An Italian company is looking for cultural institutions to support the co-production of a serious game about underwater cultural heritage under research cooperation agreement

Short summary This Italian company is the coordinator of a project funded under the “European Cooperation projects” call. The company has launched an open call for cultural institutions that wish to support the project by joining the partners in the co-production of a serious game about underwater cultural heritage (UCH). The project partner will be able to promote their UCH by including the digital model of one of their sites in the serious game that will coproduced under research cooperation agreement.

Full description This company, established in 2008, is a spin-off company of an Italian university. It has considerable experience in the field of computer graphics and virtual and augmented reality applied to the cultural heritage and industrial engineering fields. In recent years it has focused part of its research and business activities in the blue economy sector. Since 2012, the company has focused on underwater technologies, developing innovative systems for underwater 3D reconstruction and technologies to help the divers during the exploration of underwater archaeological sites. Moreover, the company has considerable experience in developing virtual underwater visits to simulate a diving session on underwater archaeological sites using technologies, like virtual reality. The company has also expertise in designing and developing serious games and digital storytelling to provide the wide public with innovative ways to access the cultural heritage and underwater cultural heritage (UCH). This Italian company is the coordinator of a project funded under the call "European Cooperation projects (CREA-CULT-2021-COOP)", Programme "Creative Europe Programme” (CREA). This project aims at creating a trans-national and cross-sectorial collaboration framework in which cultural institutions, scientific and research bodies, creative professionals, and technology experts can co-produce Culture and Creative Applications and digital products to communicate, disseminate and promote Cultural Heritage, with a special focus on the Underwater Cultural Heritage, and, simultaneously, raise awareness about relevant social problems such as pollution and other environmental threats that affect the oceans. Preservation and protection of Underwater Cultural Heritage (UCH) are directly linked to major threats to the marine environment, including pollution, ghost gears, fisheries, unsustainable yachting/boating etc. The UNESCO Ocean Decade, the EU Green Deal and other international initiatives underscore the growing need for cooperation of all the possible stakeholders, from different disciplines and sectors, to conserve UCH and address related threats. The cultural and creative industries (CCI) can effectively contribute to raising people’s awareness of the need to learn about and protect their underwater natural and cultural heritage by setting up a strong transnational cooperation among themselves and with cultural institutions working in the field of UCH conservation and communication. This cooperation strategy should be based on innovative co-production approaches that facilitate the actors involved to combine their efforts, implement participatory design methods, deal transparently with intellectual property (IP) and copyright issues, thus achieving their common goal of producing cultural products designed to improve communication, promotion and awareness of UCH. The company has launched an open call aimed to select cultural institutions or organizations (e.g.: museums, universities, public bodies, research centers, NGOs, etc...) involved in the research, conservation, protection and/or dissemination of the UCH linked to the Mediterranean cultures, that wish to support the project by joining the partners in the co-production of the serious game. Eligible institutions or organizations operate in the countries that are eligible for Horizon Europe. These institutions/organizations will be able to promote their UCH by including the digital model of one of their sites in the serious game that will be co-produced in the project. Each applicant can propose 1 to 3 UCH sites linked to Mediterranean cultures particularly relevant from the historical and natural/ecological point of view. The cooperation will be carried out under research cooperation agreement. Interested institutions/organizations will be guided through the platform to submit their proposal.

Advantages and innovations Over the years, the Italian company has been involved in several EU-funded successful projects. The main benefits offered by the cooperation to the participating institutions are: - training in digital technologies; - testing of a new co-production model for the co-creation of cultural multimedia applications; - improvement of the public visibility of a specific UCH site. The projects offers a unique opportunity for the staff of the selected institutions/organizations to acquire new digital skills about 3D computer graphics, photogrammetry, and other technologies useful for the documentation and dissemination of UCH.

Contact / source: NEXT EEN Widgets (europa.eu)