The new E-RIHS ERIC European centre for cultural heritage science, offering cutting-edge technology services and specialized expertise, is located at Manifattura Tabacchi industrial site.
Studying, understanding and preserving cultural heritage raises complex questions: What materials make up a painting? What is causing the degradation of a fresco? How can an archaeological site be protected from climate change? These are just some of the challenges that conservators, restorers, scholars and experts face daily. To respond, an interdisciplinary approach is needed that combines humanities, natural sciences and advanced technologies. E-RIHS, as the only European research infrastructure for heritage science, addresses these challenges. It brings together research centres, universities, restoration laboratories, museums and archives into a single collaborative community that provides access to outstanding facilities, data and services across Europe.
E-RIHS selects the best projects from across Europe aimed at deepening knowledge of cultural heritage and developing innovative solutions for its preservation and transmission to current and future generations. Selected projects can access advanced technologies (such as non-invasive and in-situ diagnostics, geophysical surveys, remote sensing and digitization) and specialized expertise for free. E-RIHS also provides dedicated services to smaller museums and institutions.
Notable examples of projects carried out by E-RIHS in Italy include the digitization of the Aztec turquoise mosaics at the Museum of Civilizations in Rome; investigations into the materials and painting techniques of Andrea Solario, a Leonardo da Vinci-era painter, in the Poldi Pezzoli Museum in Milan, and those of Giorgio Morandi, an avant-garde painter, at the Morandi Museum in Bologna; analyses of the Papyrus of Kha, a 15-metre-long Egyptian Book of the Dead preserved at the Egyptian Museum in Turin; and the study of Etruscan painting techniques used in the wall paintings of the Tarquinia Necropolis. These interventions were carried out by teams of experts from various institutions.
On March 28, 2025, E-RIHS was established as a consortium for a European research infrastructure in the legal form of an ERIC (European Research Infrastructure Consortium), a crucial milestone in its growth that began in 2016 with its inclusion in the ESFRI Roadmap (European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures), which lists research infrastructures of priority interest for the European Union. The establishment of E-RIHS ERIC gives a stable and lasting shape to E-RIHS’s activities and strengthens its role as a point of reference for cultural heritage science research in both the European and international arenas.
From the operational headquarters at Manifattura Tabacchi, E-RIHS coordinates activities across its 11 founding countries—Cyprus, France, Italy, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, the United Kingdom, Romania, Slovenia, Spain and Hungary—with the International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property (ICCROM) soon to join as a permanent observer. This distributed network allows scholars, researchers and professionals from these countries to access knowledge, diagnostic investigation tools, scientific consultations and databases held by individual institutions.
“We are grateful to our founding members for their continuous support and to the European Commission for recognizing E-RIHS as a strategic research infrastructure for Europe,” said Vania Virgili, Interim Director General of E-RIHS. “E-RIHS is now a legally recognized entity with a prestigious legacy in advancing cultural heritage sciences and a constant commitment to transforming research into concrete solutions that address the challenges of the sector and create a tangible impact on the protection and enhancement of cultural heritage for the benefit of society as a whole.”
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