On February the 5th, 2026, took place in Brussels the second ECHOES Policy Event for European, national and regional representatives, policymakers, and cultural heritage experts.
ECHOES (European Cloud for Heritage Science) is a project funded by the European Union. Its commitment is to bring together the Cultural Heritage communities around its leading-edge platform, as well as to present its strategy for the Cloud’s legal entity and governance model.
Aim of the event was discussing the commitment to move towards a distributed, multi-level, collaborative governance for the Cultural Heritage Cloud: a digital ecosystem designed to serve as a platform for cultural heritage professionals, researchers, and institutions across Europe.
The programme included two sessions: the first focused on the legal competences for a multi-level governance and subsidiarity; the second about enabling cooperation in and around the Cloud ecosystem. The latter saw the E-RIHS ERIC director general, Vania Virgili, as part of the panel:
“The Cloud’s true strength lies in what it gives back to the communities it brings together – enabling collaboration, reducing fragmentation, and strengthening what already exists – far beyond what it collects. This is our shared ambition, and the goal towards which we are all here, ready to contribute with all our efforts.”
E-RIHS ERIC’s contribution to the event reinforced its commitment to contribute to the development of open and interoperable digital research ecosystems.
For more information about the event visit https://www.echoes-eccch.eu/the-echoes-second-policy-event/
