A European Collaborative Cloud for Cultural Heritage – Innovative use cases

The European Collaborative Cloud for Cultural Heritage (ECCCH) grant opportunity is a call for proposals under the Horizon Europe program, aimed at developing a unified digital infrastructure for cultural heritage preservation across Europe. The grant is focused on enhancing collaboration and innovation among cultural heritage professionals. Key aspects of this grant include the following:

Eligible applicants encompass cultural heritage institutions, universities, research organizations, small and large enterprises from various sectors, and professionals involved in cultural heritage. Proposals must include entities from at least five different EU Member States or Associated Countries to promote cross-border collaboration.

The funding type is a grant, specifically a lump-sum agreement under Horizon Europe, with a total indicative budget of €48 million. Funding is directed towards Innovation Actions that require a consortium approach with multiple applicants from diverse organizations.

The geographic eligibility covers EU Member States and Associated Countries, with potential inclusivity for certain non-EU countries that meet specific requirements for funding within Horizon Europe projects. The target sector consists primarily of cultural heritage and digital innovation, emphasizing cloud computing and digital tools for conservation and management.

The grant focuses on projects at the validation and demonstration stage, specifically aimed at implementing real use cases and conducting end-to-end testing of the ECCCH platform. The expected outcomes involve the creation of a user-friendly, inclusive platform that fosters engagement, enhances functionality, and promotes new research paradigms.

Funding amounts for individual projects can range, but the indicative total budget comprises various contributions, typically falling between €1 million and €5 million per project. The application process is a single-stage open call, with a submission deadline set for September 16, 2025.

Support comes in the form of monetary funding without a co-funding requirement, allowing successful applicants to receive full financial backing for approved costs under the lump-sum model. The success rates are not clearly specified, but historical data suggests that similar grants usually have success rates between 10% and 39%.

Overall, the grant encourages participation from a broad range of organizations to enhance the ECCCH's capabilities and user base. Emphasis is placed on open-source software, adherence to FAIR data principles, and coordination with existing related projects to ensure project contributions are significant and distinct, thereby avoiding duplication of efforts. The Commission anticipates projects will have a duration of about 2 to 2.5 years and expects well-documented findings to support the long-term sustainability and adoption of the ECCCH.

The EU Funding and Tenders Portal presents a call for proposals titled "A European Collaborative Cloud for Cultural Heritage Innovative use cases" under the Horizon Europe (HORIZON) program, specifically within the "Culture, Creativity and Inclusive Society 2025" call (HORIZON-CL2-2025-01). The topic ID is HORIZON-CL2-2025-01-HERITAGE-03. This call seeks to fund Innovation Actions (HORIZON-IA) using a lump sum grant agreement (HORIZON-AG-LS).

The call opened for submission on May 15, 2025, and the deadline for submission is September 16, 2025, at 17:00:00 Brussels time. The expected outcomes of the projects funded under this topic include findings from thorough end-to-end testing based on real use cases that contribute to a seamlessly working, user-friendly, inclusive, and powerful European Collaborative Cloud for Cultural Heritage (ECCCH). The projects should also document and communicate the use cases deployed, creating a wide collection of innovative uses of the ECCCH that exemplify and illustrate its benefits and attract new users and user groups. Furthermore, the projects should identify and implement improvements and engage with users, making significant contributions for the ECCCH to be widely used by European cultural heritage professionals and researchers, enabling new ways to interact, cooperate, and co-create, thus supporting the generation of new knowledge and opening of new research paradigms.

The scope of this topic involves implementing real use cases and carrying out demanding end-to-end testing of the platform and its tools to verify its capabilities and improve the ECCCH. The activities should focus on concrete use cases undertaken by participating institutions, professionals, and researchers to improve their results or work processes. The projects should utilize key features of the ECCCH, such as advanced digital twins, large-scale cooperation and co-creation features, the digital continuum, and advanced features for commercial cooperation with cultural and creative industries. Activities may also focus on the seamless interconnection of the ECCCH with other related platforms such as the Common European Data Space for Cultural Heritage and the European Open Science Cloud. Proposals should outline a focus of the planned activities that best achieve the expected outcomes.

The activities should involve a wide range of different organizations from across Europe, with entities from at least five different Member States or Associated Countries involved as active users of the ECCCH platform. The entities should also be of different characteristics, such as small and large organizations, from different subsectors/areas of activity or scientific disciplines. The activities carried out and the results generated should be properly documented to serve as a good base for improvements or corrections of the platform and/or of the user tools implemented on it, and also for communicating innovative uses of the ECCCH. Contributions should be made to extend the user base of the ECCCH by promoting use cases and outreach activities, possibly together with or coordinated with other ECCCH projects.

Projects funded under this topic may build on testing or other activities carried out by other ECCCH projects, but must not duplicate activities that are funded under other ECCCH projects. Activities should add new value to the ECCCH. Therefore, projects funded under this topic should coordinate closely with previously funded ECCCH projects and provide for sufficient flexibility so as to avoid duplication and ensure that the activities carried out offer important contributions to validate and improve the platform.

Proposals should foresee own capacity to implement important improvements and fix problems detected. Such modifications or extensions of the ECCCH platform functionality should be carried out in accordance with the data model and the software development and documentation guidelines of the ECCCH, established by the project funded under topic HORIZON-CL2-2023-HERITAGE-ECCCH-01-01. All software and other related deliverables should be compliant with the guidelines elaborated by the project funded under topic HORIZON-CL2-2023-HERITAGE-ECCCH-01-01, and should be implemented in compliance with the design of the ECCCH, using the low-level libraries established by the project funded under topic HORIZON-CL2-2023-HERITAGE-ECCCH-01-01.

All software developed should be open source, licensed under a CC0 public domain dedication or under an open-source licence as recommended by the Free Software Foundation and the Open-Source Initiative. If the use of open source software components would require disproportional efforts or significantly diminish the quality or performance of the software, proprietary components may be used provided that: An open functional replacement is available; they do not introduce proprietary data formats or Application Programming Interfaces; a full user license free of charge for an unlimited period of time is granted to the consortium responsible for the ECCCH and all its users. Applicants should state clearly if all developed software will be open source, and if not clearly explain the reasons.

To the extent that data is produced, efforts should be made to ensure that it is FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Re-usable). To the extent that new or modified interoperability standards need to be developed for data sharing within and across data ecosystems, these should build on the FAIR data principles and leverage already adopted practices, especially those in the relevant European common data spaces and in the European Research Infrastructures.

Financial support to third parties may be used to facilitate the engagement with ECCCH users beyond the project consortium. The financial support to third parties can only be provided in the form of grants.

In order to ensure good coordination among the different ECCCH projects, proposals should make provisions to actively participate in the common activities of the ECCCH initiative. Projects funded under this topic should coordinate technical work with the relevant projects funded under other call topics of the ECCCH initiative, and contribute to the activities and objectives of the project funded under the topic HORIZON-CL2-2023-HERITAGE-ECCCH-01-01. Proposals should include a budget for the attendance to regular joint coordination meetings, and may consider covering the costs of any other joint activities without the prerequisite to detail concrete joint activities at proposal stage.

Projects funded under this topic should set up their project websites under the common ECCCH website, managed by the project funded under topic HORIZON-CL2-2023-HERITAGE-ECCCH-01-01.

The Commission expects the different projects funded under this topic to establish regular coordination mechanisms in order to ensure synchronised planning, as well as synergy and/or complementarity of deliverables and outcomes, where this is appropriate.

The Commission estimates that a project duration of approximately 2 – 2.5 years is appropriate for the projects funded under this topic.

The proposal page limit is 50 pages for Part B of the Innovation Action (IA) application using lump sum. A detailed budget table must also be submitted.

Eligible costs will take the form of a lump sum. Beneficiaries may provide financial support to third parties, with a maximum of 15% of the budget dedicated to this, and a maximum amount of EUR 60 000 granted to each third party.

The total budget for this topic in 2025 is EUR 26 000 000, and the indicative number of grants is 8, with contributions ranging from EUR 2 500 000 to EUR 4 000 000.

This funding opportunity aims to foster the development and validation of the European Collaborative Cloud for Cultural Heritage (ECCCH) by supporting projects that implement real-world use cases and conduct thorough testing of the platform and its tools. It encourages collaboration among diverse organizations across Europe to improve the ECCCH's functionality, user-friendliness, and overall impact on the cultural heritage sector. The emphasis is on open-source software, FAIR data principles, and coordination with existing ECCCH projects to ensure that the funded activities add significant value and contribute to the long-term sustainability and adoption of the platform. The funding supports innovation actions, meaning that the projects should not only conduct research but also implement and test the results in practical settings.

Eligible Applicant Types: The eligible applicant types are wide-ranging organizations from across Europe, including small and large organizations, from different subsectors/areas of activity or scientific disciplines, cultural heritage institutions, professionals, and researchers. Entities from at least five different Member States or Associated Countries should be involved as active users of the ECCCH platform.

Funding Type: The funding type is a grant, specifically a HORIZON Lump Sum Grant, under HORIZON Innovation Actions (HORIZON-IA) and HORIZON Coordination and Support Actions (HORIZON-CSA). Financial support to third parties can only be provided in the form of grants.

Consortium Requirement: A consortium of multiple applicants is required. Activities should involve a wide range of different organizations from across Europe, and entities from at least five different Member States or Associated Countries should be involved as active users of the ECCCH platform.

Beneficiary Scope (Geographic Eligibility): The geographic eligibility includes EU Member States and Associated Countries. A number of non-EU/non-Associated Countries that are not automatically eligible for funding have made specific provisions for making funding available for their participants in Horizon Europe projects.

Target Sector: The target sector is culture and cultural heritage, with a focus on digital technologies, cloud computing, digital twins, cooperation and co-creation, digital continuum, and commercial cooperation with cultural and creative industries. It also targets the interconnection of the ECCCH with other related platforms such as the Common European Data Space for Cultural Heritage and the European Open Science Cloud.

Mentioned Countries: The opportunity mentions Europe, EU Member States, and Associated Countries as the geographic focus. It also refers to non-EU/non-Associated Countries that may have specific provisions for funding.

Project Stage: The project stage is primarily focused on demonstration, validation, and implementation of real use cases, as well as end-to-end testing of the platform and its tools. The projects should build on existing testing or other activities carried out by other ECCCH projects, but must not duplicate activities that are funded under other ECCCH projects.

Funding Amount: The funding amounts vary depending on the specific topic and type of action (RIA, IA, CSA). For example, HORIZON-CL2-2025-01-HERITAGE-03 has a budget of EUR 26,000,000 with contributions ranging from EUR 2,500,000 to EUR 4,000,000 and an indicative number of 8 grants. Other topics have budgets ranging from EUR 2,000,000 to EUR 15,000,000 with contributions around EUR 3,400,000 or ranging from EUR 3,000,000 to EUR 5,000,000.

Application Type: The application type is an open call with a single-stage submission process.

Nature of Support: Beneficiaries will receive money in the form of a lump sum grant. They may also provide financial support to third parties (cultural heritage institutions) in the form of grants, up to EUR 60,000 per third party, with a maximum of 15% of the project budget dedicated to this.

Application Stages: The application process is a single-stage process.

Success Rates: The success rates are not explicitly mentioned, but the indicative number of grants for each topic provides some insight into the potential success rate.

Co-funding Requirement: Co-funding requirements are not explicitly mentioned in the provided text.

Summary: This opportunity is a call for proposals under the Horizon Europe program, specifically targeting the Culture, Creativity and Inclusive Society pillar. It focuses on the European Collaborative Cloud for Cultural Heritage (ECCCH) and aims to implement real use cases, conduct end-to-end testing, and improve the platform and its tools. The call encourages participation from a wide range of organizations across Europe, including cultural heritage institutions, research institutions, SMEs, and large enterprises. Projects should contribute to a user-friendly, inclusive, and powerful ECCCH, document innovative uses, extend the user base, and implement improvements to the platform. Funding is provided as a lump sum grant, and consortia are expected to actively participate in the common activities of the ECCCH initiative and coordinate with other related projects. The call emphasizes open-source software development, FAIR data principles, and the use of European data and services like Copernicus and Galileo/EGNOS. The application process is a single-stage submission, and the indicative project duration is 2 to 2.5 years. The overall goal is to enhance the ECCCH and promote its widespread use by European cultural heritage professionals and researchers, enabling new forms of interaction, cooperation, and knowledge generation.