NET-HERITAGE

Cultural Heritage Context

Situated at the crossroads of eastern and western cultures, a melting pot of many cultural influences, Poland has rich and diverse cultural heritage. Polychrome wooden churches, unique on a world scale, can be given as an example. In the modern era, cultural heritage has been an important source of national cohesion and sense of identity in view of the country’s tumultuous past, epitomised by the careful reconstruction of the historic centre of the capital Warsaw, extensively destroyed during World War II.

In the early 1950s, Poland pioneered a system of conservation education at an academic level which provided the restoration sector with professionals trained to high standards. After the true sovereignty had been regained in 1989, safeguarding historic buildings, sites, collections, archives and libraries for present and future generations as well as making them accessible to society have been one of the priorities of the successive governments.

Entering the European Union in 2005 created new possibilities to benefit not only from new financial sources, but also from European experiences in the area of research, support and protection of the cultural heritage. The Ministry of Culture and National Heritage is nowadays a governmental department with the highest degree of absorption of European funding.

Cultural Heritage Governance and Policy

The Ministry of Culture and National Heritage is the main governmental body responsible for cultural politics in Poland. One of the major responsibilities of the Ministry is the care for the preservation and conservation of national heritage. Among others the Ministry finances the Academies of Fine Arts and the most important national museums, which carry out broad research tasks in the field of heritage science.

The Ministry also finances the National Centre of Investigation and Documentation of Cultural Heritage and the Centre for the Protection of Public Collections in Warsaw. The principle strategic document on the governmental support to the cultural heritage protection is the National Programme “Preservation of monuments and culture heritage”.

Though defining strategic objectives of the state policy in the cultural heritage protection in general terms, the document does not contain any detailed, national strategy on research applied to the protection of tangible cultural heritage. On the other hand, the Ministry of Science and Higher Education is the major central governmental source of funds for research in general. It covers around 60% of funds for R&D spent in Poland every year. Cultural heritage research is financed through core funding for statutory R&D activities of various research organisations and through individual research projects.

Cultural Heritage Funding

The Polish system of financing research has been principally 'investigator-driven', or 'bottom-up'. It has allowed researchers to apply for grants within and across all research areas (including heritage science), and has had no priorities defined by the government.

The grant system has been operated by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education. The grants have been awarded through an open competition twice a year. Only in 2004, the government undertook the first attempt to combine the system of the individual grants with funding channelled to selected, nationally important fields of knowledge and technology.  The most recent National Programme of Scientific Research and Development was announced in October 2008 and it contains several research priorities concerning cultural heritage.

Furthermore, several funding instruments support participation of Polish research groups in transnational research programmes: consecutive Framework Programmes of the European Commission, COST Actions, European Economic Area Financial Mechanism and EUREKA. The cultural heritage research can be also funded from European structural funds i.e. funds allocated by the European Commission to support various national initiatives but administered by the national government.

Cultural Heritage Research

The subject matter of individual research grants is decided by the applicants within the areas of arts or natural sciences and engineering. The research carried out has had world-class reputation in many cases. The National Programme of Scientific Research and Development of 2008 has been so far the most detailed research strategy for the country. The Programme is divided into five research areas.

Priorities concerning cultural heritage are included in two of them: ‘Society in conditions of secure, accelerated and sustainable social and economic development’ , Priority ‘Advanced digital technologies in humanities. Development and implementation of new solutions’ Task ‘Development of standards for digitalization of resources of the national cultural heritage’ and Research Area ‘Energy and infrastructure’, Priority ‘Ensuring safety, reliability and durability of building constructions’, Task ‘Methods of rebuilding the historic structures while preserving their safety and usability’  and Priority ‘Integrated, sustainable urban development and revitalisation technologies for degraded areas and historic buildings’ Task ‘Development of revitalisation methods for degraded areas, urban and post-industrial, while taking into account the existing built resources and respecting the cultural heritage’.

The Ministry of Culture and National Heritage is planning to promote new priority research areas which will be agreed within the NET HERITAGE initiative.

Cultural Heritage Education and Outreach

Cultural heritage education takes place at many institutions and is delivered largely through formal programmes. Since early 1950s three conservation departments of the Academies of Fine Arts in Krakow and Warsaw and the University in Torun provide studies in the field of conservation/restoration at the Master’s level. The studies last 5-6 years and qualify the graduates to undertake the independent conservation practice. Since 2003, with the introduction of the title of the doctor of art and doctor of conservation in the national legislation, the same departments provide education also on the doctoral level.

Studies in the area of conservation science leading to a doctoral degree are traditionally available in universities or research institutes of the Polish Academy of Sciences. The doctoral projects often lead to knowledge at the most advanced frontier of a field and to specialised skills the heritage science needs.  Postgraduate studies on various aspects of conservation, especially on built and urban heritage, usually lasting 1 year are available.  Short course aiming at the transfer of the new knowledge to conservation practitioners and companies are more and more frequent. Communicating the outcome of cultural heritage research to the public is an important element of the information campaign to ensure that preservation of heritage can support the sustainable national and regional development.

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