NET-HERITAGE

Cultural Heritage Context

After Slovenia's independence in 1991, and especially after the accession to the European Union in 2004, protection of cultural heritage got a new meaning, because heritage in many aspects is our national identity card in the united Europe.

Protection and preservation of cultural heritage is primarily the responsibility of its owner, while local community and the state, which established the public service for heritage protection for this purpose, are obliged to help owners in accordance with regulations. In order to achieve better effects and introduce heritage protection to people, their needs and expectations, efforts are done for achieving better connections between the public service for the protection of movable and immovable heritage and the public service for archives from their recognition and recording to storage and declaration for a monument and primarily in the preparation of museum projects (exhibitions), in projects on renewal and revitalisation of cultural monuments and in providing information on heritage.

Cultural policy, as emphasized in a key strategical document in the field , must provide systematical and institutionalised education and training of restorers, museum experts and other employees of the public services, which has not been previously implemented. Cultural policy among others pays strong attention to improving the quality of scientific and technological research for the needs of protection and its inclusion in the international research area.

The Cultural Heritage Protection Act  includes the research and financing of transitional research. It also mentions the strategy for cultural protection which should be the basis for preparing documents on development planning and for adopting policies in the area of culture, spatial planning, environmental protection, protection against natural and other disasters, construction, housing and public utility economy, tourism, research and information society, education, training and life-long learning.

Cultural Heritage Governance and Policy

The Directorate for Cultural Heritage of the Ministry of Culture (http://www.mk.gov.si/en/) monitors the development of the complete system on the protection of cultural heritage, prepares system solutions on the protection of heritage, manages the register, and ensures the development of an information system and the documenting of the cultural heritage as well as performs administrative tasks in the area of cultural heritage.

Mission of the Institute for the protection of Cultural Heritage of Slovenia (http://www.zvkds.si/en/kulturna-dediscina-slovenije/), who is a public institute, is to perform a public service that covers a variety of administrative and professional duties relating to the protection of immovable cultural heritage and of the movable and living cultural heritage associated with it. It also carries out a large number of measures aimed at incorporating heritage into modern life, presenting heritage to the general public and developing awareness of its value.

Its central measures also include the provision of access to heritage and its enjoyment by current and future generations. The Institute comprises two main organizational units: the Cultural Heritage Service and the Conservation Centre. The key tasks of the Cultural Heritage Service are to identify, document, study, evaluate and interpret immovable, movable and living heritage, and to present it to the public within the context of heritage protection. The Conservation Centre comprises the Restoration Centre and the Preventive Archaeology Centre.

The Restoration Centre works on and directs the development of the conservation and restoration profession manages and carries out some preliminary research. The Preventive Archaeology Centre manages and carries out the preliminary archaeological research. In addition to the legally specified tasks, the Institute devotes a great deal of attention to the promotion of cultural heritage, which is carried out in the form of lectures, guided tours of monuments, exhibitions, online presentations, pamphlets and publications series, and in other forms that have become established in contemporary heritage protection.

The IPCH has been particularly successful in enhancing the image of cultural heritage promotion in Europe through its series of ‘Days of Cultural Heritage’.

Cultural Heritage Funding

The proportions of financing sources in the area of research and development in Slovenia (hereinafter: R&D) comes from the economy (59.3 %), government sector (35.5 %), funds from abroad (4 %) and from other sources (1.4 %), whereby the national proportion into R&D is 177 EUR per resident. Target Research Programme (hereinafter: CRP), carried out by the Research Agency of the Republic of Slovenia, is a basic funding instrument for research projects, as well as a form and a way of realising Slovenian Development Strategy (hereinafter: SRS) and the National Research and Development programme (hereinafter: NRRP).

It is designed as a connecting instrument for the state for satisfying its needs, research sphere and the general public on specially determined priority thematic areas. The basic purpose of the CRP is designing research foundations for making decisions in the preparation, adoption and implementation of development policies of public interest and monitoring and supervising their implementation.

Research activities within the framework of the CRP is implemented in the public interest with research projects for achieving the objectives of national development that are thematically focused upon the proposal by ministries and other proposers who are responsible for particular areas of public interest. Financially, they are implemented in cooperation with the ARRS through the CRP programme (it is financed by the MK and the ARRS) and applied research programmes (financed by the MK) within the framework of various themes; for example, a conservation plan.

Cultural Heritage Research

In Slovenia, research activities are regulated by the Research and Development Act  which lays down the principles and objectives, and regulates the method for implementing the policies on research and development activities. The latter are financed from the national budget and other sources (from European programmes and funds, local communities, the economy) and are directed towards achieving social and economic development of Slovenia. The Act also lays down the organisation of research and development activities as well as the conditions for performing such activities.

The research policy at the national level is thus managed by the Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Technology (hereinafter: MVZT, http://www.mvzt.gov.si/en/) who finances research activities through the Slovenian Research Agency of the Republic of Slovenia (hereinafter: ARRS, http://www.arrs.gov.si/en/dobrodoslica.asp). The MVZT developed the National Research and Development Programme (hereinafter: NRRP) which was on the basis of the Resolution on the National Research and Development Programme for the period 2006-2010 (hereinafter: ReNPPR) adopted in 2006. The objective of the NRRP is to develop and implement measures directed to quality and effective research activities in Slovenia, to stimulating education, research and entrepreneurship, and to increase the mobility of knowledge, ideas and people in the society.

It defines the fundamental premises, objectives, scope, method of financing and indicators for monitoring the effectiveness of the national policy on implementing and stimulating research and development activities. The NRPP defines strategic development areas and national priorities for financing research and development activities and therewith also the content and the scope of public service, and the scope of research and development activities, training for research work at universities, and research and development organisations.

The priorities of the NRRP that are connected with social and cultural development refer to the development of understanding humanity, national identity and recognisability, to learning modern Slovenian history and to preserving the wealth of natural and cultural heritage including research of the Slovenian language. Interdisciplinary connections between the humanities, sociology, natural science and technology are stimulated, and research into conservation, restoration and museum studies are also important within the framework of research activity in the area of cultural heritage. The NRRP is implemented by conducting fundamental research that are directed fundamental research, useful research, targeted research projects (hereinafter CRP ), pre-competition research activities, industrial research, technical innovation studies, etc. 

The area of research policy for the protection of tangible cultural heritage is partially co-developed by the Ministry of Culture (hereinafter MK), that, in accordance with the objectives of the national programme for culture (the National Programme for Culture 2008-2011, the Resolution on the National Programme for Culture 2004-2007 ), organises external research support for the work of the ministry (in the area of cultural heritage it engages the Directorate for Cultural Heritage and the Information Documentation Centre for Heritage—INDOK) and with the Institute for the Protection of Cultural Heritage of Slovenia (ZVKDS). The MK also cooperates with universities, researchers and research organisations.

The ARRS therefore cooperates with the MK as well as with the Ministry of the Environment and Spatial Planning (the MOP – the Environment Directorate and the Spatial Planning Directorate) in the area of cultural heritage and cultural landscape, with the Ministry of the Economy (the Directorate for Tourism) in the area of tourism and cultural heritage, and with the Ministry of Defence (MORS) in the area of the targeted research programme Knowledge for security and peace 2006-2010 (CRP MIR).

Cultural Heritage Education and Outreach

The following higher education institutions are a particularly important source of training in conservation-restoration and science for conservation at the doctoral level:

• University of Ljubljana (UL, www.uni-lj.si):
  • Academy of Fine Arts and Design (ALUO, www.alu.uni-lj.si)
    • Department of Restoration;
  • Biotechnical Faculty (BF, www.bf.uni-lj.si)
    • Department of Landscape Architecture;
  • Faculty of Architecture (FA, www.fa.uni-lj.si);
  • Faculty of Civil Engineering and Geodesy (FGG, www.fgg.uni-lj.si)
    • Chair of Material and Construction Testing
  • Faculty of Chemistry and Chemical Technology (FKKT, www.fkkt.uni-lj.si)
    • Chair of Analytical Chemistry
  • Faculty of Arts (FF, www.ff.uni-lj.si)
    • Department of Archaeology
    • Department of Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology
    • Department of History of Art

• University of Maribor (UM, www.uni-mb.si):
  • Faculty of Arts
    • Department of History of Art

• University of Nova Gorica (UNG, www.ung.si):
  • Graduate School

• University of Primorska (UP, www.upr.si):
  • Faculty of Humanities (FHŠ, www.fhs.upr.si)
    • Department of Heritage Studies,
    • Department of History.

Specific courses in the field of conservation-restoration and science for conservation at the doctoral level are carried out by the Graduate School of the University of Nova Gorica (Economics and Techniques for the Conservation of the Architectural and Environmental Heritage; fields of study: technical-architectural and economic-legal aspects of the conservation of cultural and environmental heritage), while the Faculty of Arts of the University of Ljubljana will start providing those courses in the 2009/2010 academic year (Interdisciplinary doctoral degree course in humanities and sociology; field of study: Heritology). The Faculty of Humanities of the University of Primorska is currently undergoing accreditation of the Management and Presentation of Heritage course which is envisaged to be carried out in the 2010/2011 academic year.
Other Slovenian higher education institutions listed above do not carry out any specific courses in conservation-restoration and science for conservation leading to a doctoral degree, although within their study programmes students may select the subjects or courses dealing with the concerned field of studies.

Slovenia is currently undergoing a reform of higher education postgraduate study programmes in accordance with the Barcelona Declaration signed in 1999 and the Bologna process. As a consequence Slovenian faculties are currently carrying out both the “old” and the “new” study programmes as follows:

• the Bologna (“new”) third cycle study programme lasts three years. Some Slovenian universities started to carry out the reformed courses in the 2005/2006 academic year, and most in 2009/2010;
• the “old” programme lasts four years. The last academic year for the enrolment in the “old” programme was 2008/2009, with the deadline year for finishing the studies being 2015/2016.

Higher education is regulated by the Higher Education Act – ZviS (Official Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia, No. 119/06-UPB3)  .

The following institutions are also an important source of training and cooperation in research projects in the field of conservation-restoration and science for conservation:

• Slovenian Association of Conservators  (DRS);
• ICOM Slovene National Committee;
• Museum of Contemporary History Celje – School of Museology Celje;
• Museums Association of Slovenia (SMS);
• Slovenian National Building and Civil Engineering Institute (ZAG);
• Institute for the Protection of Cultural Heritage of Slovenia (ZVKDS), Restoration Centre of ZVKDS;
• Scientific Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts (ZRC SAZU):
  • Anton Melik Geographical Institute,
  • Institute of Anthropological and Spatial Studies (IAPŠ),
  • Institute of Archaeology,
  • France Stele Institute of Art History,
  • Milko Kos Historical Institute;
• Science and research Centre of Koper of the University of Primorska (ZRS UP).

Slovenia has not drawn up any specific national funding programme for doctoral training in conservation-restoration and science for conservation; however scholarship or financial resources for co-financing a part of the tuition fees for the above field of studies may be obtained from the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia
Training is also possible through a general post-graduate funding in the form of co-financing of tuition fees for post-graduate students by the Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Technology of the Republic of Slovenia (www.mvzt.gov.si).

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