On November 19th, 2019, in 2 focus groups and 8 co-creation ateliers took place in Les Ateliers des Tanneurs in Brussels. The ultimate goal of these events was to further develop and co-create our knowledge on heritage-led innovation and how it can contribute to better international relations.
The aim was also to build on the specific objective of turn the scientific results into an end-user handbook with well-defined concepts and enablers to implement projects.
These events brought together the ILUCIDARE consortium members, experts and practitioners from West, North and South Europe as well as international guests of the ILUCIDARE Playground, to discuss and co-create in a dynamic and interactive way. In particular, we closely collaborated with the Horizon 2020 project ECHOES so their research would nourish the outputs in terms of heritage-led diplomacy.
Participants in the focus group dedicated to heritage-led innovation highlighted the need of a multidisciplinary approach to unlock the potential of heritage and integrate it in the SDGs.
“A good learning opportunity, to get different perspectives and from different professions.”
“I prove for myself that we think the same thing, and we are on the right path: questioning big problems in heritage even in a small company.”
Meanwhile, the participants of the heritage-led diplomacy focus group underlined the need to downscale diplomacy to participatory level and approach diplomacy as a methodology applicable at local, national and international levels.
“It feels good to see that they are not the only one experiencing these barriers, that others have the same.”
“Everyone participated instead of a one-way communication. It was helpful to downscale diplomacy to a participatory level.”
After the focus groups, the co-creation ateliers took place in two identical rounds around 4 conversation lines:
- heritage as a resource, in relation to which it was emphasized the importance for tailor-made processes and taking into account the peculiarity of the local context;
- assimilations of innovation, in relation to which it was highlighted the need to focus on reaching citizens to make them understand the social importance of heritage;
- international relations, in relation to which it was emphasized the need for two-way exchanges;
- EU and UN cross-synergies, in relation to which it was underlined the need to dedicate a part of budgets in specific human resources taken care of proper coordination.
A detailed report of all focus groups and co-creation ateliers which took place as part of ILUCIDARE in available in the Resources section (check below)!
