ECCCH (Cultural Heritage Cloud / ECHOES)
Published May 29, 2026 | Version v1
Project deliverable Open

ECHOES Governance Model of the Legal Entity (D10.2)

Description

This report outlines the ECHOES proposal for a distributed, multi-level, collaborative governance model for the future Cultural Heritage Cloud legal entity. Based on a comprehensive benchmarking of legal options and governance models from comparable European initiatives, it recommends an institutionalisation process as a two-step strategy that involves creating a temporary non-profit association before creating a European Digital Infrastructure Consortium (EDIC).

This recommendation is based on a benchmarking exercise that illustrates the necessity of having a first agile legal entity during the project funding phase to prepare the creation of a more complex and long-term governance structure, such as an EDIC. After comparing the different legal options, this report recommends EDICs as the best-suited legal option to ensure the participation of different types of stakeholders, such as Member States, European networks and initiatives, cultural heritage institutions, and private companies.

This report also outlines the main features of the Cloud technical governance within these phases and uses a thematic focus on combating illicit trafficking in cultural goods to illustrate how the future Cloud governance can be adapted to an existing complex, multi-actor governance framework in the field of cultural heritage.

Files

260529_ECHOES_Governance-Model-Legal-Entity_D10.2.pdf

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Additional details

Related works

Is supplemented by
Project deliverable: 10.5281/zenodo.20446602 (DOI)

Funding

European Commission
ECHOES - European Cloud for Heritage OpEn Science 101157364

Dates

Submitted
2026-05-29

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