IPERION'S ACTIVITIES, a natural continuation of the previous EU-ARTECH and CHARISMA, is a network of 23 partners from 12 Member States (plus 1 in the United States). The Consortium brings together major research centers operating in the field of heritage science, which include excellent research institutes, prestigious laboratories and conservation centers based in museums and other institutions. IPERION is also affiliated with the digital research infrastructure for the arts and humanities, DARIAH ERIC, represented by the INRIA consortium. As already mentioned, IPERION's long-term goal is the creation of a single pan-European research infrastructure in the field of heritage science. The research of heritage science is considered to be a specific European interest by EU, given the vastness and uniqueness of the cultural heritage of the whole of Europe, a potential source of economic benefits through tourism and social benefits through its cohesive force. In this context, specific objectives of IPERION activities are:
(a) aggregating the network of national infrastructures on heritage science, spread across Europe, into a single pan-European distributed infrastructure; (b) increase and enhance the cooperation and mobility of researchers in the field of heritage science, connecting the best European and extra-European institutions in a global network of scientific collaboration; (c) offer young researchers transnational access to advanced diagnostic tools and methodologies, integrated into a platform that synergistically combines large scale facilities (synchrotrons and neutron sources), mobile laboratories with high-performance portable analytical systems (MOLAB) and archives of scientific data concerning the materials of cultural heritage; (d) to promote, provide and strengthen multidisciplinary relations between the natural sciences and the humanities, promoting the advancement of heritage science; (e) provide a comprehensive view of the priorities of research in heritage science, to maximize research results and support innovation by accelerating knowledge processes; (f) establish and disseminate best practices and protocols; (g) pursue the achievement of interoperability between institutions; (h) improve the professionalism of human resources for the conservation of European heritage through multidisciplinary training and advanced education in the field. Based on the results achieved by CHARISMA, IPERION was included, in March 2016, in the European roadmap for the establishment of new infrastructures, the only new European infrastructure in the Science and Cultural Innovation area. The new infrastructure, currently in its preparatory phase, is called E-RIHS, European Research Infrastructure in Heritage Science.
Within IPERION, the SMAArt Centre participates in the performance of many work-packages, from the supply of transnational access services (through MOLAB) to the development of research and networking and training activities.