Digitisation of cultural heritage

The National Digitalisation Plan for Cultural Heritage constitutes the strategic vision with which the Ministry of Culture intends to promote and organise the digital transformation process in the five-year period 2022-2026. The plan is aimed at museums, archives, libraries, central institutes and public cultural sites that conserve, manage and enhance cultural heritage.

The Autonomous Province of Trento has been allocated, by the Ministry of Culture - the administration holding the measure PNRR (M1C3) I1.1.5 - EUR 654,903.50 for the'Digitisation of the cultural heritage of the Caproni Collection'. The project will enable citizens and operators in the sector to explore new ways of using cultural heritage, fostering its accessibility and the development of new services by the cultural/creative sector.

Today, the Caproni Collection is one of the most important aviation-related collections in the world and includes not only aircraft but also fragments of historical aircraft, engines, propellers, a library of at least 10,000 volumes, several tens of thousands of drawings of aircraft plans and hundreds of thousands of prints and photographic plates.

The digitisation of part of the assets belonging to the Caproni Collection - to be made available in digital form in the public domain through the Digital Library infrastructure set up by the Central Institute for the Digitisation of the Cultural Heritage - will make it possible to overcome, at least in part, the limits to the knowledge and usability of the Caproni heritage imposed by current spaces and practices.

Increase the digital cultural resources available through digitisation of the collections of museums, archives, libraries and cultural venues in order to promote cultural information, its use and related services.

Provincial target 163,726 new digital objects

to contribute to the targets of:

• European: 65 million digital resources produced and published in the national Digital Library by 31 December 2025;
• national: 75 million digital resources produced and published in the national Digital Library by 30 June 2026.

• 30 June 2025: at least 80% of the digital objects of the assigned target realised
• 31 December 2025: 100% of the digital objects of the assigned target realised

The implementation of the NRP in Trentino fits coherently into the programme framework for sustainable provincial development, according to the policies identified in the provincial Economic and Financial Document and its Update Note.

PNRR funding: € 654,903.50

• 15 November 2023: awarded the "Carta-Foto" tender, initiated by INVITALIA, which identified the Temporary Grouping of Companies that will be in charge of digitising the archival, book and photographic heritage;
• 24 April 2024: signing of the Framework Agreement relating to the sole Cluster of Geographical Lot No. 10 of the Paper-Photo Tender
• 30 October 2024: signature of the ODA no. 1 followed on 6 November 2024 by the signature of the related Specific Contract
• 7 November 2024: signing of the Start-Up Minutes.
• 12 September 2025: 280,018 digital objects were tested and uploaded I.PaC (Digital Infrastructure and Services for Cultural Heritage published as required by the target).

The target assigned to the Autonomous Province of Trento was reached and exceeded.

On 30 September, the existing Framework Agreement was extended until 30.6.2026, which will allow further specific contracts to be signed