E-RIHS.it

The Italian node of the European Research Infrastructure for Heritage Science

E-RIHS.it is the distributed research infrastructure for Heritage Science and serves as the Italian node of the European Research Infrastructure for Heritage Science (E-RIHS ERIC), the European research infrastructure dedicated to the study, conservation, and enhancement of cultural heritage.

E-RIHS.it brings together expertise, advanced technologies, innovative methodologies, and digital resources to provide the scientific community with access to high-quality services for the study, conservation, and enhancement of cultural heritage, promoting an interdisciplinary approach to heritage research.

Recognized as a research infrastructure of strategic importance for Italy, E-RIHS.it was formally established in 2018 as a Joint Research Unit involving CNR, INFN, and ENEA, and has benefited from financial support from the Italian Ministry of University and Research (MUR) since 2016.

As the Italian node of E-RIHS ERIC, E-RIHS.it helps strengthen Italy’s leadership in the European Heritage Science landscape, fostering international scientific collaboration and the sharing of best practices.

The Italian node is currently composed of the following CNR Institutes:

  • ISPC (Istituto di Scienze del Patrimonio Culturale | Firenze, Milano, Roma, Napoli, Catania, Potenza, Lecce)
  • SCITEC (Istituto di Scienze e Tecnologie Chimiche “Giulio Natta” | Perugia), in collaboration with SMAArt, Centro di Eccellenza dell’Università di Perugia operating in the field of art research and conservation
  • INO (Istituto Nazionale di Ottica | Firenze, Napoli)
  • ISTI (Istituto di Scienza e Tecnologie dell’Informazione | Pisa)

E-RIHS.it is coordinated by Costanza Miliani, interim Director of the Istituto di Scienze del Patrimonio Culturale del Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerhe (CNR ISPC).

Services and Activitie

E-RIHS.it provides access to laboratories, scientific instruments, expertise, and data for cultural heritage research. Through its platforms and partner network, it supports excellence-driven Heritage Science projects, fosters collaboration among researchers, organizes training and networking activities, and promotes the dissemination of research results and innovation in the cultural heritage sector.

Access to the laboratories of the Italian node is provided through the TransNational Access calls launched by E-RIHS ERIC. Proposals are evaluated by international experts based on scientific excellence, and for selected projects, access to the infrastructure and services is provided free of charge.

The research platforms

MOLAB – Mobile Laboratory
MOLAB is the mobile laboratory platform of E-RIHS.it dedicated to non-invasive and non-destructive diagnostic investigations of cultural heritage. The platform provides access to a wide range of portable instruments and specialized expertise for conducting in situ scientific analyses of artworks, museum collections, monuments, archaeological sites, historic buildings, and other cultural heritage assets.

In recent years, MOLAB has played a leading role in major diagnostic campaigns across Italy and Europe, contributing to significant scientific advances in the understanding of some of the most important masterpieces and cultural heritage sites in Europe. The platform’s mobile nature enables technologies to be brought directly to objects and sites of interest, avoiding transportation and reducing risks to the cultural assets under investigation.

FIXLAB – Fixed Laboratories
FIXLAB is the E-RIHS.it platform that brings together a network of specialized scientific laboratories providing access to advanced analytical techniques for the study of cultural heritage materials and objects. Analyses are carried out at the laboratories’ facilities on samples or objects submitted by researchers, with the aim of addressing specific scientific questions related to composition, provenance, degradation processes, manufacturing techniques, and the conservation of heritage assets.

DIGILAB – Digital Laboratory 
DIGILAB is the digital platform of E-RIHS.it dedicated to the management, sharing, and reuse of Heritage Science research data. It serves as a unified hub capable of acquiring, processing, normalizing, and exposing heterogeneous data from different disciplines and platforms, making them semantically harmonized and interoperable, thereby enabling cross-disciplinary knowledge discovery processes.

Developed according to FAIR principles, the platform provides the scientific community with an ecosystem of tools, services, and data that enables users to deposit their research data together with the scientific processes that generated them (for example through Movida 2.0, dedicated to diagnostic data), share them either openly or within restricted working groups, process them using the scientific applications federated within the ecosystem (through the Collaborative Virtual Research Environment, CVR-E, and the Data Catalog), and ultimately make them publicly available and universally discoverable by assigning them a unique Digital Object Identifier (DOI) and publishing them through the Data Portal.

Coordinated by CNR ISPC, DIGILAB promotes data-driven research and supports the development of an open digital ecosystem for cultural heritage, laying the foundations for advanced digital representations of cultural assets (Heritage Digital Twins) and ensuring digital continuity for the diagnostic and conservation activities carried out through MOLAB and FIXLAB.

Training, networking and innovation

E-RIHS.it fosters a collaborative ecosystem that connects researchers, cultural heritage professionals, companies, and institutions. Through doctoral programmes (PhD-HS.it and PASAP Med), as well as training camps, workshops, specialised training programmes, and networking initiatives, the Italian node supports the growth of the Heritage Science community and promotes the development of the skills needed to address the challenges of cultural heritage conservation and enhancement. Particular attention is devoted to technology transfer and innovation, with the aim of transforming research results into tools and methodologies that can be effectively applied to heritage preservation.

Research and competitive projects

E-RIHS.it supports national and international research projects aimed at the study of materials, artistic techniques, conservation processes, and cultural heritage preservation strategies. The node’s activities contribute to the advancement of scientific knowledge and the development of innovative technological solutions supporting museums, cultural institutions, heritage authorities, and the wider scientific community.

The CNR ISPC role

within E-RIHS.it

As the national coordinator, CNR ISPC plays a strategic role in the development and consolidation of E-RIHS.it, ensuring the scientific and organizational coordination of the network, representing Italy within the European framework, and fostering collaboration among the infrastructure’s partners. Drawing on its extensive interdisciplinary expertise and its widespread presence across the country, ISPC contributes to the advancement of Heritage Science and to strengthening Italy’s position as an international reference point for cultural heritage research.

The CNR ISPC Scientific Network

within E-RIHS.it

Archaeological Mapping Lab →
Built Heritage Innovation Lab →
Digital Heritage Innovation Lab →
Geophysics Lab →
Heritage Conservation Lab →
Heritage Materials Science Lab →
Manuscripts and Archives | Research Group →
Open Science | Gruppo di Ricerca →
Raman Lab →
Digital Representation and Survey Lab →
Remote Sensing e Spatial Data Science Lab →
XRAYLab →

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More info

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E-RIHS ERIC →