Citizenship is now a days a topic discussed from a local up to an EU level and in all domains of society. The Dutch Minster for Education, Culture and Science also expressed the importance of facilitating the crossover of education and the development of citizenship. This project aims to contribute to more shared knowledge and good practices by the cooperation in the development of a joint study program based on the interconnectivity of citizenship, heritage and entrepreneurship. The outcomes of this project must lead to new labour market opportunities and the development of new business models for those active in the domain of citizenship and heritage. It’s for the first time – in this sense the partners are pioneers –they will work on such a large scale together on an integration of these three topics. Each partner is in the EU a leading institute in his field of expertise. They are convinced that sharing their good practices and knowledge will contribute to reveal the interconnectivity of (in)tangible heritage and European citizenship. The aim of this project is to assemble the most experienced educational institutes in the EU and their students in the field of entrepreneurship, heritage and citizenship. To quote Jody Jensen, director of the Institute for Social & European Studies (ISES), Köszeg, Hungary: “Untill now there is not such a thing as a collaboration between universities in the fields of European Culture, (in)tangible) Heritage and Citizenship. No field can be studied in isolation and requires an inter-disciplinary and trans-disciplinary approach. An academic course that brings together the business skills from the regular MBA programs with knowledge from culture, European studies, tangible and intangible heritage studies and citizenship education needs to be developed.” The connection with EU policies and the current identity debate in all member states needs sharing of teaching practices, and exchange of good practices around the relation between (intangible) heritage and citizenship and management of these processes in the wider cultural sector/institutes. There is a direct historical line traceable of the importance of cultural heritage in these documents: 1) Treaty of Maastricht (1992, art 3 paragraph 3), 2) Treaty of Amsterdam (1997, art. 151), 3) European agenda for culture in a globalizing world (COM(2007) 242 final, 1-05-2007), 4) Treaty of Lisbon (1-12-2009: Title XIII, culture article 167): Article 1) 5) Communication from the commission to the European parliament, the council, etc, “towards an integrated approach to cultural heritage for Europe” (Brussels 22.7.2014, COM (2014) 477 final. In these documents we see the growing importance of heritage. From a dead letter in 1992 up to now, so in the EU we do pay attention to our threshold. In order to reach this aim 5 leading institutes across Europe joint forces to develop an interdisciplinary curriculum in which European citizenship will be explored by studying in a joint program the connection with (in)tangible heritage. This will lead to new insights for contextualization of our common European (in)tangible heritage. To exploit these insights, new entrepreneurial skills for the sector will also be addressed. The cultural institutions need to be managed in an innovative manner to bring these new insights to a broad public. The ECHC partners have structured the project in a number of Work Packages that are all connected to each other. The starting point off all activities is an analyses of current teaching practices and potential overlaps, need for additional modules to come to a joint curriculum. The next step will be a study of the management of integrated policies and practices in the field of heritage, culture and citizenship and the connection with social entrepreneurship. These two WP's will lead, in connection with the teaching and the 3 transnational meetings of the students to an open manual to implement the results of the project into the curriculum of higher education institutes everywhere in Europe. The insights of the teachers and students in the ECHC project will be expressed also by interviewing them. All these outputs will be disseminated by more than 20 associated partners, with a reach of more than 100.000 email-lists across Europe. Also 2 Multiplier Events will be organized to disseminate the project insights and outputs with a larger group of educational professionals as well as with a larger interested audience. The overall impact envisaged is to contribute, during turbulent times in Europe, to the current discussion about European Citizenship. Besides the ECHC project helps to develop intercultural and critical thinking about the EU project and its values it stands for. It supports the social engagement of the PMG partners and its students and promotes intercultural and civic competences of students.
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