About Generic Services projects
Generic Services projects support cultural heritage institutions in their digital transformation and aim to increase the amount of high-quality content and metadata provided to Europeana. Currently, there are 12 running projects funded under four CEF Telecom calls for a total of nine million euros. The majority of these projects (75% or nine projects) operate under the 2019 and 2020 Europeana Generic Services calls, whereas the remainder have been granted financing under the 2018 Public Open Data and 2020 eTranslation and eArchiving calls.
All of these projects contribute to Europeana’s strategic areas: infrastructure, data quality and capacity building. They also strengthen the connections to other digital services infrastructures, such as automated Translation and eArchiving, expanding Europeana’s interoperability, capacity and outreach.
The projects aggregate millions of high-quality items and metadata to the Europeana website, including data in great demand (like 3D models, audiovisual records and enrichments). The projects also deliver innovative tools and services to extend infrastructure capabilities, particularly supporting multilinguality, 3D representation and automated enrichments. To ensure the successful adoption and long-term use of the above developments, the projects develop a wide array of multilingual online resources and capacity building activities to help cultural heritage professionals build up their skills and knowledge in these respective areas.
Finally, the projects enhance the outreach to, and connections with, Europeana’s new and existing audiences through various editorials and events. Some of the projects engage with specialist (craftsmen) and minoritised (Roma) communities and support cultural heritage institutions in exploiting opportunities related to tourism and territorial development.
An event to explore, share and connect
In mid-October 2021, our online, two-day event brought together the professionals and experts working on Generic Services projects as well as the European Commission’s funding and executive bodies DG Connect and HaDEA. The event showcased the goals and achievements of the current Generic Services projects and also provided a forum to discuss common challenges, find synergies and strengthen connections.
On the first day of the event, running projects presented their work, while on the second, breakout sessions explored specific topics in depth. User engagement was on the agenda, with participants exploring how projects can work with Europeana to improve the discoverability, accessibility and multilinguality of the editorials. Key to supporting this work, data aggregation was also discussed, with participants showing great interest in the Metis Sandbox tool as well as the potential of 3D content - and the challenges of its aggregation. Two sessions focusing on advanced technologies (including AI, enrichments, annotations and APIs) were the most popular. They featured guest mini-presentations on specific project developments and made clear the need and shared aspiration for continuous discussions and collaboration.
Beyond the technical topics, two sessions also looked into impact and capacity building - key areas of work for Europeana. Participants explored how to embed a standardised approach to impact assessment in the early stages of the projects as well as how to make impact a central element of their capacity building planning.
Finally, to support participants in improving their project management practices, Kyriaki Tragouda, Project Officer at HaDEA, shared insightful information and tips around project reporting, management and validation. You can find out more about this by watching the video recordings of HaDEA’s webinars on grant agreement preparation and implementation.
The value of the Generic Services projects was also highlighted by the European Commission. DG Connect representatives Katerina Moutogianni and Fulgencio Sanmartin, who oversee the Europeana DSI programme, said, ‘The Generic Services projects play a key role in achieving the strategic objectives for the Europeana DSI; therefore, the high quality of their results can’t be emphasised enough. We strongly encourage the closer collaboration between the projects and the Europeana Foundation to ensure best outcomes and their successful integration into the Europeana CSP [Core Service Platform] to the benefit of all’.
Find out more
Couldn’t attend the event or would like to refresh your impressions? Take a virtual tour through all project presentations to learn more about their plans and contributions. Also, don’t forget to register for the Europeana 2021 conference where you can meet (some of) the projects in virtual poster sessions and /or in the online networking sessions.