Maramureș County Council has initiated, as a partner, the project "CULTURALITY – Cultural Heritage in Isolated Rural Areas for Creative Tourism and Sustainable Development" funded under the European Union's research and innovation program, HORIZON-CL2-2023 - HERITAGE-01. This is the first project won by Maramureș County Council under the HORIZON Europe funding program, a prestigious and highly competitive fully funded European Union funding line dedicated to research and innovation. In the call for projects dedicated to Strengthening Socioeconomic Development and Job Creation in Isolated Areas through Tourism, only four European projects were funded, including CULTURALITY.

The project's main objective is to contribute to the promotion of cultural and creative tourism activities, considering the different capacities, resources, and specificities of the territories (material, creative, human), as a means to stimulate the sustainable development of peripheral rural areas, favoring job creation and population stability. To this end, the potential of local cultural heritage will be researched, taking into account both tangible craft culture (techniques, materials, models, and decorative elements) and resources such as intangible cultural heritage (music, oral culture, and culinary traditions). Documentation of productive processes will be carried out to promote non-seasonal tourism as a form of sustainable development centered on local communities.

The project emphasizes the use of innovative techniques and digitalization, and thus a virtual museum of artisans will be created, which will function as the European Virtual Platform of Rural Artisans (VERAP) and will also have an e-commerce component for the sale of artisans' products.

The total budget for the CULTURALITY project for the four years of implementation is 2,444,223.75 EURO, of which the budget for Maramureș County Council is 129,910 EURO in non-reimbursable funding.

The project will run from 1^st of April 2024 to 31^st of March 2028.

Partners: University of Oviedo (UNIOVI) in Spain, Polytechnic University of Turin (POLITO) in Italy, Research Center of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts (ZRC SAZU) in Slovenia, University of Aveiro (UAveiro) in Portugal, Nord Museum Foundation (MN) in Norway, Värmland Region (RV) in Sweden, Tormaleo Territory (ESPTOR) in Spain, La PONTE Ecomuseum (LAPONTE) in Spain, University of Tartu (UTARTU) in Estonia, NGO URIAXAIT SL (URIAXAIT) in Spain, and Maramureș County in Romania.

More details about the project: https://culturalityproject.eu.

The project aims to address the needs of local communities and pay attention to aspects related to societal groups at risk of social exclusion, such as women, the elderly, and young people. All these aspects, which are to be addressed from a multidisciplinary perspective within the consortium, were established in close collaboration between the partners at the kick-off meeting held from 8th to 12th of April 2024, in Oviedo, Spain. At this meeting, the Consiliul Județean Maramureș delegation presented the institutional vision regarding integrated local development strategies with a marked community focus that will form the basis of Maramureș County's contribution to the project.

Noemi Ganea
PROJECT MANAGER

Roxana-Talida Roman
COMMUNICATION MANAGER