GreenHer Centre of Excellence: Green Heritage Science, GreenHer

Europe’s cultural heritage faces threats from climate change, overtourism and increasing costs of maintenance. Communities that depend on heritage for identity and income need to find a balance between protection and sustainable use in support of the local economies. The EU-co-funded GreenHer project aims to address this issue. Based at the University of Ljubljana, the GreenHer Centre of Excellence brings together researchers from Slovenia, Italy and the UK to reconsider sustainable heritage management. Its four research areas examine green conservation-restoration, sustainable care for heritage landscapes, buildings and sites, digital transition of the heritage sector and community-led stewardship. Through living labs, extended-reality labs and mobile research labs, GreenHer promotes cultural heritage as a driver for sustainable development.

GreenHer CoE is proposed as an innovative, highly interdisciplinary research institute in the domain of green heritage science, supporting sustainable heritage management, its care and understanding and responding to major policies such as the EU Green Deal, the New European Bauhaus initiative, as well as other key EU and national policy drivers. Feeding into heritage and tourism sectors, addressing imbalances between tourism, environment and local population, and utilising heritage as a catalyst for positive change, GreenHer addresses S5 priority of Sustainable Tourism, focussing on social, economic and environmental impacts, and addressing cultural heritage as the driver of tourism industry in Slovenia (12% BDP, 111k jobs), with 50% of tourists engaging with culture/heritage. The CoE, established as an autonomous institute within the University of Ljubljana, will be developed in a mutually reinforcing, win-win partnership with the National Research Council of Italy and University College London, both global leaders in heritage science research, innovation, impact and policy. It will develop 4 research cores: (i) Green conservation-restoration; (ii) Sustainable buildings and sites; (iii) Participatory engagement; (iv) Digital heritage, 7 pilot projects and 8 infrastructure projects (complementary funding), among which are Living Labs, Open Conservation Lab, Mobile Heritage Lab and the Slovenian Collaborative Cloud for Cultural Heritage. With 40 FTEs of excellent management, technical and research personnel covering SSH and STEM disciplines, a comprehensive range of research, innovation and impact activities, GreenHer will represent a unique, cutting-edge research institute in the Widening region, reducing the inequalities and disparities in ERA and strengthening the heritage science domain. The demonstrated excellence of the partnership shows a high likelihood of long-term sustainability of the GreenHer CoE, becoming a driver of change in the region and globally.