Research and new skills: this is how the cultural sector accelerates the digital turnaround of the NRRP

Digitisation in museums, archives and libraries plays a decisive role because it broadens access to knowledge, enhances and passes on heritage, and strengthens communities around cultural assets. Digitising does not only mean scanning or photographing objects and documents, but is a more articulated activity that requires the implementation of international cataloguing standards and the design of new services.
The investments of the Culture 4.0 Pnrr have enabled organisations to continue - and in some cases to start - the digital transformation process in an organic and coordinated manner, guided by the guidelines of the National Digitisation Plan (PND) of the Central Institute for the Digitisation of Heritage - Digital Library of the Ministry of Culture. Among the most important initiatives under ministerial direction are more than 450 digitisation sites for the archival, bibliographic and museum heritage, and the development of the Digital Ecosystem of the Cultural Heritage, intended to house the digitised resources and provide professionals and the scientific community with innovative tools for their use.
An infrastructure designed to strengthen the strategic role of cultural heritage in Italy, also through the creation of an interdisciplinary network that integrates humanistic, technical, IT and management knowledge. The aim is to foster the development of a common language, shared skills and an increasingly cohesive and structured supply chain. The basic idea is that of 'semantic capital of relations': cultural heritage is understood as nodes of relations and connections between domains and disciplines. Each digitised piece of data becomes part of a larger system, which can be easily combined and reused, fostering collaboration between cultural institutions and the creation of shared knowledge. This approach generates direct effects on productivity, employment and innovation in the sector thanks to the standardisation of languages and workflows, and enables the definition of replicable models at national level.

The National School of Heritage in Support of Cultural Institutions
To strengthen the effectiveness of digitisation worksites, the National School of Heritage and Cultural Activities within Dicolab. Culture to Digital has allocated five million euro to over 160 research projects supporting the cultural institutes involved, devising and activating a virtuous system between public policy, universities, researchers and professionals.
The project entitled Bric - Research Grants in Cultural Institutes, involves and networks a cultural institute, a university department and one or more young grant-holders from different backgrounds (archivists, archaeologists, art historians, but also communicators, architects and software engineers): a short and efficient chain of digital skills.
The School, created in 2018 by the Ministry of Culture with the mission of enhancing the skills of culture professionals, with Dicolab. Culture to Digital has offered - and will continue to do so until June 2026 - free courses, webinars, conferences on digital skills, with over 80,000 certifications already issued to public and private professionals in the sector. With Bric, the School finances, between September 2025 and June 2026, the activation of research projects with which to monitor, analyse and optimise digitisation processes and field test innovative services for the use and reuse of these valuable digital resources.
The investment produces value for all parties involved: grant holders acquire practical skills in the field through training on the job; cultural institutes receive resources and support to optimise digitisation processes, enriching their knowledge base; university departments promote applied research in a strongly multidisciplinary context and strengthen the dialogue with the cultural sector.

From Venice to Palermo: Research for the Digitisation of Heritage
The young graduates, selected from 53 Italian university departments, will work in 81 cultural institutes and places throughout Italy. From the Castello Sforzesco in Milan to the State Archives in Potenza, from the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale in Florence to the Archaeological Museum in Altamura: the digitisation process crosses territories, involves different institutions and involves a varied cultural heritage. Not only museum objects, but also photographs, historical land registers, archaeological documentation, sheet music, newspapers, textiles: a real melting pot of stories.
Among the first projects launched, we present two experiences that offer interesting hints on the type of paths that will be taken. In Venice, a young researcher from the University of Bologna will work at the MAOV Museum of Oriental Art, with a project of study and dissemination on Japanese Nō theatre. Her goal is to build a system of interconnection between material and digitised heritage, using a website to create a bridge between the stage materials, paintings, and musical instruments preserved in the museum and iconographic and audiovisual materials preserved elsewhere.
In Castromediano (Lecce), the archaeological museum has already reached an advanced stage in the digitisation of the pre-Roman, Messapic and medieval artefacts in its possession. Thanks to the work of researchers from the Oriental University of Naples, the museum will focus on the design of a new service for visitors: a virtual chatbot with integrated AI that, after guiding the user through the museum, will collect emotions, memories and impressions and produce material for social communication. This is an emblematic example of enhancing digital cultural heritage and creating added value through the active engagement of visitors.
The ongoing digital transformation process does not only represent a technical transition, but is a true cultural revolution: it promotes universal access to knowledge, facilitates the enjoyment of heritage and stimulates collaboration between institutions.

Dicolab. Culture to Digital is promoted by the Ministry of Culture - Digital Library within the framework of the PNRR Culture 4.0, implemented by the National School of Cultural Heritage and Activities and funded by the European Union - Next Generation EU.