We are proud to announce the publication of the State-of-the-Art Review: Digitisation of Cultural Heritage – Methodologies, Technologies and Best Practices.
This landmark report presents the outcomes of an international survey that reached over 1,200 professionals and institutions across the globe, mapping the current landscape of digitisation practices and identifying the key challenges and opportunities shaping the future of cultural heritage.
The survey, led by Heritage Malta and the UNESCO Chair on Digital Cultural Heritage at the Cyprus University of Technology, with the collaboration of other HERITALISE partners, provides a global overview of how museums, archives, universities, and heritage organisations are engaging with digital tools to document and preserve both tangible and intangible heritage.
The report highlights several crucial findings:
- Growing global commitment to safeguarding heritage through digital means, despite fragmentation and resource limitations.
- Widespread reliance on 3D scanning and photogrammetry, yet challenges remain in interoperability and data sharing.
- Limited open access to digital assets and the need for consistent metadata and paradata standards.
- Emerging adoption of AI and advanced modelling, with strong demand for clearer frameworks and shared best practices.
- Urgent needs for funding, training, and international collaboration to build a more cohesive global ecosystem.
Perhaps most importantly, the findings point toward a paradigm shift: from digitisation as replication to digitisation as memory stewardship — a transition that acknowledges not only the physical characteristics of heritage but also its cultural, historical, and social context.
This State-of-the-Art Review represents a major milestone in HERITALISE’s mission to create a sustainable, inclusive, and interoperable future for cultural heritage. It will serve as the foundation for the next stages of the project, including the development of new methodologies, standards, and collaborative frameworks that align with the goals of the European Collaborative Cloud for Cultural Heritage (ECCCH).
Read and download it here.
ECHOES is a project funded by the European Commission under Grant Agreement n.101158081. The views and opinions expressed in this website are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the European Commission.
