The Second Annual Meeting of ECHOES (European Cloud for Heritage OpEn Science) featured the pan-European recognition of Cyprus Institute research in Digital Cultural Heritage. The meeting took place in Poznań in Poland (16-20 March 2026) bringing together partners, ECCCH (European Collaborative Cloud for Cultural Heritage) sister projects, and representatives of the European Commission. The meeting’s public event, held on March 18,  featured the signing of a Joint Statement on the collaboration between the Data Space for Cultural Heritage promoted by Europeana and the Cultural Heritage Cloud of ECHOES. During the public event, the Cyprus Institute’s APAC Labs / STARC presented its interdisciplinary methodology as the model approach to the creation of the Heritage Digital Twin, which is the chosen digital platform for the future of the ECCCH.

 

Using the work of APAC Labs / STARC for the UNESCO site of St. John Lambadistis monastery in Cyprus, the event’s presentation highlighted CyI research to demonstrate the need for a collaborative cloud for cultural heritage and the creative use of the data space for cultural heritage (Europeana) in a seamless, linear way of cross-collaboration between the two initiatives. Representing CyI at the event presentation, Prof. Nikolas Bakirtzis discussed the layered heritage complexity of the Lambadistis monument to explain the methodology of the proposed digital twin.

 

ECHOES aims to create a shared platform that will provide heritage communities of professionals and researchers access to data, innovative scientific and training resources and advanced digital tools co-developed by the heritage community according to their specific needs. By bringing together fragmented communities of the Cultural Heritage (CH) field, ECHOES will foster a new community around the Digital Commons.

 

The important recognition in Poznan, positioned APAC Labs and STARC at the nexus of the development of ECHOES Heritage Digital Twin, which is also featured in a recent publication led by Prof. Sorin Hermon, CyI’s ECHOES Principal Investigator. The paper is titled: “Preparing the Ground for the European Collaborative Cloud for Cultural Heritage (ECCCH) with heritage digital twins – multi-disciplinary data integration and visualisation for research and conservation: The case-study of a Nativity Icon from Deryneia, Cyprus”. This article demonstrates the potential of the Heritage Digital Twin framework to support integrated, semantically enriched research practices in the field of cultural heritage. By enabling the consolidation and interactive exploration of diverse forms of data, the approach contributes to more comprehensive documentation, analysis, and interpretation of heritage objects. This case study also prepares the foundation upon which the ECCCH will be built.

 

APAC Labs / STARC researchers Avgoustinos Avgousti and Mehmetcan Soyluoglou participated in project meetings and sessions focusing on different aspects of the development of ECHOES. These discussions highlighted how the collaboration across projects, institutions and member states is being strengthened throughout the project.

 

During the event, APAC Labs researchers had the opportunity to exchange progress, receive updates on the overall progress of the project, while also presenting the developments in the work packages they are leading and contributing to. The team highlighted progress in the areas of community building, the Digital Commons Knowledge Base, and the Cloud Environment. Overall,  the Poznań meeting provided a valuable moment to the team to share and exchange ideas with the rest of the partners but also reflect on the next steps of the project in collaboration with the wider Cultural Heritage community.