Project REEVALUATE & ARTHUR

Introduction

Cultural heritage is a vital part of our shared identity, yet its preservation and digitisation come with complex challenges. Project REEVALUATE, funded under Horizon Europe aims to create a holistic framework for Cultural Heritage digithttps://reevaluate-project.eu/isation management. By combining technological innovation with ethical and legal safeguards, the project aspires to make cultural assets more accessible, reusable, and inclusive—unlocking societal value and fostering deeper public engagement.

ARTHUR is proud to contribute to Project REEVALUATE by building on its long-standing expertise at the intersection of law, innovation, and sustainability. The innovative, leading global strategic law advisory and knowledge partner, founded in 2001 and headquartered in Amsterdam, has been actively engaged in European (EU, EFTA and UK) research and innovation projects that address pressing societal needs, including those aligned with European Rule of Law, the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the like.

In Project REEVALUATE, Arthur’s Legal, Strategies & Systems (ARTHUR) plays a key role in addressing the legal, regulatory, and ethical dimensions of Cultural Heritage digitisation, ensuring that the framework being developed is not only technologically sound but also trustworthy, inclusive, and sustainable.

Project REEVALUATE & ARTHUR

ARTHUR serves as the legal and ethics partner in Project REEVALUATE. This role extends across project management, compliance monitoring, and the provision of practical legal guidance to consortium partners. Our focus is on analysing and interpreting the legal and policy frameworks that govern cultural assets, as well as identifying and addressing ethical implications. By doing so, we help ensure that the innovative approaches to digitisation developed within Project REEVALUATE respect intellectual property rights (IPR), data protection standards, and broader societal values.

In practice, this means working closely with technical and piloting teams to anticipate and navigate challenges. For instance, ARTHUR has advised on how copyright law principles apply to AI-generated cultural artefacts, a rapidly evolving area of law. We have also guided partners in selecting appropriate licensing frameworks to ensure that cultural content used and created within the project can be responsibly reused by researchers, institutions, and the public.

Our contribution goes beyond compliance: we also bring a strategic perspective on how legal and ethical considerations can be integrated into innovation processes, thus supporting the project’s overarching mission of creating an inclusive and future-proof framework for Cultural Heritage digitisation. By embedding these safeguards from the outset, Project REEVALUATE ensures that its results will be both impactful and sustainable in the long run.

Key insights so far

So far, ARTHUR has delivered several milestones that support the project’s foundations. We have mapped key IPR frameworks and ethical principles applicable to Project REEVALUATE, including privacy, gender, and socio-economic considerations. Building on this work, we prepared the project’s first research Data Management Plan (DMP), defining how research data will comply with the FAIR principles—Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable—in line with the European Commission’s Open Science agenda.

Another major achievement is the creation of a monitoring tool in the form of a dynamic, user-friendly spreadsheet. This tool enables project partners to track whether technical and implementation activities align with the identified legal and ethical principles. It also provides guidance on preparing documentation for databases and digital assets in compliance with these frameworks. This practical approach ensures that ethical and legal safeguards are not treated as abstract requirements but as integral, actionable parts of the project’s workflows.

Looking ahead: What’s next?

Looking forward, ARTHUR will continue to provide strategic legal and ethical guidance throughout Project REEVALUATE. Particular focus will be placed on emerging issues around artificial intelligence and distributed ledger technologies (DLTs), both of which intersect with cultural heritage digitisation in novel ways.

We will also remain responsible for monitoring compliance with the DMP and FAIR principles, using our dedicated tool to support partners in aligning their work with IPR and ethics standards. By ensuring robust governance and responsible innovation practices, ARTHUR remains committed to contribute in Project REEVALUATE that aims to deliver outcomes that are people-centric, technologically advanced and ethically and socially accountable at the same time.

Learn more

To learn more about Project REEVALUATE, please visit the project’s website: https://reevaluate.eu/. For updates on ARTHUR’s activities in this and other European innovation projects, follow us on LinkedIn.