Announcements

Press Release: Horizon Europe Grant Goes to Tourism and Hotel Management Department 

Bilkent University, Faculty of Applied Sciences, Department of Tourism and Hotel Management received a grant of 3.1 million Euros under the Research, Innovation, and Action projects within the Horizon Europe Programme. The project will be carried out under the coordination of Bilkent University by Prof. Dr. H. Altay Güvenir, Asst. Prof. Eda Gürel and Instructors Arzu Sibel İkinci, Oğuz Benice and Neşe Şahin Özçelik. Asst. Prof. Eda Gürel will be the coordinator of the CULTURATI project, which aims to develop an inclusive cultural ecosystem with visitor and capacity management by using digital solutions and cutting-edge technologies.

Along with the tourism industry, cultural and creative industries (CCIs) are most affected by the pandemic. All CCIs need systems or management tools to make them more resilient today. Thus, CULTURATI aims to;

• enhance and support collaboration between CCIs, and citizens to promote Europe’s culture, values, and interests,
• increase accessibility, awareness, and understanding of cultural heritage and arts,
• preserve cultural heritage by preventing deterioration due to overcrowding and sustain valuable resources,
• enhance the audience experience through customized games, and routes by optimizing the number of people on the venue or site-based CCIs, ensuring social distancing between them in case of a pandemic.

CULTURATI is a global content platform that enables CCIs, creative professionals, and citizens to create content collectively for cultural heritage and arts across Europe. Consequently, CULTURATI curates content in its database and delivers customized information with the help of its algorithm. Therefore, the principal objective of the CULTURATI project is to design, develop, evaluate and validate mainstream technologies for its ecosystem utilizing the Internet of Things, cloud and mobile technologies, sensors (people counters), and Artificial Intelligence. Our user-centered design methodology situates user needs at the center by actively involving them in five pilot sites across Europe to validate CULTURATI, as well as increase engagement with broader audiences. Accordingly, our interdisciplinary consortium involves computer scientists, CCIs, academia from various disciplines, including social sciences, SMEs, public authorities, and non-profit community initiatives to focus on engaging citizens, and ensuring widespread communication and exploitation of CULTURATI in Europe and internationally.

The following universities, SMEs, public and non-governmental organizations are included in the consortium established to carry out the project across Europe, under the coordination of Bilkent University. The project has 14 partners;

1. Bilkent University (Coordinator), Turkey
2. Haaga-Helia University, Finland
3. Rauman Kaupunki, Finland (UNESCO World Heritage Site)
4. Touch TD, UK
5. Oxford Brookes University, UK
6. Rahmi M. Koç Museums, Turkey
7. Serdar Vural Öktem, Turkey
8. Universita Degli Studi Di Foggia, Italy
9. IOTIQ, Germany
10. NUMBEO Estrategia e Innovacion, S.L., Spain
11. Universidad Carlos III De Madrid, Spain
12. Ankara Governorship, Turkey
13. Meridaunia Soc. Cons. Arl, Italy
14. Blenheim Palace Heritage Foundation, UK (UNESCO World Heritage Site)