On 24 and 25 September 2026, BCThubs project participated in the Final Public Event of the European project REEVALUATE which took place in Aquileia, Italy. The event was dedicated to the digital future of cultural heritage. Partners from across Europe presented the results of their research, experimentation and digital tools for the interpretation, valorisation and reuse of cultural heritage.
The programme included a dedicated session on “Synergies“, in which BCThubs took part to show how the two Horizon Europe projects can complement each other in extending digital innovation to underwater cultural heritage.
The two projects tackle complementary sides of the same challenge. BCThubs is building regional Excellence Hubs for Blue Culture Technologies, combining research and innovation, training, technology transfer and prototype development to protect, document and sustainably use underwater cultural heritage. REEVALUATE has created a mature digital ecosystem for publishing, contextualising and creatively reusing heritage assets, including a Marketplace for digital cultural assets and AI-assisted and human-driven tools for contextualisation and enrichment, and workflows for creative reuse.
In short, BCThubs brings underwater expertise, institutional onboarding and credibility within the sector, while REEVALUATE offers a ready-made layer for publication, contextualisation and reuse that heritage institutions can adopt directly.
A forest beneath the sea
The synergy was explored through the Undewater forest in Sozopol, Bulgaria (courtesy of UHI – Underwater Heritage Institute), with underwater assets developed within BCThubs serving as an additional REEVALUATE use case.
The site is extraordinary: the submerged remains of a lithified forest some 12 million years old, its fossilised trunks still showing clearly visible annual growth rings. Lying 15–20 metres deep and only about 150 metres off the present coastline, it preserves traces of a vanished world and, with few parallels elsewhere, offers a rare glimpse of ancient flora now lost from the landscape.
Underwater photogrammetry was used to document the remains and generate textured 3D models, which were considered within the REEVALUATE Marketplace workflow, where a BCThubs partner acts as asset creator and a REEVALUATE partner as producer. Within it, the models could be enriched with metadata and descriptions and integrated into the project’s digital environment.
The result is a concrete example of how a specialised underwater record can outgrow its original documentation purpose and become an interoperable, reusable digital cultural asset.
A shared vision for Underwater Cultural Heritage
The Sozopol case shows the potential of this combined approach: BCThubs builds the institutional and technological capacity to document, protect and valorise underwater heritage, while REEVALUATE provides the environment where it can become more visible, contextualised and reusable.
Together, they outline a publish-to-reuse pathway: 2D and 3D underwater assets are documented with digital technologies, enriched with metadata and descriptions, published in a shared digital environment and opened up to new forms of interpretation, communication and creative reuse. In this way, isolated documentation becomes an interoperable, reusable resource within a broader maritime knowledge ecosystem.
The experience presented in Aquileia goes beyond a single case study: it shows how regional excellence, cross-border research, institutional cooperation and shared digital infrastructure can open new opportunities for underwater heritage. The event confirmed the value of such infrastructure in increasing the visibility, traceability and reuse of underwater heritage, and in bringing it closer to the general public.
And perhaps the Sozopol forest is the most evocative reminder of why this matters: 12 million years after those trees grew on land, their annual rings can still be read beneath the sea. Digital technologies can now bring such hidden traces of the past to audiences far beyond the seabed.
Find more information about REEVALUATE project here
Find the agenda here
