Unit 'Learning and Cultural Heritage'

1. Access to and preservation ofcultural & scientific resourcesStrategic Objective 2.5.10IST Work Programme 2005-2006 Unit 'Learning and Cultural Heritage' Directorate-General 'Information Society and Media' Directorate 'Content' Thessaloniki, May 2005

2. Overview of the presentation • Defining the work programme 2005-2006 • Consultation process • Results of the first call under FP6 • Strategic Objective 2.5.10

3. Defining the work programme • Consultation exercise in 2004: multiple inputs from the research constituency • Via Web consultation, targeted e-mails, face-to-face meetings • Programme committees ISTAG and ISTC • Other ongoing strategic assessments • Outputs: • Work programme texts • Supporting documents – report on consultation process and results; analysis of 1st FP6 Call • Input to ongoing background texts, incl. roadmaps Goal: to develop dialogue and mobilise the research community – in good time before the call

4. Consultation exercise: 2 research areas • Strategic Objective in call 1: Technology-enhanced learning and access to cultural heritage • Separate consultations for learning and for culture • Each defined its agenda and objectives – no false synergies • Results • The two research areas are separate with different goals, technologies, stakeholders/constituencies • TeLearn – on technology in the learning processes and environments, convergence with cognitive systems • Cultural Heritage – more focused on the content/object

5. Consultation exercise – aims • Focus – reduce oversubscription – avoid wasted effort in preparing irrelevant proposals • Relevance – how to get proposals that address core issues and that make a difference (impact for the budget available) • Ambition – projects should be leading edge but realistic (achievable, in resources and timeframe) • Identify gaps from previous call, point to new directions • 1st call: TeLearn and Cultural Heritage had 212 proposals with requested funding ca. 1000 Meuro; actually funded 16 projects, for 80 Meuro

6. Cultural heritage applications – a reminder of what we have ongoing • FP5 clusters on: • semi-automated digitisation and pre-servation for audio-visual content and film • prototypes of different types of digital libraries & services, e.g. for text, for audio-visual • intelligent heritage for museums and archaeological sites • community memory and services for the citizen • networking institutions and technical coordinating

7. Results of FP6 Call 1 • 8 projects for ca. € 36 million • Integrated Project (IP) on next generation digital library services – components for content management (in distributed architectures) and access (BRICKS) • IP on historic film and video restoration, digitisation and preservation – factory toolkit for widespread use by all types of audio visuall and film archives (PRESTOSPACE) • Network of Exellence on digital library research (links to NSF) (DELOS)

8. Results of FP6 Call 1 • Network of Excellence on reconstruction and visualisation (EPOCH) • Coordination Action targeting local/regional cultural institutions, 'operationalisation' of research results and input to future research (CALIMERA) • Coordination Action for consolidation of policy initiatives with programmes and practice in the digitisation area (MINERVA) • 2 Specific Targeted Research Projects on 3-D modelling and 3G site guides (TNT and AGAMEMNON)

9. Results of FP6 Call 3 • Objective of Call – to build awareness ofopportunities in the enlarged Europe • For Learning and Cultural Heritage, building on the TEL (The European Library) project, this resulted in one Specific Support Action centred on the role of the national libraries in all 10 new Member States in networking support for proposals (TEL-ME-MOR)

10. Cultural heritage applications research The IST programme supports research aiming at • improving the meaning and experiences people get from cultural and scientific resources in electronic form; • safeguarding digital resources so that they are available in the future. Focus is on the inter-related opportunities and challenges – of the technologies and of cultural/scientific digital content

11. Issues for digital cultural content outside research Addressed by new eContentplus programme which specifies content in areas of public interest, education, culture, geographical information, scholarly publishing, PSI. Targets: • (re)usability & exploitation of content; addressing multilingual and multicultural inhibitors to (re)use and sharing • Interoperability cross-Europe & of associated services, good practice in innovation, thematic networks and clustering RTD programmes have a clear focus on research

12. Cultural content – research challenges • Complexity of cultural information objects • temporal, spatial, physical and virtual; partial or missing data; heterogeneity of typologies, multiple formats / structures • Complexity of media • Assets based on mixed digital media • Complexity of delivery channels • Multiplying and becoming ubiquitous – broadband, interactive TV, mobile

13. Cultural content – research challenges • Complexity in potential contexts of use • Different communities of use – collaborative experiences and creating cultural information • Cultural experiences revolving round storytelling - bringing together different cultural objects • Structuring explanations about the past

14. Strategic Objective 2.5.10 – Access to and preservation of cultural & scientific resources Defines two core objectives • Reinforcing emphasis on access • Longevity of digital resources – i.e. digital preservation • Access - support the emerging complexity of digital cultural and scientific objects and repositories, through enriched conceptual representations, and advanced access methods • Digital preservation - explore how to preserve the availability of digital resources over time, through novel concepts, techniques and tools

15. Strategic Objective 2.5.10 – Access to and preservation of cultural & scientific resources Objective 1: access • conceptualisation and representation of digital cultural and scientific objects, of multiple forms and origins • exploiting the potential of these resources for developing new forms of interactive or creative experiences • methods, systems, tools and enabling technologies to support primarily non-textual and complex objects • integration into sustainable digital library services, e.g. by linking work on the semantic web with expertise in domain specific ontologies.

16. Strategic Objective 2.5.10 – Access to and preservation of cultural & scientific resources Objective 1: access (cont.) • Work focuses on applying leading edge technologies (knowledge technologies, visualisation, virtual reality) • Automated methods for capture, indexing & semantic representation – non-textual and cross-media objects • Knowledge representation & access technologies for complex, unstructured, dynamic cultural heritage objects • Domain ontologies • Collaborative content authoring – online communities • Models for ubiquitous access to cultural information • Tested in real but innovative scenarios • Towards more participative/creative use of cultural heritage by citizens and by cultural institutions, through innovative online communities.

17. Strategic Objective 2.5.10 – Access to and preservation of cultural & scientific resources Objective 2: digital preservation • Explore how to preserve the availability of digital resources over time, through novel concepts, techniques and tools. • Short to mid term experiments - empirical research on solutions. Focus on emerging state of the art and “stable” documents, but in multiple formats and multi-sourced, distributed.

18. Strategic Objective 2.5.10 – Access to and preservation of cultural & scientific resources Objective 2: digital preservation (cont): • Longer term research focusing on: • complex, dynamic and very high volume digital objects, including those with high levels of interactivity. • projecting concepts for solutions over longer timescales • mobilising and bringing together potential research actors at European level Positioning for future research

19. Strategic Objective 2.5.10 – Access to and preservation of cultural & scientific resources • Instruments for implementation • Specific targeted research projects (STREPs) – main mechanism for research on access and use of cultural content • Integrated Projects: main instrument for test-beds of multi-sourced resources • Coordination Actions: long-term preservation issues • Stakeholders: Cultural Heritage research community, technology researchers and developers (incl. high tech SMEs), and cultural institutions • Indicative budget: 36 million Euro • Balance – 60% old instruments (i.e. STREPs)

20. Some lessons from call 1 • Big is not necessarily beautiful • Don’t inflate a STREP to become an IP • Choose the right instrument – the Commission does not re-write proposals or change the instruments • Don’t inflate the consortium, concentrate on most valid partners with clear roles (only 7% allowed for management costs) • Pay attention to partnership balance – include technological and Cultural Heritage partners – deliver advances and knowledge to benefit of both domains • Provide the reasons for your partner choice and the rationale for the composition of the consortium

21. Some lessons from call 1 • Be specific in describing your objectives and your work programme • Identify clearly what you see as the problem and the main research challenges • Avoid repeating verbatim our work programme text (no 'echo proposals') • Describe convincingly the state of the art and then indicate the progress and advances your project will make • Be aware of achievements of EU-funded and other research

22. Some lessons from call 1 • Make your project relevant • Involve competent users throughout the project lifecycle • Include methodologies for evaluating and measuring the result of your work – show clearly the progress you make incrementally • Be convincing about potential impact - provide measures for the implementation of the results beyond consortium existence • Reinforce communication and dissemination as an integral part of the project

23. Summary of core issues – cultural content • Support the increasingly complex focus for applications from: access  new environments for use and experiences  increasing creative exploitation • Handling increasingly complex objects – non-textual, multiple formats • “Perpetual” availability – having digital world as stable as physical in terms of making content accessible and understandable over time • Improving our understanding of use and usage - simple delivery of complex objects and systems

24. IST Programme and Cultural heritage applications research • Our brief: foster the early adoption of new technologies for accessing and preserving Europe’s cultural, artistic and scientific resources • Cultural content & applications present real challenges for development of these technologies • We need effective marriage of technology and applications domain – informed by knowledge base in cultural heritage community • Innovation – shifting from technology innovation to usage – reinforces the need to anchor ICT research also in real user needs • Future – looking towards greater inter-disciplinarity

25. How to make a good proposal • Start with a really good idea or objective liable to have real EU impact • Find two or three key partners: management, technical, content-related, organisation • Write a short abstract clearly defining the nature of the work and the key results • Expand the partnership • Respect evaluation criteria: innovation, impact, state of the art, quality, social aspects, dissemination, resources • Follow the requirements of the instrument: STREP, IP, SSA, CA

26. How to improve your proposal for submission • Avoid duplication with other projects • Choose an effective, easy-to-remember acronym • Be open about your intentions and approach • Develop clearly described work packages with reasonable resourcing (human and financial) • Ensure the Commission is aware of your intention to submit • Do not leave everything until the last minute: get your proposal in well before the deadline

27. Work towards closer cooperation between libraries, museums, archives and schools • All share a strong interest in education • They provide content-related services to their users • They understand how information technology can promote current services and future developments • They participate in ensuring that their communities are able to promote their own special cultural interests • They are leaders in developing citizen-based services at the regional and municipal levels • They can provide support in developing innovative/interactive environments for cultural expression

28. Further References European Commission Directorate-General Information Society and Media Unit Learning and Cultural Heritage L-2920 Luxembourg • Our Website: • http://www.cordis.lu/digicult/ • Mailbox: digicult@cec.eu.int • eCulture Newsletter & alerts – subscribe to mailing list