Call for Researchers: Heritage Place Lab 2024-2025

The Heritage Place Lab 2024-2025 will consist of a series of online and in-person workshops to be held between September 2024 and April 2025.

For the Heritage Place Lab 2024-2025, they are looking for five researchers and their research institutes or universities. The WHL will act as a knowledge broker, and will endeavour to match research institutions with World Heritage site managers to respond to the specific knowledge and expertise needed, and initiate long-term research-practice cooperation.

Priorities

• What are the Heritage Place Lab priority issues? In this edition, they are looking for researchers with interest and experience on the following priority issues being faced by World Heritage properties.
  • Development Pressures 
    • World Heritage places are facing development pressures which include, rapid urbanisation, tourism and renewable energy infrastructure development, among others. Means to protect heritage and proactively address development needs will be explored.
  • Climate change impacts 
    • Climate change and the more frequent extreme weather events and hazards related to it are recognised as one of the main threats to World Heritage properties. However site managers lack the tools to understand and confront the impacts of climate change-related factors at their heritage places. Developing climate action for World Heritage properties will be addressed.
  • Improvement on buffer zone(s) 
    • Development pressures and climate change impacts demonstrate the need for an added layer of protection to World Heritage properties. As many properties do not count with a buffer zone(s), designing, planning and implementing buffer zones to support World Heritage management require further research.
  • Governance: rightsholders and stakeholders involvement 
    • The timely and adequate involvement of rightsholders and other stakeholders into the management system of World Heritage properties, in particular, Indigenous Peoples and local communities, remains a challenge. Methods for balancing power between different managing organisations, for collaborating among different actors in the World Heritage place, and for understanding who needs to be involved will be explored.
  • Integrating Indigenous, traditional, and local knowledge into management 
    • The integration of diverse knowledge systems, in particular, traditional ways of managing heritage places, into current management planning is a recurrent need. Current challenges such as climate change are requiring other than scientific knowledge systems for developing adequate management measures. Methods for integrating these into the management system and management planning will be explored.

Incentives for Participation

• Developing sound institutional relationships for long-term engagements between the WHL, research institutions and World Heritage properties.
• Promoting partnerships between site managing and research institutions in order to initiate and/or sustain a long-standing partnership, thereby building bridges between research institutions and World Heritage properties.
• Promoting research-practice partnerships that can generate funding applications for research grants as well as to support the implementation and application of research.
• Promoting networking and professional growth among collaborating World Heritage places, institutions, researchers and practitioners.

Lab Structure

• HPL will have three work components to be implemented in a maximum of 9months duration (September 2024-April 2025):
  • A 5-day inaugural workshop to be held in-person between 19 and 23 October 2024 in Beijing, China (excluding travel dates);
  • three 2-hour online mentoring sessions with individual World Heritage sites and two 3-hour online workshops with all World Heritage sites selected;
  • a closing workshop to be possibly held in-person, online or in hybrid modalities in April 2025.

Outcomes

• The expected outcome of this second edition is to develop tools to facilitate the exchange between site managers and researchers, establishing working methodologies with managers and management institutions on how to design research agendas, projects and strategies to support World Heritage site management. Through the Heritage Place Lab, universities and research institutes will be connected with site management institutions to analyze and elaborate on World Heritage property’s research needs.

Who can apply?

• The Heritage Place Lab is looking for researchers with proven experience in relation to the priority themes identified. Researchers interested in the Heritage Place Lab should be part of or connected to a research institution and/or university.
• Researcher or research team leaders, in the case of research teams, should have completed a doctoral degree.

Selection Criteria

• Relevant experience/knowledge to address the priority issues proposed by the Heritage Place Lab, this should be presented succinctly, responding specifically to the issues proposed in the call;
• Present clearly why and what type of research has been conducted in relation to the priority issue selected;
• Interest in partnering with a site management institution and previous experiences of research-practice collaboration (if any);
• Time to work and commit to the Heritage Place Lab activities;
• Basic knowledge on the implementation of the World Heritage Convention.

For more information, visit ICCROM.