By bringing together extended reality technologies, advanced computing infrastructures, and digital humanities capacities with the expertise of three excellence hubs rich in cultural heritage resources, the project seeks to establish a trans-regional innovation ecosystem. Aligned with regional and national smart specialisation strategies, HERIFORGE adopts a place-based approach to innovation and embraces the quadruple helix model, integrating academic institutions, creative industries actors, technology companies, public bodies, and societal stakeholders into platform ecosystems. The project aims to transform three distinct ecosystems into the HERIFORGE Platform Network.

HERIFORGE is designed to deliver five key outputs critical to the establishment of the innovation ecosystem: a report containing recommendations on strategic impact, the operationalisation of the HERIFORGE Platform Network, the development of XR-enabled prototypes and services, the publication of good practice guides for human-centred and trustworthy innovation ecosystems, and a data orchestration platform enabling the transformation of standardised datasets and the sharing of ready-to-use digital heritage resources and XR applications.

Within this five–work-package structure, we contributed to Work Package 4, “Strengthening Excellence Hubs Innovation Ecosystem,” specifically to the component “Mapping Excellence Hub Ecosystem, Profiles and Inclusivity Strategies,” by developing a comprehensive research, analysis, and community engagement strategy.

In the analysis and strategy development process, the Europeana Impact Playbook approach was combined with bottom-up strategic planning methods. This multi-layered process included stakeholder mapping across the three countries, online surveys, in-depth interviews, focus group meetings, proto-persona development, SWOT analysis, future scenarios, and a vision workshop.

Across the three countries, more than 400 institutions and individuals in cultural heritage, technology, and the creative industries were mapped; 168 responses were collected through the online survey; in-depth interviews were conducted with 19 participants; four focus groups and one international vision workshop were organised.

Dr. Mustafa Gül carried out the overall coordination of the study on behalf of Koç University – KARMA Lab. As Task Leader, Mustafa coordinated an 18-person team of experts and researchers from Türkiye, Cyprus, and Poland. He structured and monitored the data collection process; led the analysis of insights gathered from the three countries; and framed the overall strategic approach and future scenarios. He also designed and analysed the online survey, synthesised qualitative data from interviews and focus groups, and identified the strategy’s priority areas. He translated all quantitative and qualitative data—together with the project team’s insights—into a clear vision, strategic objectives, and actionable steps, and developed aligned indicators. He assumed primary responsibility for transforming the community strategy and its underlying analysis into the final output.

Nazlı Cangönül led the qualitative component of the research and the governance processes. Nazlı designed the in-depth interview questions and implementation guide; conducted seven interviews with participants in Türkiye; and developed and facilitated the content and methodology of two focus groups in Türkiye (one in-person and one online) as well as the international vision workshop. She also supported the teams from Poland and Cyprus in effectively conducting their interviews and focus groups.

Emre Erbirer, who supported the development of the methodology, ensured the editorial coherence of the final output. Emre contributed to the consistent application of the method, the refinement of the final report text, and the dissemination of project outputs to a broader ecosystem.

To access the report titled “Hubs’ Profiles and Inclusivity Strategies,” which includes the country analyses and community engagement strategy -one of the first activities of the HERIFORGE project and the outcome of an intensive six-month collective production process- please click.