Cultural Heritage 2.0: Business Model Evolution Program

<< Background >>The cultural and creative sectors were among the most severely impacted by the COVID19 pandemic. According to the estimates by Eurostat, the COVID-19 crisis may have affected about 7.3 million cultural and creative jobs across the EU, while jeopardizing the sustainability of hundreds of independent organizations in the long run. Specifically cultural heritage sectors dependent on the site visits, including museums, galleries, historic buildings, archaeology, events have suffered significant losses, despite being subsidized (CULT, 2021). It has instigated a rapid push to develop new digital models of customer engagement, which has proven to be a significant challenge for some players within the cultural heritage sector. COVID-19 highlighted existing inequalities between larger cultural heritage organizations and smaller players with lower potential to go digital, general lack of entrepreneurial capabilities to transform rigid traditional business models. Going forward, the recovery of the sector is expected to be similarly reliant on novel ways and models of attracting and retaining customers, where more entrepreneurial approaches and sustainable future business models that embrace digitalization are necessary for all type of CHOs.<< Objectives >>As their first mission, HEIs have an obligation to the European talents and drivers of innovation to equip them with necessary skills for the future though relevant and practical education that employs and responds to real-life challenges. The project aimed to support HEIs to effectively assist the regeneration of the European CH sector in a highly digitalized post-COVID19 world by equipping the academic staff and educators with knowledge, skills and resources to engage with CH sector representatives in educational activities and organize problem-based learning interventions in multidisciplinary student teams. << Implementation >>The project activities were organised as phases around the project's main PRs, which were accompanied by three complementary project activities: Project Management, Dissemination & Exploitation, and Quality Assurance & Evaluation. Phase 1) INVESTIGATION: analysing the post-crisis needs of the cultural heritage sector and building the forward-looking scenarios of potential for transformation of the sector with the special focus on business model evolution. Phase 2) DEVELOPMENT: developing a Cultural Heritage 2.0 Digital Student Consultancy Approach, that comprised of a learning framework and a toolkit for academic staff and educators who would embrace the forward-looking scenarios to facilitate the student consultancy and problem-based learning interventions with real-life practical examples from their local/regional cultural heritage organisations; training the trainers for the delivery and pilot-testing Cultural Heritage 2.0 Digital Student Consultancy Approach course. Phase 3) PILOT-TEST & SHOWCASE: pilot-testing the programme and raising awareness and showcasing inspirational examples of successful business model transformation solutions derived from the students’ projects within the pilot-test.<< Results >>PR1 (all results are downloadable on the project website: https://culture2point0.eu/result-1-future-of-cultural-heritage-sector-scenarios/): -THE FUTURE OF CULTURAL HERITAGE SECTOR SCENARIOS. A free access downloadable document that aims to examine the current needs of the CH sector, amplified by the pandemic crisis while employ foresight research methodology to examine the future and potential business models to sustain the sector (Desk research, qualitative interviews with experts and case studies).-THE COMPETENCIES GAP MAP. A free access downloadable document presenting an overview of the competency deficiencies of three target groups: 1) the CHOs’ staff and leadership 2) HEI academic staff and educators on the topics of Cultural Heritage 3) HEI students in (digital) humanities, art and cultural study programs. The documented competency gaps were identified through desk research and the qualitative analysis of 34 interviews with both CHOs’ experts and leaders, and social and technology trend experts across nine countries.-STATUS QUO REPORT. A free access downloadable document reporting the results of the desk research carried out by the Consortium to investigate the CH sector’s current status quo in a highly digitalised, post-COVID-19 world and highlight: the sector’s challenges and needs both from a European and a regional perspective; the cultural heritage organisations’ (CHOs) staff and leadership’s competency gaps, but also Higher Education Institutions (HEI) academic staff and educators’ competency gaps to support the cultural heritage sector leaders and staff’s competency gaps; the cooperation potential between HEIs and CHOs, and higher education institutions (HEI) academic staff and educators; recommendations to CHOs staff and leadership. The Status Quo report informed and grounded the work of the project’s Digital Student Consultancy Approach Course (PR2).-GOOD PRACTICE CASES COLLECTION OF STUDENT CONSULTANCY PROJECTS. A free access downloadable document exposing successful formats, set ups and delivery models of student consultancy projects based on the sector’s challenges and needs for competencies the CH sector that graduates, as future CH employees could address on regional and European wide levels. The documented cases have been collected through desk research and further articulation of the researched trends on Business Model Evolution for Cultural Heritage.-GOOD PRACTICE CASES COLLECTION OF BUSINESS MODEL EVOLUTION shedding light on the evolution of the Cultural Heritage Organisations’ business models. The cases represent successful physical, digital and/or hybrid business and revenue models that have evolved in the Cultural Heritage sector as a result of the pandemic, based on the sector’s needs and challenges on both regional and European wide levels. Thedocumented cases have been collected through desk research and further articulation of the researched trends on Business Model Evolution for Cultural Heritage.PR2 (all results are downloadable on the project website: https://culture2point0.eu/result-2-digital-student-consultancy-approach-course/): -CULTURAL HERITAGE 2.0 DIGITAL STUDENT CONSULTANCY APPROACH. Based on the needs' research and the forward-looking scenarios for the future of CH sector, we developed (1) a scenario-based learning journeys (2) a comprehensive learning framework and (3) a toolkit for the academic staff and educators to undertake interdisciplinary student consultancy projects based on the real problems from the CH stakeholders in the selected regions/cities.-A set of 50 OPEN EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES (OERs) to support the educators to develop and deliver successful student consultancy projects. By engaging experts from inside and outside the three Universities, challenge-based and problem-based audio podcasts, PDFs and a video were produced and made available on the project website for free download. They are meant to enhance knowledge and awareness on current issues related to the CH sector in the digital, humanities and management fields. PR3 (all results are downloadable on the project website: https://culture2point0.eu/result-3-business-model-evolution-programme-implementation-success-stories-collection/):-GUIDEBOOK FOR EDUCATORS. A booklet intended to guide educators through the pilot test of the student consultancy programme to increase their confidence in developing and applying innovative education programmes in collaboration with the cultural heritage sector in their institutional settings.-SUCCESS STORIES. A digital library of videos highlighting the outstanding student projects and their uptake by the consultancy subjects: the cultural organizations participating in the programme. All videos are available on the project website and on YouTube platform.A2: - Project website: https://culture2point0.eu/- Project Social Media pages: Linkedin (https://www.linkedin.com/company/cultural-heritage-2-0/); Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/culturalheritage2.0/) and Tik Tok (https://www.tiktok.com/@culturalheritage2.0)