11 April 2025

As co-chair of the Wales Arts and Humanities Alliance (WAHA), I was delighted to attend events in Brussels on 5–6 March 2025, celebrating arts and humanities research in Wales. Eight outstanding Arts and Humanities projects, supported by the Wales Innovation Network (WIN), showcased their research around the theme of sustainable cultural heritage. Organised by Welsh Higher Education Brussels (WHEB) with support from Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), the projects – one from each Welsh university – gave WAHA researchers the opportunity to meet European counterparts with an interest in cultural heritage and to share research that could lead to joint funding bids and new European partnerships.  

On 5 March, around 60-70 external guests attended the showcase at the beautiful Brussels Information Point building. These included cultural heritage networks, research organisations, government representatives, university representatives and regional offices. The First Minister of Wales, Eluned Morgan, and Professor Paul Boyle, Vice-Chancellor of Swansea University and Chair of Universities Wales, spoke about Wales’ commitment to working in close partnership with European researchers to extend the reach of Welsh research. Irene Norstedt, Deputy Director-General, Planet, People and Science for Policy, DG Research and Innovation, spoke about the new Horizon Europe ‘Partnership in Resilient Cultural Heritage’ due to start in 2026 and run until 2032. This showcase event provided WAHA projects and their university teams with a valuable platform to build partnerships for forthcoming funding calls around this theme. 

The showcase was followed on 6 March by a workshop on European funding, focusing on the value of joining COST actions, and the opportunities within the Horizon Europe Cluster 2 theme ‘realising the full potential of cultural heritage, arts and cultural and creative sectors’. Presentations from colleagues at the University of Antwerp and Aberystwyth University set the tone and ambition for European collaboration in sustainable cultural heritage – a research strength for Wales. 

WAHA brought its convening power to the event, supporting the project selection for the showcase event and working with event coordinators at WHEB. WHEB colleagues provided outstanding support for the event, with special thanks to Catherine Marston. Also, our sincere thanks to Dr Jamie Davies, Senior International Partnerships Manager at the AHRC, for his leadership, encouragement and support for the expertise and dynamism of the arts and humanities research base in Wales. Diolch to everyone for a fabulous event! 

The event was supported by Agile Cymru funding from Welsh Government.