Liverpool to be established as world leader in digital heritage

Liverpool could be a world leader in digital heritage under a new scheme designed by the teams at St George’s Hall and the Virtual Engineering Centre (VEC). 

Digital heritage is a way to preserve cultural or natural heritage and improve our understanding of it through technology. 

Those working on the project will be pioneering a new approach that preserves, promotes and progresses cultural heritage through technologies such as AI, Blockchain and Mark Zuckerberg’s Metaverse.

The scheme will receive funding from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) through its LCR4 HOLISTIC project and will connect the city’s heritage assets with local SME tech providers, manufacturers and startups. 

The project is set to launch June 14 as part of the first UK Digital Heritage Symposium which will see heritage leaders, academics, SMEs and technologists discuss the future of digital tools in heritage.

Following this, three pilot schemes will be underway – the partners will put together a Digital Heritage Strategy focused on preserving and promoting heritage, teaching future generations and using history as a tool for inclusion. 

A Digital Heritage Foundry to be set up at St George’s Hall as a hub, modelled on Silicon Valley, will offer access to immersive, sensor, robotic and simulation technologies. 

Finally, a blockchain, Digital Heritage Blocks, is being developed by the VEC and St George’s Hall Trust for the UK’s heritage sector.

The team hopes to set an international standard for the digitisation of heritage assets and enable new supply chains through technologies like NFTs (Non-fungible tokens).

Andrew Borland, Head of Commercialisation for the VEC, said: ‘Heritage organisations in the city region have already been successful in using technology like virtual and augmented reality to create engaging visitor experiences. But there remains massive untapped potential to realise the possibilities of emerging tech and the capabilities of entrepreneurial SMEs and manufacturing businesses to enhance our understanding and celebration of the city’s heritage and create much-needed new revenue streams for our cultural institutions.

‘The Liverpool City Region’s unique convergence of science, technology and world-renowned heritage makes us the ideal place to grow a nationally and internationally significant Digital Heritage eco-system and supply chain.’

Photo by Adi Goldstein