Preserving the European cultural heritage, thanks to the most innovative digital technologies currently available, and linking together the resources of many centres and European institutes are the two goals of the 4CH Competence Centre. The Centre was launched during the closing event of the European project with the same name, a two-day event that was held on 28 and 29 November at the European Commission headquarters in Brussels. The 4CH-Project Competence Centre for the Conservation of Cultural Heritage, coordinated by INFN and launched in 2021, aimed to prepare the Competence Centre. The project outlined the way ahead for setting up the Centre, which will be formalised next year, and indicated how it would operate. The Centre will involve a collaboration between art, science, and technology to create three-dimensional models of the most important European sites and monuments. These models will be integrated with information on the history of the site or monument, and the results of diagnostic analyses on the structure and materials that compose it, to create exhaustive documentation that is always updated. These data will be available to scholars and experts in various disciplines to monitor the health status of the cultural asset, assess the risks it’s subject to, and define restoration or reconstruction works in the event of damage. Thanks to CNAF, INFN National Computing Centre, the results of the 4CH-Project include a cloud platform prototype that was presented. This prototype can host the services offered by the Centre, including some examples of services that have already been integrated and federated. These include the 3D model displayer offered by the “Inception” partner, the service for managing documentation produced by the project, and the one for displaying the risks to which the main sites and monuments are exposed in real time. The 4CH Competence Centre will soon be supporting institutions and professionals engaged in conserving and enhancing cultural heritage.
