The Heritage Management Organization (HERITΛGE) marked this year’s European Heritage Days by joining our fellow consortium partners and hundreds of cultural heritage and climate professionals, researchers, policymakers and other stakeholders from around the world for the launch of the European Partnership for Resilient Cultural Heritage (RCH) in Marseille, France. RCH is co-funded by the European Union. 

With the 2026 European Heritage Days theme, “Heritage at Risk: Revive, Resist, Reimagine,” the gathering offered a timely opportunity to turn attention towards the future of heritage in a changing climate—and the role heritage itself can play in helping communities adapt.

The successful kick-off event, organised by RCH coordinators Fondation des sciences du patrimoine on 29 September 2026, brought together participants in Marseille and online to explore RCH’s ambitions and opportunities for collaboration. Alongside the public launch, meetings of the RCH Executive Board and Partnership Assembly provided opportunities for consortium members to advance their shared work and help shape the initiative’s next steps.

The Kick off event took place at Musée des civilisations de l’Europe et de la Méditerranée (Mucem) and the neighbouring Cosquer Méditerranée which hosted the panels. We extend our warm thanks to both venues, Mucem for organising the event, and the team at Cosquer Méditerranée for stepping in on the day of the launch when disruption caused by strike action in France required additional support. Their responsiveness and hospitality helped make the event a success. The Partnership Assembly came together at the Pharo Campus of the Aix Marseille University with which RCH signed an MoU for cooperation. 

HERITΛGE was represented by its Director, Dr. Evangelos Kyriakidis,  our Communications Lead, Maria Kagkelidou and Roula Gika, our Chief Administrative Officer.

Co-funded by the European Union, RCH brings together more than 90 partners from 30 countries in a ten-year collaboration connecting cultural heritage and climate research. It will support transnational research, strengthen cooperation and help translate knowledge into practical responses to climate change. Its ambition encompasses both protecting heritage from climate impacts and understanding how heritage, traditional knowledge and communities can contribute to adaptation.

HERITΛGE leads the Partnership’s communication, dissemination and exploitation efforts, helping its activities, findings and opportunities reach the people and organisations who can use them. We also contribute to mapping activities and to the development of the Partnership’s capacity-building programme for the coming decade.

That work is swiftly moving from discussion to delivery with the first RCH Seasonal School being delivered by HERITΛGE in Athens and online from 5 to 15 October 2026. Titled Heritage Adaptation to Climate Change, the School will bring together 15 participants in person and more than 100 online for an intensive programme connecting climate science with cultural heritage management. It is the culmination of HERITΛGE’s long standing commitment to climate change adaptation and mitigation for cultural and natural heritage and is led by Dr. Kyriakidis, Professor Peter Brimblecombe, and Dr. Jenny Richards. Through lectures, workshops, field visits and project-based learning, participants will explore climate-related risks and develop approaches to adapting heritage to a changing environment.

We thank our partners from around the world for joining us for the launch of RCH and supporting this major initiative as well as the Seasonal School.