The E-RIHS Pilot Training School

The Superintendence of Cultural Heritage, in conjunction with its eight local partners forming the European Research Infrastructure for Heritage Science (E-RIHS), has recently concluded a Pilot Training School which sought to test the notion of a Local Training School by providing multidisciplinary training to participants who also had the opportunity to provide feedback at the end of the Pilot Training.

The eight local partners; the Superintendence of Cultural Heritage, the Ministry for National Heritage, the Arts and Local Government, the University of Malta, the Archdiocese of Malta, St. John’s Co-Cathedral, the Restoration Directorate, Heritage Malta, the National Archives and Malta Libraries; form the National Node of the European Research Infrastructure. E-RIHS is aimed at facilitating collaboration between the Heritage and Heritage Science Communities of participating countries, as well as providing access to state-of-the-art facilities, technologies, and expertise. Partners are encouraged to provide a variety of services to make up a catalogue of services which will be open to researchers.

The Maltese National Node intends to provide a Local Training School as one such service and, this past April, a Pilot Training School was organised to assess the feasibility of such a product. The training school focused on archival and archaeometric research and analysis, taking the restoration of the Madonna tal-Ħniena Chapel as a case study. Participants in this Pilot Training School were chosen from amongst the local partners to test the feasibility of the Training School and provide feedback.