SoPHIA

As part of the Horizon 2020 project SoPHIA, we worked together with our European partners to develop a holistic impact assessment model for historical, ecological, and cultural heritage sites across Europe, with the aim of making the effects of heritage interventions identifiable. The project’s social platform brought together research communities, practitioners, public and private stakeholders, and policy makers at local, national, and international level. In doing so, SoPHIA strengthened the European heritage sector and laid the groundwork for a sustainable and quality-assured heritage policy.

Within the project, we analysed research literature, policy programmes, and practical experience, identifying key themes, gaps, and challenges in heritage impact assessment. Building on this, we mapped good practices for capturing the effects and quality of interventions across economic, social, ecological, and cultural dimensions, and developed an impact assessment model that was tested and iteratively refined at various European heritage sites, including the MuseumsQuartier Wien and the Jewish Cemetery Vienna. In addition, a toolkit was produced for practitioners and other stakeholders, containing recommendations and quality standards, as well as guidelines for an EU action plan covering funding programmes, research, and public policy measures. European heritage stakeholders were involved throughout all phases of the project.

SoPHIA sharpened awareness of how heritage interventions produce effects across the defined dimensions. Together with our partners, we delivered a tested impact assessment model, a practice-oriented toolkit with recommendations and standards, and guidelines for EU programmes and cultural policy, equipping the heritage sector to systematically account for impacts and to safeguard quality over the long term.

SoPHIA was funded by the European Union under the Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation programme, and was implemented, over 2020 and 2021, by Universitá degli Studi Roma 3 – UNIROMA3 (Lead partner), in collaboration with Interarts, Stichting European Museum Academy – EMA, National Technical University of Athens – NTUA, Dún Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design & Technology – IADT, and the Institute for Development and International Relations – IRMO.

Picture: CC unsplash/Alhambra, Granada, Spain by Marco Montero Pisani, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped Original