Protecting Cultural Heritage in the Digital Age: Venice at the Heart of the European DIGITALIA Project

The European project DIGITALIA – Digital Solutions for Sustainable and Disaster-Resilient Heritage Management, funded by Erasmus+, the European Union’s framework programme for education (2024-1-TR01-KA220-VET-000251597), addresses two crucial challenges for cultural heritage: digital transformation, which is reshaping research, documentation and communication practices, and growing natural and climate-related risks, which call for structured prevention and risk-management strategies.

The project partnership, coordinated by Istanbul University, involves the Directorate of Culture and Tourism of the Province of Antalya, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, the Italian Ministry of Culture, and Ca’ Foscari University of Venice.

From 27 to 29 January 2026, Venice hosted the Digital Heritage Training, one of the project’s key events, which brought together lecturers, researchers, professionals in the cultural heritage sector, and institutional representatives from Italy, Spain, and Turkey. The initiative focused on the role of digital technologies as essential tools for safeguarding cultural heritage, especially water-related heritage, in particularly vulnerable environments. The programme alternated theoretical sessions with discussions and on-site visits to some of Venice’s most important institutions: the State Archives, the Querini Stampalia Foundation, the Procuratoria of San Marco, and the Venice Lagoon Authority, which manages the system of mobile flood barriers (MoSE).

We asked Ca’ Foscari researchers and the project’s Principal Investigator, Professor Sedef Çokay-Kepçe, Director of the Department of Archaeology at Istanbul University, to explain the significance of this initiative.

What outcomes emerged from the discussions at Ca’ Foscari between 27 and 29 January? Did you outline a programme or future actions?

The Digital Heritage Training in Venice from January 27 to 29 was a milestone for DIGITALIA, as Lorenzo Calvelli, the coordinator of the Venice team, notes. The event facilitated dialogue among Ca’ Foscari researchers, local cultural institutions, and project partners, allowing them to consolidate findings from analyses conducted over recent months across Italy, Spain, and Turkey. These results were tested against real-world case studies, highlighting their significance both locally and internationally.

In particular, the activities directly contributed to defining the contents of the DIGITALIA curriculum, one of the project’s main outputs. This online training pathway is dedicated to the digitalisation of cultural heritage and risk management, and, at the end of the project’s 24 months, will be made freely accessible online. The Venice sessions also helped outline the next phases of the work, which will continue in 2026 with further training and exchange activities in Turkey and Spain, culminating in the finalisation of the curriculum and the MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) linked to it.
 

To what extent is the conservation of cultural heritage currently at risk? What are the main critical issues and priority areas for action?

European cultural heritage faces growing vulnerability today, driven by environmental, climate, and structural issues, according to Sabrina Pesce of the DIGITALIA project. These challenges are worsened by organisational and training hurdles, particularly the difficulty in effectively integrating risk management and digital technologies into the daily operations of cultural institutions.

To gather baseline data, over recent months we interviewed a large number of cultural-heritage practitioners, officials from public institutions and sector professionals working in museums, archives, libraries and archaeological sites in the partner countries, as well as university lecturers and students. Based on over 700 questionnaires and individual interviews, we inquired about their confidence in digitalising cultural heritage and risk management, as well as the most significant gaps they perceive. The analyses indicate that risk should not only be viewed in terms of rare catastrophic events but also in relation to gradual, persistent factors like humidity, material decay, and the aging of information infrastructures. In this context, key focus areas for intervention are prevention, preparedness, and digital documentation of heritage, which is seen as a vital tool for safeguarding and sharing knowledge.
 

What do the analyses reveal about the digitalisation of cultural heritage? Which needs appear most evident?

The analyses in partner countries highlight a significant demand for hybrid skills that blend historical and cultural expertise with digital tools and risk management. Elisa Corrò, a researcher on the DIGITALIA project, notes that digitalisation is often viewed as a specialised or isolated field. However, the collected data indicate a strong need to fully incorporate digital practices into heritage protection, conservation, and valorisation efforts.

A particularly evident need concerns the continuing professional development of cultural-heritage practitioners, as well as the updating of university programmes so that they can respond effectively to ongoing transformations. DIGITALIA was conceived precisely to bridge this gap by offering a programme grounded in real, shared needs that have emerged through dialogue with practitioners, institutions and students. Within this framework sits the DIGITALIA curriculum, conceived as a structured training pathway that integrates guidelines, best practices and operational strategies for the digitalisation of cultural heritage and risk management, starting from the actual needs of those who work or study in the field.
 

What interdisciplinary expertise does Ca’ Foscari intend to bring to bear in response to these needs?

Ca’ Foscari brings together a strongly interdisciplinary set of skills, combining the humanities, Digital Humanities, and ongoing dialogue with local institutions, explains Franz Fischer, Director of the Venice Centre for Digital and Public Humanities. In particular, the role of our Centre is to support research and teaching that apply digital tools to the study of cultural heritage and to promote its accessibility and sharing with a broad audience beyond academia.

Within the DIGITALIA project, Ca’ Foscari serves as a bridge between universities and cultural institutions, promoting an approach that treats digital technologies not as ends in themselves but as tools for more informed, sustainable and resilient heritage management. The experience gained in Venice, through collaboration with organisations such as the State Archives, the Querini Stampalia Foundation, the Procuratoria di San Marco and the Venice Lagoon Authority, demonstrates concretely that the Venetian context can serve as a true laboratory for experimentation and training at the European level.
 

Finally, we asked the Principal Investigator of the DIGITALIA project how important dialogue between countries is in addressing shared challenges in the field of cultural heritage

Dialogue between different countries is one of DIGITALIA’s core elements, says Professor Sedef Çokay-Kepçe of Istanbul University. Italy, Spain and Turkey share an extraordinary wealth of cultural heritage, but also a high level of environmental, climatic and seismic vulnerability. By analysing case studies from various contexts, the project facilitates comparisons of local practices, key issues, and solutions, turning them into adaptable reference models. This very Mediterranean comparative approach helps move past isolated methods and develop shared training and operational strategies to tackle common challenges with flexible tools suitable for different settings.