, Ministry of the Interior-Authority for Disaster and Emergency Management-AFAD (Turkey), German Archaeological Institute-DAl (Germany), Ministry of the Interior-Directorate General of Civil Security and Crisis Management-DGSCGC (France), Fondazione Hallgarten-Franchetti Centro Studi Villa Montesca- FCSVM, Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the Government of the Castilla y León Region-JCyL (Spain), Federal Agency for Technical Relief-THW (Germany), UNISOB-University Suor Orsola Benincasa (Italy) and University of Porto-UPORTO (Portugal).
Delegates included Civil Protection experts from the Government of the Castilla y León Region, the Ministries of Culture of France, Spain, and Portugal, and from the Portugal National Authority for Emergencies and Civil Protection (ANEPC).
PROCULTHER-NET-Protecting Cultural Heritage from the Consequences of Disasters-Network, is coordinated by the Civil Protection Department and co-financed by DG ECHO under the Union Civil Protection Mechanism.
The project, which will end in 2023, continues the work of PROCULTHER to strengthen and further expand the community committed to the protection of cultural heritage in emergencies, within the framework of the EU Civil Protection Knowledge Network.
The first part of the meeting focused on the objectives, structure and content to be promoted within the thematic community committed to the protection of cultural heritage at risk that will be established under the EU Civil Protection Knowledge Network. On the occasion, the results of the questionnaire launched in June with the aim of gathering important information from stakeholders interested in the project and organizing project activities in light of the interests that emerged were also presented.
Under analysis was the relevance of a number of key issues for the definition of the activities to be carried out by the project in the coming months, based on the phases of prevention, preparedness and response: the relevance of some key issues for defining the content of the project: relevant regulatory framework, available digital tools, resources for the protection of cultural heritage assets, and the level of training of specialized personnel. The results will serve to improve strategies and tools for cooperation among the participating countries.
Protect cultural heritage, synonym of each community's identity and development, is the main theme of the second day of the works, during which it has been recalled the importance of sharing good practices among the countries participating in the project.
The discussion also highlighted the need to broaden the target audience by promoting the participation of relevant national structures, centers of excellence, researchers and universities.
At the end, the participants discussed the contents of the draft Consortium Agreement, the document that will regulate the relationship between the partners and define their respective roles within the project.