Celebrating 10 years of ANTECIPA

Towards the end of May, E-RIHS attended the Symposium “ANTECIPA 10 Years: Legacies and Horizons of Heritage Science in Brazil” to celebrate a decade of operations of the National Association for Research in Heritage Technology and Science (in Brazilian, Associação Nacional de Pesquisa em Tecnologia e Ciência do Patrimônio – ANTECIPA).  

The event took place in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, bringing together international guests, including E-RIHS ERIC Director General Vania Virgili and the National Nodes Committee Vice-Chair Emilio Cano. The attendees were warmly guided by the organisers, Professors Luiz A.C. Souza and Willi de Barros Gonçalves. The core idea of the symposium was to start from the trajectories built to project the technological challenges that will shape the next decades; this, to reaffirm the commitment to contribute to a researchers network and the production of excellent scientific research  (details of the programme are available in EN here)  

Although Brazil is not currently a member state, the ANTECIPA and E-RIHS collaboration dates back 10 years: a friendship which has evolved into current joint actions that seek to shape future perspectives.  

It all started in 2015 when ANTECIPA was founded during an IPERION meeting (the European project that, together with other European projects, represents the background of E-RIHS) at the Federal University of Minas Gerais. Three years later, in 2018, ANTECIPA was legally registered and has since been consolidating itself as a transdisciplinary forum for Heritage Science in Brazil. 

At present, the relationship between E-RIHS and ANTECIPA is formalised through a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed on October 11th, 2024, which defines their mutual cooperation to advance Heritage Science. The MoU has been signed ahead of the International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction (celebrated every year on October 13th) to underscore the importance of international cooperation on cultural heritage in the context of climate change and human impacts. 

The ANTECIPA association once more demonstrated a great interest and sensitivity to these themes. A full day of the Symposium week was dedicated to visiting the Brumadinho Memorial and the Katurama and Naô Xohã villages, where a small community of the Pataxó people has found a new but still threatened place to live. Two visits that will remain in the memory and heart of all participants. 

Brazil has a lot to tell about heritage: from art, in all its shapes and forms, to biodiversity, passing through environmental restoration and protection of indigenous communities’ legacy. Favouring collaborative networks, ANTECIPA has been seeking to promote Heritage Science in Brazil and inspire new generations of specialists dedicated to safeguarding cultural assets. This ten-year milestone serves not only as a retrospective but as a starting point.  

Throughout this Symposium, ANTECIPA showed great consideration for E-RIHS ERIC activities and friendship: well-remembered was the role, ideas and personality of Professor Antonio Sgamellotti (1939-2025), who dedicated his life with great enthusiasm to science and art, including pioneering the Mobile Laboratory (MOLAB), and to whom both Vania Virgili and Luiz A.C. Souza dedicated their speech for celebration and commemoration.