Cultural Heritage in Action is an EU-funded project that ran between January 2020 and January 2023 and empowered cities and regions to strengthen their cultural heritage policies and initiatives as well as develop innovative solutions to preserve cultural heritage assets.

The project promoted cultural heritage as a tool for local sustainable development, exploring new roles for local and regional authorities in governance and financing and enhancing citizens' participation and contribution to the preservation and development of heritage sites.

The project focused on several interlinked and cross-cutting topics, among which the recovery and resilience of cultural heritage sites in a post-pandemic world, recognizing the importance of cultural heritage in promoting well-being and social cohesion, the adaptive reuse of heritage buildings and the quality of interventions on cultural heritage.

Over the last three years, the project brought together hundreds of local policy-makers, cultural heritage specialists, and practitioners and facilitated peer-learning activities, which generated the following outcomes:

• a digital toolbox for culture and cultural heritage specialists featuring good practices and findings from the peer-learning activities
• a catalogue of 60 good practices highlighting local innovative practices
• a thematic analysis capturing knowledge from three years of learning with local practitioners
• short videos showcasing cultural heritage from different cities and regions

The project's outcomes and results are expected to be valuable for cultural heritage specialists, policy-makers, and practitioners worldwide.

Learn more about the project and what the EU does for culture in cities and regions here.