Swedish national heritage authority contributing government policy expertise to European cultural heritage science consortia.
Riksantikvarieämbetet (the Swedish National Heritage Board) is Sweden's central government authority for cultural heritage — responsible for ancient monuments, historic buildings, and national heritage policy. In European research, they contribute the perspective and mandate of a national public body: official policy frameworks, connections to national heritage programmes, and government-level credibility that academic or research partners cannot provide. Their H2020 participation has positioned them at the intersection of heritage policy coordination and the emerging field of heritage science research infrastructure, acting as a national node that connects Swedish heritage governance to pan-European scientific platforms.
JHEP2 (2016–2019) centred on aligning national cultural heritage programmes with the Joint Programming Initiative's Strategic Research Agenda and defining key performance indicators across member states.
IPERION HS (2020–2024) integrates European research platforms for heritage science, with Riksantikvarieämbetet participating as a national authority stakeholder in this major infrastructure project.
JHEP2 explicitly involved monitoring, alignment, and action programme development at the European level for heritage research priorities.
In their first H2020 project (JHEP2, 2016–2019), Riksantikvarieämbetet operated squarely in the policy-coordination space — aligning national programmes, developing strategic research agendas, and tracking key performance indicators across European heritage bodies. Their second project (IPERION HS, 2020–2024) marks a pivot toward the technical and scientific: heritage science as a research discipline and the physical infrastructure that supports it. The shift from "alignment and action programme" language to "heritage science and research infrastructure" signals a transition from policy facilitation to engagement with the scientific community's actual research platforms.
They are moving from a coordination-and-policy role toward participation in hands-on research infrastructure, suggesting future collaborations involving analytical platforms, digitisation, or scientific methods applied to heritage objects and sites.
Riksantikvarieämbetet has never served as a project coordinator — both participations are as a consortium member, which is typical for national public authorities that join large European initiatives to represent their country's mandate rather than to drive research. The 81 unique partners encountered across just 2 projects signals involvement in very large, pan-European consortia where breadth of national representation matters. Working with them means accessing their formal government role and national heritage network in Sweden, not a research team that will lead workpackages.
Despite only two projects, Riksantikvarieämbetet has worked with 81 unique partners across 24 countries, a breadth that reflects participation in flagship European consortia — particularly IPERION HS, one of the largest heritage science infrastructure initiatives on the continent. Their network is European in scope with no apparent geographic concentration beyond Scandinavia.
What distinguishes Riksantikvarieämbetet from research institutes or universities in heritage science is their status as a national government authority: they carry a legal mandate, speak for Swedish heritage policy, and can facilitate regulatory or policy-level outcomes that no academic partner can. For consortia seeking national authority representation from Sweden — particularly on heritage policy compliance, cultural landscape management, or national programme alignment — they are the natural choice. Their value is not technical output but institutional legitimacy and policy reach.
