Urbasofia has recently presented ISTER project at the 1st international conference of the Interreg Danube project “Living Danube Limes”. The presentation focused on the potential of Roman Routes for linking people and places as well as past and contemporaneity. More specifically, the emphasis was put on how museums support and enhance storytelling starting from the Roman routes, and in this regard, specific ongoing and future activities were detailed during the presentation.

ISTER project was also presented by the lead partner, as a real-world example within the workshop “Cultural heritage, cohesion policies and wellbeing: a virtuous circle” at European Week of Regions and Cities (#EURegionsWeek). The presentation focused on the story behind ISTER project, on the steps made so far for its development, as well as on the contributions it makes on societal well-being in terms of quality of life, social cohesion, and material conditions.

A series of conclusions and recommendations were outlined by the end of the workshop based on the knowledge and rich experience of Urbasofia, HERIWELL Consortium and ESPON EGTC. You can read some of them below:

• We need to increase awareness and capacity among policymakers and stakeholders to mainstream Cultural Heritage. In this sense, a very concrete step to do it is the mutual learning programs, in which policymakers and stakeholders can exchange experience on what works and what doesn’t work in the field;
• We need strategic plans based on CH, that respond to the problems of relaunching the economies, but also to the need to innovate them. These plans must be based on a broader definition of sustainability;
• Sustainability must consider the impact of the cultural dimension in interaction with the society (community), the economy (business), and the environment (correct use of limited resources);
• It is important to have a systematic approach: start by knowing the problems, mapping, evaluating, diagnosing, making a strategic document and taking action.

• Some questions should be raised when involving stakeholders: Who is the subject we want to involve?, What is the urban context?, Why and where they should be placed in the process? And how do we work with them?;
• When are talking about the „who”, we should start looking also on those who are marginalized, at those who are not involved now.