The goal of the LATCH project was to assess the feasibility of establishing a public-private partnership to exploit public sector information in the field of cultural heritage through location-based mobile services. More precisely, to assess the viability and profitability of building and running a multilingual, geographically oriented on-line repository of cultural heritage information, accessible via mobile services with extensive location-based functionality.

The project addressed several major sectors - administration, education, academia, entertainment and tourism - that need to use cultural information to augment their services. Because of ready availability of cultural heritage data in the public sector and increased capability of mobile devices and wireless location-based service technologies, there is a great opportunity to disseminate cultural information to new and emerging markets. Combined with a well-defined business model, such services could enable the self-financed restoration of cultural heritage in Europe and in the process increase social cohesion and mutual cultural understanding in Europe.