3DBigDataSpace: Data Synergy Call

The 3DBigDataSpace project aims to expand the collection of high-quality 3D content in the common European data space for cultural heritage. It is envisioned to establish a stable, long-term storage solution for 3D cultural heritage assets and metadata from various providers and aggregators. The project will enhance the findability, contextualisation, and reusability of 3D content by developing AI tools for data enrichment and harmonisation as well as trialling virtual/augmented reality viewers and 4D world applications. 3DBigDataSpace is funded by the European Union and is realised by twelve cooperating organisations.

The Time Machine Organisation (TMO) is the coordinator of the 3DBigDataSpace project. The TMO maintains and curates an international network of currently more than 150 projects and initiatives – Local Time Machine (LTM) projects – dealing with history and heritage in specific cities or regions. The TMO’s primary mission is to develop an open digital space that enables users to explore the evolution of cultural heritage sites and artefacts across different eras. The TMO drives strategic development and innovation in the field, influences policy, fosters global collaboration and sustainability, and co-creates interdisciplinary research bridging technology and the humanities.

On behalf of the 3DBigDataSpace project, the TMO invites applications from organisations under this call. Two 3D projects will each be awarded EUR 10.000 for providing 3D assets and metadata for aggregation to the Data Space. The selected projects will benefit from processing, standardisation, and long-term preservation of their 3D assets, which will ensure their accessibility and interoperability within the cultural heritage community.

This call is the first one in a series of calls within the TMO Synergy Grants Programme. Further calls on application development and digitisation training will be available in the next months.

Target Audience

This call is open to organisations dealing with 3D heritage digitisation and modelling such as:

• GLAM institutions (i.e. galleries, libraries, archives, museums)
• Research groups (e.g. universities, institutes, R&D departments)
• Public stakeholders (e.g. local administrations, tourism offices)
• Private stakeholders (e.g. 3D scanning companies, XR application developers, NGOs)

Target Content

We seek submissions representing a diverse range of 3D captured or reconstructed assets across different scales, geographic and temporal contexts, cultural and historical significance. Categories of interest include:

1. Built Environment & Heritage Sites

• Single or collections of architectural structures: e.g. building complexes like churches, houses, hospitals, schools, civil edifices, or monuments, and infrastructure like bridges or stations
• Urban-scale scenes: e.g. settlements or parts of settlements such as old towns, agricultural or industrial heritage sites, gardens and other recreational sites
• Archaeological sites: e.g. ruins, earthworks, excavated remains, historical landscapes, castles, caves and underground sites, museum villages, underwater heritage, lost environments

2. Movable Cultural & Archaeological Artefacts

• Single or collections of artefacts: e.g. sculptures, ceramics, glassware, metalwork, woodwork, tools, manuscripts, textiles, jewellery, musical instruments, and artworks; curated heritage sets grouped by theme, period, or provenance
• Means of transportation: e.g. historic ships, cars, trains

We welcome submissions that include either:

• Reality-based models: e.g. captured through laser scanning, photogrammetry, computer tomography, or other data-driven methods
• Source-based models: e.g. derived procedural, parametric, or manually modelled 3D reconstructions

Models may or may not be enriched with additional information:

• Semantic models: e.g. BIM, models with structured metadata, annotations, or enriched contextual information such as historical narratives or provenance records, or linkages to other heritage data
• Non-semantic models: e.g. raw or processed 3D geometries, such as point clouds, meshes, voxels, implicit and neural representations, optionally animated

Models may be unpublished or have already been published under a permissive license (e.g. CC0, CC-BY, CC BY-SA, CC BY-NC).

Eligibility Criteria

The applicant’s organisation must:

• Reside in a member state of the European Union or in a state currently associated to Horizon Europe.
• Not currently receive or already received any funding (i.e. no double-funding) for Europeana ingestion of the 3D assets.
• Already have digitised (i.e. captured or reconstructed) the 3D assets.

Obligations

Selected applicants must:

• Grant all necessary rights for the 3D assets to be uploaded under a license ensuring open access and reusability.
• Provide the 3D assets in both, the original format (e.g. PLY, E57, IFC, Gaussian Splats) and GLTF/GLB as an interoperable format, while verifying geometric compatibility (e.g. correct material, lighting properties) for ingestion into the data repository Zenodo.
• Ensure compliance with metadata requirements (i.e. EDM) for aggregation into the Europeana web portal and georeference any geographic assets for display in a map application.
• Participate in a public European event (e.g. conference, workshop) to present the assets and applied methods.

Benefits

Selected applicants will:

• Receive a EUR 10.000 sub-contract to fulfil the described tasks and to produce the required documentation to report on the activities.
• Be assisted in the registration of the dataset as an LTM project within the TMO.
• Get support from specialists from the TMO to process the 3D assets for archiving, georeferencing and metadata ingestion.
• Gain access to the network and documentation of the involved twelve cooperating organisations within the 3DBigDataSpace project.
• Receive communication coverage to showcase their project by the TMO after a successful realisation.

Evaluation Criteria

A board of jury members will assess the submissions based on:

1. Quality & Quantity of the provided 3D assets
2. Scientificity of the digital asset creation workflow
3. Feasibility of data provision (e.g. staff capacity, processing methods, time demand, risks)
4. Reusability, Impact & Interest for the cultural heritage community and other domains (e.g. combination with other datasets, cooperation with local/regional stakeholders, expansion potential)

Application Procedure

Participants in the call should fill in the application form (see button below). It is recommended to provide sufficient details in the particular sections. Only complete applications submitted through the form will be considered for evaluation.

Apply here

Contact

If you have any other questions or inquiries regarding the call and application procedure, please send an email to ltm[at]timemachine.eu.