IPERION CHIntegrated Platform for the European Research Infrastructure ON Cultural Heritage

Access to facilities

IPERION CH offers Transnational Access (TNA) to its world-class laboratories and knowledge distributed in 11 countries with the submission of single or multi-technique proposals. IPERION CH selects the best proposals and covers the costs of this activity.

The TNA program offers a vast portfolio of services and activities centred on the needs of the heritage science community in Europe and Associated Countries. The combined activity promotes the development of advanced research in the examination and conservation of works of art, offering users the access to unique European resources for in situ and laboratory investigations on artwork materials through three TNA platforms: FIXLAB, ARCHLAB and MOLAB. Through the three programs of access, the project aims to deliver to the users (from experienced practitioners to primary users) not only experimental resources but also methodological approaches, compliant best practices, tools and technologies to permit them to carry out their projects in conditions otherwise impossible for them.

The access is offered to:

  • Archives in European museums or conservation institutes (ARCHLAB);
  • Advanced mobile analytical instrumentations for in-situ non-invasive measurements (MOLAB);
  • Integrated platforms where large scale facilities are coupled with medium scale installations (FIXLAB).

The IPERION CH TNA ensures unparalleled support for excellent scholarly research projects and innovative enterprises. It is designed to enable researchers (users) to conduct exemplary scientific studies of CH materials: complementary non-invasive techniques to minimise sampling (MOLAB), followed by more in-depth characterisation (FIXLAB), combined with consultation of comparative data from a wealth of earlier CH studies before or after analyses (ARCHLAB). Competitive, peer-reviewed calls for TNA will be open to the academic, heritage sector and industrial research community. Research projects will benefit from the availability of a wide range of tools and instrumentation, and scientists will be allowed and encouraged to apply for multiple accesses to different platforms, supporting the complex multi-disciplinary research in Heritage Science.

 

ARCHLAB – access to specialised knowledge and organized scientific information – including technical images, analytical data and conservation documentation – in datasets largely unpublished from ten large archives of prestigious European museums, galleries and research institutions.

FIXLAB  – access to large-scale facilities (synchrotrons, neutron sources, accelerators) uniquely also having expertise in CH, for sophisticated scientific investigations on samples or whole objects, revealing their micro-structures and chemical compositions, giving essential and invaluable insights into CH historical technologies, materials, alteration and degradation phenomena.

MOLAB  – access to an impressive collection of advanced mobile analytical instrumentation for non-invasive measurements on precious, fragile or immovable objects, archaeological sites and historical monuments. The Mobile LABoratory allows its users to implement complex multi-technique diagnostic projects, permitting the most effective in situ investigations.