Country Groups pilot project

These pilot country groups bring together Europeana Network Association (ENA) members, aggregator representatives and others, including those who wish to reuse materials from Europeana.eu.

This decentralised approach aims to complement the work in the Member States happening in other contexts. Country groups should build on initiatives and products like TwinIt! 3D for Europe’s culture, training modules, use cases and translation of the outputs of various ENA Communities.

This page is intended to provide information about the project, keep you updated on its activities in the three countries and to spark interest in setting up and running a country group. 

About the project

In order to increase and demonstrate the value of the investment in the Europeana Initiative and the common European data space for cultural heritage, stronger advocacy and actions are needed to grow their impact within individual countries towards the development of national strategies for digital cultural heritage (DCH). This should include - if not established already - capacities for digital transformation of cultural heritage institutions (CHIs), management of cultural heritage data and its reuse in education and research and by the creative industries.

To set up workable structures for stakeholder cooperation towards this goal, the Europeana Initiative has established a pilot project for country groups. These pilots will, in a first stage, look at increasing the impact of the Europeana Initiative in the European Union Member States (MS),and at improving the relationship between the Europeana Initiative and Member States.

Composition and remit of a country group

As a unit, country groups are to be formed of at least one representative of one aggregator and one ENA Councillor. Potentially, a country group can be of any size, involving as many stakeholder representatives that are volunteering, depending on the specific needs and opportunities of each country. Country groups should organise themselves in such a way that they can act as local hubs of knowledge, expertise and activity, that help facilitate awareness raising among CHI partners, data reusers and policy makers and install new dynamics and foster new connections.

Country group members should agree on the scope of their work and the division of tasks among themselves, responding to national circumstances and dynamics, by mapping of relevant stakeholders and events, setting up or consolidating a national network.

Country groups will operate around a common set of goals, values and ‘rules of engagement’, centrally supported with some resources to facilitate their activities.

Country Group pilots

As a result of broad consultation with ENA and EAF members, it has been agreed to start a cross-Initiative project that will be managed with specified expected outcomes, metrics and a timeline, starting with three pilot countries. The following country groups have been installed and their core leaders appointed:

Bulgaria

• Ms Milena Dobreva, Senior Lecturer, University of Strathclyde

• Ms Radka Kalcheva, Director, Public Library Pencho Slaveykov

• Ms Nelly Nedelacheva, Team Leader project under RRP, Ministry of Culture of Bulgaria

Italy

• Mr Antonio Davide Madonna, Project Lead, CulturaItalia

• Ms Marianna Marcucci, Digital Media Curator, Invasioni Digitali

• Ms Maria Teresa Natale, Project Manager, Michael Culture Association

Slovenia

• Ms Ines Vodopivec, deputy-director, National and University Library of Slovenia

Each of the country groups have a webpage available in their respective languages - explore them below.

Starter pack

As a key element in the facilitation of the pilot country group, a so-called Starter pack has been shared with the representatives of the three to four pilot Country Groups, This pack is intended to provide them with initial information to set up and run a country group.providing background and context and explaining the idea and scope of a country group.

One of the activities of a pilot CG should then be to further develop this towards a generic information pack for future CGs. This Information pack should contain important outputs, such as relevant resources and tools from all of the ENA Communities that are currently available on Pro, as well as specific communication elements and promotional material, all translated in the languages of the countries concerned. You can find the Starter Pack here.

Activity plans

CG leaders will provide Activity Plans for the work they plan to carry out. This plan should contain the following:

• Identify and list the members of your pilot CG, including a description of their roles and responsibilities

• List the suggested members and confirm their interest and participation

• Devise an outline plan of activities, budget and impact assessment for the first year of operations

• Propose a calendar of events, including an internal meeting calendar and possibly an in-country kick-off meeting with members of your CG

You will be able to consult the Activity Plans of each Country Group soon on this page.

Get involved

If you are an ENA member based in Italy, Bulgaria or Slovenia, and you would like to be involved in this initiative, please contact the project manager Mr Ad Pollé via ad.polle@europeana.eu.