Collaboration to safeguard Europe's maritime heritage

Posted on 24 July 2018

Researchers from the Environment Department are part of an international collaboration looking at how to safeguard Europe’s coastal and maritime cultural heritage amid environmental, political and economic upheaval.

Senior lecturer Dr Jasper Kenter and co-leader of the PERICLES project, said it will include collaborators from the UK, Denmark, Greece, the Netherlands, Portugal, Estonia and France. Research partners will work with local communities as well as other key stakeholders and policy makers to explore and address the key issues affecting maritime and cultural heritage in these areas.

“This is a unique collaboration between researchers with a wide range of backgrounds, from economists to archeologists, anthropologists to planners,” says Dr Kenter. “Better recognition of maritime cultural heritage can bring huge opportunities for sustainable development to communities by linking what is special about Scottish natural landscapes with what is special about its coastal culture.

“At the same time we can find ways to better understand and address the common challenges that we face right across Europe, from the coasts of Scotland and Ireland to the Mediterranean and the Baltic.”

Changing populations, declining public-sector budgets, increasing demands on maritime resources, climate change and post-Brexit fisheries policy are among the challenges that will be explored in Scotland and Ireland.

Notes to editors:

The ‘PERICLES project is funded through the European Union’s Horizon 2020 programme (grant agreement number 770504) and is led by the Universities of Aalborg (Denmark) and York. UK partners include the Scottish Association for Marine Science (SAMS), the University of the Highlands and Islands, and Queens University Belfast.