DIEM Project

The Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV), through its Institute for Heritage Restoration (IRP), has launched, together with Sapienza Università di Roma (Italy), the Meno Foundation (Jordan), Animed LLC (Tunisia), Ain Shams University in Cairo (Egypt) and An-Najah National University (Palestine), the Developing Inclusive Education in the Mediterranean (DIEM) project, which aims to reduce the gap between the rich Mediterranean cultural heritage and the opportunities it offers by promoting inclusive education and employment.

With a total budget of €2.81 million, 89% of which (€2.5 million) is funded by the European Union under the Interreg NEXT MED programme, DIEM is a three-year project coordinated at the UPV by Francisco Juan Vidal, leading a team comprising Santiago Lillo Giner, Ignasi Gironés Sarrió, Mónica Val Fiel, Santiago Tormo Esteve, Xavier Mas Barberá, Salvador Muñoz Viñas and María Victoria Vivancos Ramón.

'Training the trainers'

'Basically,' explains Francisco Juan, 'it is a train-the-trainer project. The aim is to train technical specialists in the conservation, management and dissemination of cultural heritage, and to do so by reaching out to the most vulnerable sectors of society, including people who may face barriers to accessing training or employment. The idea is to use current technological infrastructure to overcome that barrier.'

Although the project is led by Sapienza Università, the prestige and experience of the IRP-UPV make it a fundamental part of the initiative. 'Within the consortium,' says Juan, "we are the only specialists in cultural heritage conservation, so in that sense, we play a co-leading role alongside our colleagues at Sapienza. The preliminary part, the design of the training system, the content, the strategy... are our responsibility."

The rock art of the Iberian Peninsula, a World Heritage Site

At DIEM, some of the main partners select a site officially declared a World Heritage Site as a pilot case study. In the case of the IRP, 'we have chosen the rock art of the Mediterranean arc in the Iberian Peninsula, which we believe is not only a highly valuable heritage site, but also has great potential for development, both because it is little known, or at least little visited, and because of the specific problems of accessibility, interpretation, etc. that it has'.

Salomé Cuesta: 'Training people in conflict areas will enable a better future for their younger generations'

For her part, Salomé Cuesta, Vice-Rector for Art, Science, Technology and Society at the UPV, said that this is a "very significant project for the UPV, which serves to highlight all the experience that our IRP has and which also has an important global commitment component. Training people who are currently living in conflict zones will enable a better future for the younger generations who will have to take care of cultural heritage that is of great value and, in some cases, severely damaged today."