With the aim of developing a CRA (Collaborative Research Action, see the background below) with the Belmont Forum, the JPI Cultural Heritage and the JPI Climate will hold two online Scoping Workshops in September to refine research funding priorities and develop initial CRA text and framing. We therefore would like to invite you to save the following dates as your participation will be very helpful and much appreciated:
Details will be announced over the course of August on this very page. Please do spread the news so it can reach research communities in all Belmont Forum regions beyond Europe! Although the workshops prioritise the participation of researchers from Asia and the Americas, researchers from other regions (Africa and Europe) are also welcome. (European aspect of the subject has been covered through the White Paper process, while a special workshop was held with the African community).
Climate change is having an increasing and lasting impact on our environment and society. Cultural heritage is in no ways spared: tangible and intangible assets are exposed to new risks and their vulnerability is far greater. Researchers have already begun to investigate the impacts of climate change, but there is still a need to complement existing findings and to ensure that these contribute to future prevention and adaptation policies. Whilst cultural heritage is often described as being challenged by climate change, global agreements – such as the 2015 Paris Agreement and the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) – acknowledge its potential to play an active part in the transition towards more sustainable models.
Many opportunities have arisen from research, and many are still to be discovered. Research must further explore how to make cultural heritage a readily available resource for climate mitigation and sustainable development. Research in the field of cultural heritage and climate change on individual geopolitical regions, or a few in the immediate vicinity of one another, remains prevalent. In this context, there are opportunities to promote multidisciplinary research and knowledge exchange across several regions. For example, regions with similar environmental and socioeconomic challenges and opportunities, regions with similar types of heritage, as well as regions that have experienced challenges for which they have found solutions that might inform decisions elsewhere. There are currently few opportunities to highlight research gaps and priorities and to inform those who fund research. It is for this reason that two Joint Programming Initiatives with a focus on Cultural Heritage and Climate Change came together to publish a joint White Paper. It is vital that research communities across regions collaborate to address the knowledge gaps identified within the paper at the global level and to safeguard our cultural heritage for future generations.
Given the global nature of the challenge, both JPIs have been exploring the possibility of engaging more with international research and funding networks such as the Belmont Forum. The latter’s Scientist and stakeholder support is made possible through Collaborative Research Actions (CRAs), which are the Forum equivalent of a call for proposals. Answering it, the two JPIs propose to develop a CRA entitled ‘Cultural Heritage and Climate Change: New challenges and perspectives for research’ that aims to identify and fund relevant and pressing priorities for research at the interface between cultural heritage and climate change.
