On 21 April 2026, DaSCH and DARIAH-CH hosted an online information session on how the European Union's emerging data spaces are reshaping access to — and reuse of — cultural heritage data.
The session, led by Rita Gautschy (DaSCH, DARIAH-CH) and Cristina Grisot (DARIAH-CH), introduced the EU data strategy and the dedicated infrastructures now taking shape for the cultural heritage sector. It was enriched by contributions from Luba Nurse (Textile Museum St. Gallen) and Dimitris Kotsinos (CY Cergy Paris University, ECHOES).
Two complementary infrastructures were at the centre of the discussion:
- The Common European Data Space for Cultural Heritage — a public infrastructure, built on the Europeana Initiative, for sharing, discovering, and reusing digital heritage assets and metadata.
- The European Collaborative Cloud for Cultural Heritage (ECCCH) — a Horizon Europe–funded environment for collaboration, analysis, and enrichment, including the creation of Heritage Digital Twins.
Speakers showed how the two fit together: the Data Space provides trusted, standardised, reusable data, while the Cloud offers a place to analyse and enrich it, with outputs flowing back into the Data Space. The TEXTaiLES project served as a concrete example of how AI, robotics, and 3D digitisation can be applied to fragile textile heritage.
The session closed with a Q&A on participation, governance, and funding. Notably, Switzerland does not currently fund participation in the Data Space or the Cloud, with national efforts presently focused on EOSC and on ERICs such as DARIAH.
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