NOVA CONSERVACAO - RESTAURO E CONSERVACAO DO PATRIMONIO ARTISTICO-CULTURAL, SA

Their core work

Nova Conservacao is a Lisbon-based private company specializing in the professional restoration and conservation of artistic and cultural heritage — monuments, historical artifacts, and archaeological sites. Their core business is hands-on preservation work, making them one of the rare industry practitioners (rather than university labs) to participate in EU research projects in this field. In H2020 consortia, they act as the applied industry bridge: validating research methods against real conservation practice, hosting researchers, and contributing operational knowledge that academic partners lack. Their involvement in projects spanning heritage risk management and materials science for archaeology reflects a company that systematically integrates scientific advances into professional conservation services.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

Nova Conservacao's first H2020 project (STORM, 2016–2019) addressed operational and organisational challenges in safeguarding heritage — risk management, response protocols, and site resilience. Their second project (ED-ARCHMAT, 2018–2022) shifted the frame toward scientific depth: materials science, digital techniques, and building the next generation of researchers with entrepreneurial skills in cultural heritage. This arc suggests a company moving from applied protection services toward research-embedded roles that combine laboratory-grade analysis with field practice. The emergence of "entrepreneurship in cultural heritage" as a keyword is notable — it signals awareness of the commercial and knowledge-transfer dimensions of their sector, not just technical craft.

Nova Conservacao appears to be positioning itself as an industry host and applied validator for academic research in heritage science, with growing engagement in digital documentation and materials analysis — areas where practice-based SMEs are scarce and therefore valuable to consortia.

How they like to work

Nova Conservacao has never led an H2020 project — they join as a participant or third-party partner, consistently taking a specialist contributor role rather than a coordinating one. Despite only two projects, they accumulated 37 unique consortium partners across 12 countries, which means they entered large, complex pan-European consortia rather than small focused teams. Their third-party role in the MSCA training network ED-ARCHMAT suggests they serve as an industry host or mentor for doctoral researchers, which is a high-value but low-visibility form of participation common among SMEs in training networks.

With 37 unique consortium partners across 12 countries from just two projects, Nova Conservacao has operated within broad, internationalized research consortia typical of MSCA and RIA instruments. No website is available to confirm bilateral partnerships, and the small project count makes it impossible to identify recurring partner relationships.

What sets them apart

Nova Conservacao is unusual in the H2020 landscape: a private SME operating in a field dominated by universities, museums, and heritage agencies. That industry status makes them a credible applied partner for research consortia that need real-world validation — they can test methods on actual commissions, not just lab samples. For scientists building consortia in heritage science or archaeology, they offer what no university partner can: a commercial conservation practice with active project pipelines and direct client access in the Portuguese and, by extension, Iberian cultural heritage market.

Highlights from their portfolio

• STORM
  Their only funded H2020 participation (EUR 242,500) and an active contributor role in a multi-country RIA addressing technical and organisational resilience for cultural heritage sites against natural hazards.
• ED-ARCHMAT
  Participation in a prestigious MSCA Innovative Training Network for doctoral education in heritage materials science — a role typically reserved for universities, signalling Nova Conservacao's recognition as a credible industry host for early-stage researchers.