CHARISMA · Cultural heritage Advanced Research Infrastructures: Synergy for a Multidisciplinary Approach to Conservation/Restoration

CHARISMA is an Integrated Infrastructure Initiative that brings together 22 leading European institutions developing research on artwork materials and their deterioration finalised to the conservation of cultural heritage. The consortium has the objective to optimise the use of infrastructures through a coordinated program of transnational access, joint research and networking activities. Transnational access offers applicants opportunities to exploit the services of three different and complementary groups of facilities, embedded in a multidisciplinary environment involving material science and artwork conservation/restoration. They are:i)a group of six archives containing a huge amount of analytical data, hosted by the most prestigious European museums and institutions developing safeguard and conservation of cultural heritage;ii)a set of advanced portable instrumentation for in-situ non-invasive measurements in the same site where the artworks are located or exhibited;iii)two platforms, one in France and one in Hungary, where large scale facilities are coupled to a set of medium scale instrumentations, open to users for the most advanced studies on artwork materials and their alterations.Research is devoted:i)to improve access to databases exploiting digitalisation of data and their harmonisation;ii)to design and set-up innovative instrumentations, for in-situ 2D and 3D examinations of artworks, and new cleaning techniques;iii)to develop new methodologies for the study of organic materials and their distribution in micro-samples or directly at the surface of the object.Through networking, the way infrastructures are working is improved, harmonising methodologies and best practices in analysis and conservation, pursuing the establishment of a multidisciplinary synergic working method, based on shared use of knowledge and resources.