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REEVALUATE & BCT-hubs synergy
Can the REEVALUATE framework and Marketplace work with cultural heritage material coming from other heritage horizontals?
BCT Hubs offered a strong test case because it works with underwater cultural heritage.
3D Research provided the technical and domain bridge between REEVALUATE’s work on 3D digitization and reuse and BCT Hubs’ work on underwater cultural heritage. The projects began testing how an external underwater heritage asset could enter the REEVALUATE publish-to-reuse workflow, while also exploring reciprocal visibility of REEVALUATE tools and services through the BCT Hubs marketplace.
About BCT-hubs
BCThubs – Blue Culture Technology Excellence Hubs in EU Widening Member States – is a Horizon Europe project building research and innovation capacity around Blue Culture Technologies and Underwater Cultural Heritage.
The project is establishing Blue Culture Technology Excellence Hubs in Greece, Malta and Bulgaria, bringing together research organizations, businesses, public authorities and societal actors around the protection, management, accessibility and sustainable valorisation of underwater cultural heritage.
Its work includes research and innovation, technology development, training and secondments, entrepreneurship, demonstration activities and the development of the BCT Marketplace, which connects technologies, services, expertise and training opportunities relevant to underwater cultural heritage and the wider Blue Economy. BCThubs runs from January 2023 to December 2026.
Synergy at a glance
Main focus
3D underwater cultural heritage and cross-platform reuse
Exchange areas
3D digitization, metadata, Marketplace publication, discoverability, training and exploitation
Collaboration type
Asset exchange, technical validation, joint research, event participation and reciprocal Marketplace visibility
Outputs
External 3D asset, joint conference paper, final-event exchange and Marketplace collaboration
From underwater heritage to the REEVALUATE Marketplace
A first outcome of the collaboration was the identification of an external 3D asset from the BCT Hubs ecosystem for publication through the REEVALUATE Marketplace.
The selected asset is a 3D textured model of the Underwater Petrified Forest in Sozopol Bay, Bulgaria, created through underwater photogrammetry.
The model provides a test case for applying the REEVALUATE workflow to underwater cultural heritage and natural-site material.
Through this work, our synergy explores how externally generated heritage material can be:
- prepared for Marketplace publication
- structured with suitable metadata
- enriched and contextualized
- made discoverable beyond its original project environment
- connected with provenance and rights information
- prepared for reuse in research, heritage management, education and digital experiences.
This was a transferability case for the REEVALUATE framework and provided an external domain in which the same publish-to-reuse approach can be tested.
Figure 1: The BCT Hubs 3D model of the Underwater Petrified Forest in Sozopol Bay provides an external underwater-cultural-heritage use case for the REEVALUATE Marketplace.
Joint research and publication
The collaboration also developed into a joint research and dissemination output.
“An Integrated Digital Ecosystem for Underwater Cultural Heritage: The REEVALUATE Approach”
for the 2nd BCT Hubs International Conference – “Widening the Big Blue Horizon”.
The contribution examines how the REEVALUATE approach can be transferred to underwater cultural heritage by connecting 2D and 3D assets with structured metadata, semantic enrichment, knowledge graphs, Marketplace publication, persistent identifiers, machine-readable metadata and API-based discoverability.
The BCT Hubs case is being used to discuss how underwater cultural heritage documentation can become part of a broader digital ecosystem in which heritage assets are structured, discoverable and reusable across different applications.
The conference itself will take place on 3–4 December 2026 in Burgas, Bulgaria, in hybrid format. One of its dedicated themes is the integration of 3D, geospatial, semantic and data-driven frameworks for Underwater Cultural Heritage, making it an environment for further presenting the REEVALUATE approach.
Figure 2: BCT Hubs Conference banner.
Taking the synergy to our final events
The collaboration has also moved into reciprocal project-event participation.
At the REEVALUATE Final Event in Aquileia on 25 September 2026, BCT Hubs was represented during the synergy session through 3D Research. The presentation introduced BCT Hubs and showed how the underwater-heritage asset and the joint research work were being used to extend the REEVALUATE approach beyond the project’s original pilots.
This turned the synergy into part of REEVALUATE’s final public demonstration of how project results can move between related European initiatives.
The exchange is reciprocal. REEVALUATE is also preparing to contribute to the BCT Hubs final conference in Burgas in December 2026, where the REEVALUATE framework, Marketplace and underwater-cultural-heritage use case can be showcased to the BCT Hubs community.
Figure 3: The BCT Hubs–REEVALUATE collaboration was presented during the REEVALUATE Final Event in Aquileia on 25 September 2026.
Connecting the two Marketplaces
The asset exchange is only one direction of this collaboration.
REEVALUATE is also exploring how selected REEVALUATE tools, services and training resources can be represented through the BCT Marketplace, creating reciprocal visibility between the two digital ecosystems.
We already identified several possible contribution types, including digital tools, datasets, frameworks, training material and service descriptions.
The BCT Marketplace is designed specifically to connect providers and users of technologies, specialised services, digital applications, research equipment and training relevant to underwater cultural heritage and Blue Culture Technologies.
For REEVALUATE, the strongest candidates for this reciprocal Marketplace activity are currently:
- AI-supported contextualisation services, particularly where cultural heritage assets require semantic or contextual enrichment
- digital provenance and IPR-management approaches, supporting more traceable reuse of digital cultural assets
- training and MOOC material developed around the REEVALUATE framework
- potentially selected validation or framework-level services where they fit the BCT Marketplace categories
The exact listings are being discussed with the relevant REEVALUATE partners and BCT Hubs contacts before final publication.
Figure 4: BCT Hubs underwater heritage assets in the REEVALUATE Marketplace. The Sozopol Underwater Stone Forest collection demonstrates how external 3D cultural heritage material can be made visible and discoverable through the REEVALUATE ecosystem.
Figure 5: The BCT Hubs Marketplace provides the reciprocal side of the collaboration. REEVALUATE is exploring suitable tools, services and training resources that could be made visible through the BCT Hubs ecosystem.
Where the collaboration goes next
The BCT Hubs collaboration now connects several stages of the REEVALUATE exploitation and sustainability pathway:
External heritage asset → REEVALUATE Marketplace → transferable research use case → reciprocal technology and service visibility → continued exchange through the BCT Hubs ecosystem.
The immediate next steps are to:
- present the REEVALUATE–BCT Hubs use case at the BCT Hubs conference in December 2026
- progress suitable REEVALUATE tool, service and training listings for the BCT Marketplace
- continue joint communication around the asset, publication and event exchange
- use the collaboration as a demonstrator of how REEVALUATE results can be taken up by cultural heritage domains.