XRculture - eXplore & Reuse 3D cultural heritage within the Data Space: project presentation

The general presentation of the XRculture project (21 slides, final version July 2026), prepared by the coordinator on behalf of the whole consortium. The deck introduces the project in a nutshell (consortium, competences, duration, funding) and walks through its three focus areas. For AI-based techniques for high-quality 3D it covers the new digitisations and model improvements, the combination of photogrammetry with NeRFs and Gaussian Splatting for challenging transparent and reflective surfaces, and the acquisition setup and processing pipeline used for the glass collections of six Italian state museums. For XR applications it presents the four scenarios (heritage at risk, heritage tourism, dispersed heritage, education) with their concrete results, from the first Ukrainian 3D models on Europeana to the holographic postcards and the Mixed Reality reunification of the Zadar glass collection. For the open framework for 3D visualisation it explains why an open middleware layer matters for data sovereignty and vendor independence, and how it connects storage, converters, viewers and user applications. The presentation condenses the whole project narrative and its positioning in the common European data space for cultural heritage into a single deck, and is the recommended starting point for any training or briefing on XRculture. It is complemented by the recordings and demonstration videos on the XRculture YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@XRculture. XRculture - eXplore & Reuse 3D cultural heritage within the Data Space is co-funded by the European Union under the Digital Europe Programme, Grant Agreement No 101174317.