SD-WISHEES TAP Action: Scientific collaboration for heritage at risk
The acronym SD-WISHEES stands for “Supporting and Developing WIdening Strategies to tackle Hydroclimatic Extreme Events: impacts and Sustainable solutions for cultural heritage”. Officially launched in January 2023, SD-WISHEES aims to develop innovative tools and strategies to enable collaboration between diverse stakeholders in Europe and beyond to inclusively address the increasing threats posed to cultural heritage by hydroclimatic extreme events, such as droughts and floods. Cultural heritage encompasses not only historical and natural sites but also intangible assets like knowledge and traditions. Additionally, SD-WISHEES also contributes to EU and international policy frameworks related to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and widening strategies, ensuring that cultural heritage preservation remains a priority in the face of climate change challenges.
Amongst other results, SD-WISHEES aims to implement a Thematic Annual Programming (TAP) action. However, additional projects/ countries may join the TAP up to six months after the Kick-off meeting.
The TAP is a networking and collaborating instrument between research nationally-funded projects on a common topic. The objectives of this instrument are to:
- Enhance the overall impact of cross-sector collaboration to address the protection and sustainable management of cultural heritage in Europe. The aim is also to have a better understanding of the impacts on cultural heritage, identify the best available adaptation solutions in response to hydroclimatic extreme events.
- Enable the exchange of knowledge, data, and research methodologies, giving research teams the possibility to expand their expertise in the domain and identify possible areas for cooperation.
- Harmonize national funding programs. Prior to launching the TAP, participating countries had to reach a consensus on the research themes of interest for the SD-WISHEES TAP. This represented an important effort that resulted in a Terms of References (ToR) document that thoroughly describes the themes of the TAP. This alignment effort also ensures that resources are effectively mobilized and that collaborative efforts are directed towards shared priorities.
The SD-WISHEES TAP Action on the “protection of cultural heritage in response to hydroclimatic extreme events” currently brings projects from France, Greece, Malta, Moldova and Romania.
The launch event held on the 20th and 21st February, at the ANR, France, introduced the TAP governance structure and objectives to the selected projects while also providing clarifications on the associated processes. But the core of the TAP Kick-Off was the presentation of each national project participating in the TAP Action. 10 research projects from 5 different countries highlighted their research topics and expectations of the SD-WISHEES TAP on Cultural Heritage and Climate Change.
At the time of writing this article, members of selected projects are working on an implementation plan in order to delineate actions for the next two years. Amongst other actions, TAP members will work on a paper setting out key knowledge gaps in the field of climate, water and cultural heritage, as well as on the development of a policy brief highlighting the importance of cultural heritage protection for the well-being of ecosystems and society in general.