Opening up conversations - how we are selecting proposals for Europeana 2020

Opening up conversations during a pandemic

This year has been a year like no other, and has presented challenges and opportunities unlike any we have faced before.  The global pandemic and the ensuing lockdown demanded that as an Initiative, we build upon our strengths and reimagine our roles in contributing to an open, knowledgeable and creative society through fostering digital capacity. 

From the beginning of the pandemic, the Europeana Foundation, together with the Europeana Aggregators' Forum (EAF) and the Europeana Network Association (ENA) joined forces to support the cultural heritage sector in responding to the challenges posed and catalysed by this global crisis. One of the lessons we learned was about opening up conversations through online events, and we found new ways to connect beyond our traditional partners and networks to a far larger audience.  Over the past few months, around 1,600 individuals registered to join these conversations via webinars, and an extraordinary number, of more than 500 professionals, subsequently joined the ENA over this period. At the same time, the EAF and its pan-European network of national and domain/thematic aggregators hosted several online capacity building events that supported hundreds of cultural heritage institutions in developing their digital skills.

Opening up Europeana 2020

To continue enriching the Europeana Initiative with new perspectives, we have decided to open up 70% of the programme of our upcoming conference to listen to, and learn from, these new voices. Our Europeana 2020 programme committee includes representatives from the Foundation, the ENA and the EAF, and are responsible for selecting our keynote speakers and panelists. To make the event truly participatory they have also drafted a call for proposals and invited others to co-create the conference with us. 

The call is open until September 30, and in addition to the application form, we encourage everyone to prepare a short video of 45 to 90 seconds to pitch their proposal. We are not asking for anything highly polished - even a video shot in the sunshine will do. We look forward to hearing from those who nurture cultural heritage and are eager to share their experiences, their inspirational practice and, of course their dreams of celebrating culture. Find out more about the call.

Europeana 2020 selection committee and criteria

The Selection Committee for these proposals includes a representative from each of the six ENA Communities, a representative from the Aggregators' Forum, the ENA Members Council, and, of course, from the Europeana Foundation. Additionally, our call for proposals details how we would like to give the stage to proposals that will help others create meaningful and lasting social change. This could include ways to address difficult questions around how privilege affects access to culture and inclusivity, gathering diverse opinions, and developing guides on supporting social justice or greening-up their daily activities. To support this goal, the Selection Committee also includes representatives who are working on Inclusivity and Diversity initiatives across Europeana, as well as a representative from our New Professionals Task Force.

The Selection Committee is pleased to publish the criteria they will be using to evaluate and choose the proposals for Europeana 2020, ensuring transparency for everyone who submits an application. You can see the full criteria here.

The Europeana 2020 selection process will go through several iterations with a strict timeline, in a blind review with all proposals considered for both Europeana 2020 as well as Europeana’s digital programme 2021.

You can view the selection committee and criteria on our call for proposals page.

Submit your proposal 

We are encouraging our speakers to be as creative and inspirational as they desire in this call for interactive and engaging talks, events, workshops, sessions or interventions. Proposals can be for sessions ranging anything from five minutes to an hour and we look forward to reviewing your proposal as soon as the call closes on September 30.