The kick-off meeting of InterRegional Cultural HERitage Management E-System (IRC-HERMES) project was held on March 9, 2018 in Cyprus University of Technology. The IRC-HERMES consortium consists of 7 partners, 4 from Greece (ATHENA Research Center, Municipality of Samos, Municipality of Corfu, and ELLINIKI ETAIRIA), 1 from Albania (Municipality of Gjirokaster), 1 from FYROM (Municipality of Ohrid) and 1 from Cyprus (Cyprus University of Technology), which is the coordinating partner. IRC-HERMES has been co-funded by the European Union (European Regional Development Fund and the Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance fund) and National Funds of the participating countries under the INTERREG Balkan-Mediterranean 2014-2020 cooperation programme.

The aim of the project is the development of a common strategic management platform for the building stock of settlements/regions to support the salvation, protection and presentation of their Cultural Heritage.

In order to achieve this goal, the existing experience gained from implementing the Heritage Management e-System (HERMeS) will be drawn upon. HERMeS is recognized, in Europe and internationally, for its innovation, winning the prestigious European Prize for Cultural Heritage, the Europa Nostra Award, in 2015. For the development of the platform, the historic buildings and monuments stock will be assessed and digitized. After this process, a decision making tool (algorithm) will be applied in order to prioritize interventions and will produce common reports for the participating authorities.

The objective of the kick-off meeting held in Cyprus University of Technology was to clarify the role of each project partner, confirm the objectives and work plan, understand the management and coordination procedures, outline the guidelines of the Interreg BalkanMed Programme, and discuss any other topics related with the IRC-HERMES project.