IPERION HS was an Integrating Activity (IA) project finalized to further integrate key national facilities in view of the establishment of the European Research Infrastructure for Heritage Science, E-RIHS. The project attempted to widen the participation to E-RIHS by including additional partners from countries not yet engaged in the consortium. IPERION HS has been the last IA of 4 projects spanning more than 20 years, supported by the EC to integrate the community of heritage science. The project marked a further step towards a unified scientific approach to the most advanced European instruments for the analysis, interpretation, preservation, documentation, and management of heritage objects in the fields of art history, conservation, archaeology, built heritage and palaeontology.
IPERION HS core activity has been the provision of Trans-National Access (TNA) to a wide range of high-level scientific instruments, methodologies, data, and tools for advancing knowledge and innovation in the domain. This TNA provision allowed to sustain and to enlarge the user groups of E-RIHS, in view of its establishment in the legal form of ERIC, expected by the end of this year. More than 50 access providers composed a catalogue of more than 150 services which were offered to heritage science users in the last 4 years. IPERION HS partnership counted 67 partner institutions from 23 Countries clustered around their national nodes.
IPERION HS made world-class scientific tools and knowledge available to heritage scientists by issuing 7 calls for access during the project lifetime, approximately one each 6 months. The calls offered TNA to three integrated platforms: ARCHLAB, FIXLAB and MOLAB.
In addition to TNA services, IPERION HS contributed joint innovative research focused on advancing diagnostics and improving interoperability of sample materials, methods, instruments and data. Research themes included an extensive study about how to exploit the capacities of the RI to allow for better preventive conservation, how to avoid the potential undesired effects of measurements on heritage objects, how to better analyse and describe paleontological and paleoanthropological specimens, how to advance the use of digital data in archaeology and how to structure heritage science data for their use in the European Open Science Cloud.
IPERION HS Networking Activities represented a coordinated approach to solve key issues for the integration of national nodes and facilities into a fully operational pan-European RI. Networking also aimed at reinforcing the binding in the group and at creating a sense of belonging for heritage science researchers who exploit the RI services. Targeted actions were developed to support interoperability, sustainability, exploitation and innovation, user engagement and training and engagement of scholars in new user communities.