ARXIVE at the ECHOES Annual Meeting 2026: Shaping the Future of the Cultural Heritage Cloud in Poznań
The ARXIVE project was pleased to take part in the Second Annual Meeting of the ECHOES project, held in Poznań, Poland on 18 and 19 March 2026. The meeting brought together key initiatives contributing to the European Collaborative Cloud for Cultural Heritage, alongside representatives of the European Commission and a broad range of stakeholders from across the cultural heritage sector.
Alexandra Garatzogianni and Michael Fribus from Leibniz University Hannover and Lazaros Ioannides from the Open Knowledge Foundation Greece represented the ARXIVE project, introducing its vision, core components, and expected impact. More specifically, Alexandra Garatzogianni presented the project’s key exploitable results, its planned use cases, and its approach to integrating tools and services within the broader ECCCH ecosystem, during the Horizon Europe CL2 Coordinators’ Day, hosted by the European Research Executive Agency of the European Commission. Particular attention was given to ARXIVE’s role in advancing interoperability and supporting the development of a shared digital infrastructure for cultural heritage.
The ECHOES Annual Meeting provided an important opportunity to align with partner projects and engage in discussions on ongoing developments, future priorities, and collaboration strategies. The programme highlighted the rapid progress being made towards a European Cultural Heritage Cloud and underlined the importance of coordinated efforts in building sustainable, interoperable solutions. The public sessions further demonstrated the growing interest of stakeholders in leveraging the Cultural Heritage Cloud for research, preservation, and wider societal use.
Launched in January 2026 under the EU programme Culture, Creativity and Inclusive Society, ARXIVE (Advanced Research and eXploration for Interoperable Value in European Heritage) aims to transform the documentation, analysis, and dissemination of cultural heritage. The project is developing advanced digital tools and methodologies that enable semantically rich and context-aware documentation of both tangible and intangible cultural heritage. By integrating high-quality 3D reconstructions, annotation systems, AI-supported bibliography tools, and narrative-building applications, ARXIVE contributes to improving the accessibility, interoperability, and long-term sustainability of cultural heritage data.
A key aspect of ARXIVE is its strong alignment with European standards and its commitment to interoperability, ensuring that its solutions can be effectively integrated into the ECCCH environment. Through pilot activities in Greece and Portugal, the project will validate its technologies in real-world settings, while also fostering collaboration and knowledge exchange across the cultural heritage community.
Reflecting on the meeting, ARXIVE Coordinator Alexandra Garatzogianni emphasised the strategic importance of collaboration within the ECCCH ecosystem:
“ARXIVE is positioned at the intersection of technological innovation and cultural heritage research. Our participation in the ECHOES Annual Meeting reaffirmed the importance of interoperability, shared standards, and cross-project collaboration for building the European Collaborative Cloud for Cultural Heritage. By working closely with the wider ECCCH community, we are contributing to a sustainable and integrated infrastructure that will support the future of digital heritage in Europe.”
The meeting in Poznań clearly demonstrated that meaningful progress is being achieved through strong cooperation between projects, institutions, and policymakers. ARXIVE looks forward to continuing its active engagement within the ECCCH ecosystem and contributing to the next phase of developments in building a truly collaborative European Cultural Heritage Cloud.