FINCH
Financing impact on regional development of cultural heritage valorisation
Programme: Interreg Europe 2014–2020
- Lead partner: Piedmont Region, Italy
- Partner countries: Italy, Germany, Poland, Romania, Greece and Finland
- Duration: First phase: 1 June 2018–31 Nov 2020, second phase: 1 Dec 2020–30 Nov 2022
- Total budget: 1,46M€ of which 1,25M€ funded from the EU Structural Funds
- Regional Council of South Ostrobothnia budget: 198 000 € with national contribution of 30 000 €
Project in Short
FINCH project is funded under the Interreg Europe Programme. Its focus is on cultural heritage and economy. The project participants aim at developing financial instruments that benefit cultural heritage and at strengthening collaboration between public and private actors. In the FINCH project we understand that investing in cultural heritage strengthens the social and economic welfare of the regions.
Cultural heritage is often strongly linked to regional and local activities, and therefore, we want to enhance utilising cultural heritage at these levels. Cherishing cultural heritage can also mean developing business activity. Particularly tourism often benefits greatly from cultural heritage. Investing in revitalising and developing cultural heritage can substantially add value to the community.
In the first phase of the FINCH project we identify in each participating region good practices that support the management and sustainable use of cultural heritage. We visit the different regions and hold virtual meetings where we share information and experiences from those practices. Based on this, each partner will create an action plan for their own region which aims at developing the regional policy instruments.
In a central role for achieving the project goals are the regional stakeholder groups that include both heritage experts and administrators. The stakeholder group meets a few times per year. In these meetings the group members address the presented good practices and discuss how to adapt these in their own region.
The lead partner of the FINCH project is the Piedmont Region in Italy. The other partners in the project are the following:
- University of Turin, Italy
- Development Bank of Saxony-Anhalt, Germany
- Lodzkie Region, Poland
- Regional Development Agency South-West Oltenia, Romania
- Region of Thessaly, Greece
- Regional Council of South Ostrobothnia, Finland
FINCH project has two phases. During the first phase the partners focus on identifying good practices. All project partners create their regional action plans that aim at improving financial instruments for cultural heritage and consequently help enhancing regional policy instruments. The duration of the second phase is two years during which the partners monitor the implementation of the regional action plans. The total budget of the FINCH project is about 1,46 M€. Of this, the budget of the Regional Council of South Ostrobothnia is about 198 000 €. The national contribution for FINCH is about 30 000 euro.
