4CH starts on the 1st January 2021 for a duration of three years. The project aims to set up the methodological, procedural, and organizational framework of a Competence Centre, an infrastructure dedicated to knowledge organization and transfer through means such as training, standardization and inter-disciplinary collaboration. This European Competence Centre will need to adapt to many different conditions such as how cultural heritage is managed, the risks that may affect its conservation and how it may be valorised. Using a holistic and multidisciplinary approach to the conservation of cultural heritage, it will facilitate coordination between cultural heritage Institutions across Europe and provide services and tools to enable preservation and conservation of historical monuments and sites using the latest, most effective technologies with special attention to 3D.

4CH will benefit a range of institutions and other bodies, both public and private, responsible for managing European CH, service providers (CH professionals and SMEs), the creative industries and hospitality sector as well as heritage agencies, public bodies such as ministries and decision-makers who inform policies and strategies for conservation, preservation and digitization. The current Consortium includes leading institutions from the academia, industry, SMEs and research centres with complementary expertise and a wide geographic coverage of Europe who are guided by an Advisory Board consisting of high-level experts.