Held in Ankara on the 2nd October 2026, the ECCCH-ACCESS Project Kick-Off introduced the project’s aim to connect cultural heritage institutions in Turkey (Türkiye) with the European Collaborative Cloud for Cultural Heritage (ECCCH) ecosystem.
Coordinated by Koç University Suna Kıraç Library and KARMA Lab, in partnership with MÜZEDER, Europa Nostra Türkiye, and Ankara AKS, the event featured presentations introducing the ECHOES consortium and the ECCCH approach, followed by a panel exploring experiences and practices in cultural heritage digitisation in Turkey.
The ECCCH process
ECCCH-ACCESS combines four complementary components:
- awareness and community expansion through webinars and outreach activities;
- sector mapping and feedback collection through surveys and moderated discussions;
- knowledge translation through a dedicated website, multilingual training materials, and
- AI-assisted dissemination; and participatory engagement through hackathons and co-design sessions.
Activities will engage museums, archaeological projects, libraries, researchers, and heritage professionals across Turkey through established institutional and professional networks.
Participants at the Kick-off
Presentation of the Cultural Heritage Cloud
Group photo of all the panelists (in-person)
The panel participants
Panel discussions during the event presented a great opportunity to identify challenges regarding the digitisation of Turkey’s cultural heritage assets. The first session involved presenters briefly highlighting their successful cultural heritage digitisation projects such as LoCloud, HERIFORGE, CC Commons Türkiye, ÜNAK Erasmus Project and MUES (Turkey’s Museum Inventory System). The second session brought together panelists who highlighted the country-wide need to:
(i) centralise regulations on cultural heritage digitisation,
(ii) allow the many successful projects to communicate with each other towards creating common know-how,
(iii) increase collaboration between public and private sectors in cultural heritage management,
(iv) foster open access by acknowledging its high costs of human capital and know-how.
The discussions brought together panelists Tolga Çakmak, Nevzat Özel, Evren Yantaç, Ivon Bensason, Orçun Madran, Fatih Kumsel, Filiz Yenişehirlioğlu, Nurdan Atalan Çayırezmez, Hakan Melih Aygün, Merve Yavuzdemir, Duygu Kevser Karadağ, Cem Birol, M. Sina Mater, Claudio Prandoni, and Deniz Çit, who shared their insights and experiences in the field.
The ECCCH-ACCESS brochure
The audience number varied between 84 and 94. The majority of the participants held an academic position either as a faculty member, graduate student or a postgraduate. The second most common occupation among the audience was librarian (document management). Cultural Heritage management and restoration came as the third most picked occupation among participants. A detailed report on the participant surveys will be avalable in the near future.
