STIFTUNG PREUSSISCHER KULTURBESITZ

Their core work

The Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation (SPK) is Germany's largest cultural institution, overseeing world-class museums, libraries, archives, and research institutes in Berlin — including the famous Staatliche Museen zu Berlin and the Staatsbibliothek. In H2020, SPK contributes deep expertise in heritage science, digital museum infrastructure, and the study of ancient texts and material culture. They bring irreplaceable physical collections and curatorial knowledge to European research consortia focused on cultural heritage preservation, digital access, and historical research spanning millennia.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

In the early H2020 period (2015-2017), SPK focused on heritage science infrastructure, virtual museum technologies, and ancient textual scholarship — classic strengths of a major cultural institution with vast physical collections. From 2018 onward, a clear shift emerged toward socially engaged themes: public memory, participatory design, social entrepreneurship, migration studies, and colonialism. This evolution suggests SPK is actively repositioning from a traditional custodian of cultural artifacts toward an institution that interrogates how heritage connects to contemporary social challenges like migration, identity, and empowerment.

SPK is moving toward socially engaged heritage research — expect future projects at the intersection of cultural collections, digital participation, and contemporary issues like migration and post-colonial memory.

How they like to work

SPK overwhelmingly operates as a consortium participant (7 of 10 projects), taking the coordinator role only once — for ELEPHANTINE, a deep specialization project on Egyptian texts where their collection expertise was irreplaceable. With 151 unique partners across 35 countries, they are a well-connected hub rather than a closed network, comfortable in large European consortia. This profile suggests a reliable, low-maintenance partner that brings collection access and domain knowledge without needing to drive project management.

SPK has collaborated with 151 unique partners across 35 countries, indicating one of the broadest networks in the cultural heritage research space. Their partnerships span from Mediterranean archaeology institutions to Northern European digital infrastructure providers, reflecting Berlin's role as a cultural crossroads.

What sets them apart

SPK is not a university lab or a small research institute — it governs some of the world's most significant cultural collections, from Nefertiti's bust to millions of library volumes. This means any consortium partnering with SPK gains direct access to irreplaceable primary source material (papyri, coins, artifacts, archives) that cannot be replicated elsewhere. Few organizations combine this scale of physical collections with active participation in digital heritage and social science research.

Highlights from their portfolio

• ELEPHANTINE
  SPK's only coordinated project and largest grant (EUR 1.5M ERC), focused on localizing 4,000 years of cultural history from Egyptian island texts — a deep specialization showcase.
• IPERION HS
  Successor to IPERION CH with SPK's largest participation funding (EUR 503K), demonstrating sustained commitment to European heritage science research infrastructure.
• POEM
  Marks SPK's pivot toward participatory and socially engaged heritage research, combining digital media, social entrepreneurship, and public memory.