Innovative financing, business and governance models for adaptive re-use of cultural heritage

Topic description

Specific Challenge:

Due to economic problems and social change many historic assets have been facing functional redundancy. These assets are mostly churches no longer used for worship, industrial buildings no longer used for manufacturing, farm buildings no longer used for agriculture, cultural landscapes which are degrading etc. In most instances, the costs for the adaptive re-use of these assets cannot be supported by the public sector or by traditional private sector models relying on return on investment. Innovative financing, business and governance models would fill up this “investment gap” and enable the maintenance of the historic fabric, its integration with the modern world and thus the appreciation of heritage-inherent values and qualities by contemporary societies through optimal adaptive re-use practices.

Projects should:

• map and analyse existing successful business and management models, financing mechanisms and governance arrangements for adaptive re-use of groups of cultural heritage monuments, cultural landscapes, buildings or sites^[1];
• develop and validate methods, tools, indicators and matrixes that would allow for the replication and up-scaling of successful adaptive re-use practices;
• propose innovative governance arrangements also fostering increased participation by citizens, business models, financing instruments (e.g. crowd funding), new forms of partnerships(e.g. public-private, community-based etc.) and strategies for mobilising new investments for adaptive re-use of groups of cultural heritage monuments, buildings or sites and develop and validate methods, tools, indicators and matrixes for assessing their effectiveness and performance;
• identify cultural, social, economic, institutional, legal, regulatory and administrative barriers and bottlenecks at city, regional, national and EU level for adaptive re-use of groups of cultural heritage monuments, buildings or sites, and recommend ways to overcome them;
• develop and validate tools with a replicability potential in different local conditions to assist decision-making processes, using multi-stakeholder approaches, involving local communities and underpinned by social science and humanities expertise, for adaptive re-use of cultural heritage.

Proposals shall address all of the above points and efforts should be made to link cultural with natural capital where appropriate.

Projects should envisage resources for clustering with other projects financed under this topic as well as other projects under the “Cultural Heritage for sustainable growth” part of this call and – if possible – also under other relevant parts of Horizon 2020.

The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of up to EUR 5 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.

Projects are expected to lead to:

• more integrated approaches and strategies for the preservation and valorisation of cultural heritage through its adaptive re-use (securing thus its sustainability) comprising innovative finance (with high leverage capacity), business models and institutional and governance arrangements that foster multi-stakeholder involvement, citizens' and communities engagement and empowerment;
• new investment and market opportunities for businesses in the adaptive re-use of cultural heritage assets, both tangible and intangible, including opportunities for stimulating the creation of start-ups;
• an enabling context for the development and wide deployment of new technologies, techniques and expertise enhancing industrial competitiveness and contributing to economic growth, new skills and jobs;
• innovative adaptive re-use blueprints for culturally, socially and economically inclusive societies with reduced financial and operational burden for the public sector in heritage conservation;
• contribution to implementing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), in particular SDG 1 ‘End poverty in all its forms everywhere’, SDG 15 'Protection, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss' and SDG 11 'Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable'.

Socio-economic science and humanities

[1]The scale of envisaged intervention for adaptive re-use of cultural heritage should have a considerable impact not only for the heritage 'site' for which the adaptive re-use is targeted but also for the larger area in which the 'site' is located.