Work Packages of MetaHeritage

The I3 project MetaHeritage is developed through different work packages. Many activities of the work packages offers opportunities for the community to engage.

Work Package (WP) 1 ensures smooth management of MetaHeritage by coordinating all activities, partners, and responsibilities. Led by UTAD, it establishes structures for technical, administrative, and financial management, monitors progress, manages risks, and ensures compliance with EC requirements. WP1 also develops the Data Management Plan (DMP) to ensure secure, transparent handling of project data according to FAIR principles, providing the foundation for effective collaboration and knowledge exchange. 

Within WP2, MetaHeritage lays the foundation for long-term interregional cooperation by making Europe’s heritage innovation ecosystem more visible. The University of Jena leads the stakeholder mapping and research process. Through a survey, interviews, site visits and systematic database analysis, the University of Jena is building a large cross-sectoral stakeholder database focused on heritage-driven innovation. This work identifies key actors, good practices and regional capabilities at the intersection of heritage, digital technologies, business and policy, and provides an important basis for networking and collaboration. In parallel, the University of the Azores is responsible for market analysis and benchmarking activities, comparing regional performance across participating regions and EU Member States. This benchmarking helps identify strengths, gaps and development opportunities and supports more targeted, evidence-based approaches to innovation and cooperation.

WP3 develops this networking and capacity-building platform to connect RTOs, companies, investors, and regional stakeholders. We want to provide a virtual space for collaboration, project information, events, and materials. Additionally, we will carry out activities to engage with EU networks and platforms, such as S3, Enterprise Europe Network, and European Cluster Collaboration Platform, through webinars, workshops, and networking events to strengthen interregional collaboration and knowledge exchange. 

WP4 is specifically focused on defining and strengthening an innovation ecosystem within the framework of the Smart Specialisation Strategies (S3) of the territories involved in the project. A working group will be set up with representatives from the S3 and the main stakeholders identified, to share tools and implementation methods for strengthening inter-institutional collaboration, also in view of the start of the next programming period. Through the enhancement of the capacities of authorities, intermediaries, and companies, investment opportunities will be developed. The WP4 will offer capacity-building programs, educational courses, twinning initiatives, mentorship, and value chain analyses. By leveraging heritage and digital innovation, WP4 promotes sustainable growth, innovation, and investment readiness across regions. 

WP5 develops business cases with the aim of enhancing interregional innovation and value chains. Building on WP2 analyses, it will combine heritage-driven tourism with the active engagement of different stakeholders in the project’s areas of interest through cutting-edge technologies such as the metaverse. WP5 designs replicable models, promoting sustainable growth and enhancing regional innovation capacity. 

WP6 fosters interregional cooperation and builds investment capacities. Based on WP2 analyses, it identifies high-potential opportunities, pre-pilot project ideas, and supports interregional investment proposals. It will provide workshops, academies, and training on business planning, funding, pitch preparation, and risk management. Collaboration with financial institutions and systematic validation ensures viable, innovative, and sustainable projects that leverage heritage and digital innovation. 

WP7 maximizes MetaHeritage’s impact and visibility through communication, dissemination, and outreach. It develops tailored content, press releases, social media campaigns, webinars, and audiovisual materials while fostering synergies with EU networks and initiatives. WP7 also ensures sustainability by maintaining project visibility, promoting uptake of results, and scaling the project’s impact beyond its duration. 

Business Cases

Objectives

The business cases focus on turning insights into action by developing strong, forward-looking business ideas grounded in comprehensive benchmark and stakeholder analysis (WP2), alongside securing support from committed partner organisations. It aims to bring these ideas to life through well-crafted business cases for interregional innovation projects, while exploring innovative concepts such as heritage route models and the integration of emerging technologies like the metaverse. At the same time, it seeks to strengthen existing EU value chains and build new ones by fostering closer collaboration, driving innovation, and shaping industry-led initiatives that create tangible impact across sectors.

Business Case #1

Innovation in the wine sector and historic house heritage assets through immersive technologies and an AI-integrated app 

Spanning Northern Portugal, the Azores, Galicia, and Saxony, this initiative aims to build a dynamic interregional ecosystem that scales a technology-enabled model for immersive cultural and wine tourism. At its heart is the development of a “Wine & Historic Houses” platform: an integrated solution that brings together an interregional marketplace for bookable heritage stays, winery visits, and curated experiences with an AI-assisted itinerary builder that enables flexible, modular travel planning and seamless multimodal mobility. By connecting and expanding existing cultural routes, such as the Camino de Santiago, into broader wine and heritage journeys, the platform creates richer, more interconnected travel experiences. Complementing this is a replicable XR and immersive heritage layer, designed as a service and deployable across selected flagship sites. Together, these elements will enhance the visibility, accessibility, and commercial potential of heritage assets and wine tourism SMEs, unlocking new opportunities for innovation and collaboration across the participating regions.

Business Case #2

Wellness and Regenerative Tourism supported by an AI-integrated app with gamification features 

Targeting Emilia-Romagna, Northern Portugal, the Azores, Galicia, and Thuringia, this initiative aims to build an interregional ecosystem for slow mobility, wellness, cultural heritage, and regenerative tourism. Central to the project is an AI-integrated app offering customizable walking and cycling itineraries enriched with cultural stops, wellness touchpoints, and local experiences. AI features personalize routes and activities based on user preferences and wellness goals, while a gamified system rewards points redeemable with participating SMEs, encouraging route completion, repeat visits, off-season travel, and cross-promotion. By combining digital tools, AI personalization, and gamified engagement, the platform strengthens the visibility, accessibility, and commercial potential of wellness, heritage, and slow tourism SMEs, while supporting visitor dispersion, off-season demand, and more regenerative tourism models.

Business Case #3

Creation of an interregional metaverse space for SMEs, integrating AI, gamification features, and digital twins 

Targeting Northern Portugal, the Azores, Galicia, Thuringia, Saxony, Brussels, Vienna, and Emilia-Romagna, this project creates a shared interregional metaverse to enhance SME visibility, accessibility, and market reach through immersive, interactive, and gamified experiences. It will feature 3D digital twins of SMEs, cultural venues, and local stakeholders, allowing users to explore wineries, artisan workshops, studios, museums, and showrooms, integrated into the University of Jena’s 4D Browser for virtual navigation through cityscapes and landscapes. A gaming-inspired app layer, based on the 4D City app, will make exploration engaging, with optional commerce features for purchases, bookings, or voucher redemption. By combining immersive technology, storytelling, and gamification, the platform will boost SME visibility, support digital transformation in cultural and creative sectors, and promote inclusive, sustainable tourism across all regions.

Business Case #4

Creative Tourism & Innovative Cultural Ecosystem 

Targeting Emilia-Romagna, Brussels, and Vienna, this project builds an interregional heritage innovation ecosystem inspired by the Motor Valley model to strengthen SME competitiveness and create scalable value chains across tourism, culture, creative industries, digital content, and heritage services. At its core is a Digital Heritage Innovation Accelerator that connects corporate museums, creative sectors, immersive technologies, and experiential tourism within a market-oriented framework, while supporting SMEs in developing scalable solutions such as AR/VR experiences, digital storytelling, immersive services, heritage branding, smart ticketing, data services, and metaverse applications. By fostering collaboration and innovation, the project will enhance territorial branding, attract digital talent, accelerate the uptake of immersive technologies, and generate new opportunities linking heritage, tourism, and digital innovation.

Our background: The Virtual and Smart Cultural Tourism (VSCT) interregional partnership

MetaHeritage builds on the foundations of the Virtual and Smart Cultural Tourism (VSCT) interregional partnership, established in 2021 and initially mandated by DG REGIO as a pilot action to develop interregional cooperation around digital and sustainable tourism. Since then, VSCT has evolved from a pilot action into a broader interregional innovation ecosystem supporting the use of immersive technologies, digital heritage, cultural routes, smart tourism services and heritage-based business models.

The Partnership brings together European regions, cultural institutions, research organisations, companies, public authorities and innovation actors to address a common challenge: the fragmentation of the cultural heritage and tourism sectors, where many SMEs and heritage institutions face limited access to funding, technology partners, digital skills and cross-border innovation networks. By creating a shared cooperation framework, VSCT helps regions align Smart Specialisation priorities, exchange knowledge, build project pipelines and test new models for virtual and smart cultural tourism.

Its activities focus on moving from policy priorities to practical implementation. This includes stakeholder mapping, identification of good practices, consortium-building, matchmaking, access to EU funding, business support, capacity-building and the development of scalable initiatives linking cultural heritage, digital technologies, tourism, creative industries and regional development.

In this context, MetaHeritage represents a logical progression and expansion of this work. Building on the interregional cooperation initiated through VSCT, MetaHeritage strengthens capacity-building, networking, innovation support, matchmaking, access to funding and investment-oriented activities in the field of digital cultural heritage. It therefore continues the shared VSCT vision by fostering cooperation, knowledge transfer and new opportunities for heritage-driven innovation across European regions.

The Partnership remains open to regions and innovation actors interested in developing new interregional cooperation opportunities in virtual and smart cultural tourism, digital heritage and heritage-driven innovation. To learn more about the VSCT interregional partnership or discuss possible ways to engage, please do not hesitate to contact us: VSCT Partnership