Funding Partners

Through its Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, the Italian Government has been supporting ICCROM and its programmes for more than 60 years. ICCROM is honoured to have close cooperation with our host country which continues to play a leading role in cultural heritage protection at the international level. 

With the gracious and continued support of the Government of Sharjah and His Highness Sheikh Dr Sultan bin Muhammad Al Qasimi, Ruler of Sharjah and Supreme Council Member, ICCROM’s Regional Office has become a leading force for cultural heritage advocacy and capacity building in the region delivering such activities as the ICCROM Sharjah Awards, the Arab Forum for Cultural Heritage and a variety of training initiatives. 

Since 2000, the Japanese Agency for Cultural Affairs has participated in the secondment scheme at ICCROM to help strengthen its human resources and expertise while ensuring a mutual exchange of perspectives and approaches. In addition, thanks to BUNKA-CHO’s active support, ICCROM regularly delivers several international courses for heritage professionals in Japan.   

In 2020-2023 ICCROM and ALIPH are collaborating on the Alliance for Cultural Heritage First Aid, Peace and Resilience – a ground-breaking project that aims to strengthen capacities for risk reduction, preparedness, response and recovery among communities adversely affected by armed conflicts, extreme hazard events and epidemics in the Middle East, North Africa, Afghanistan and Pakistan region (MENAP).  

ICCROM has engaged in the EU-funded APACHE (Active & intelligent PAckaging materials and display cases as a tool for preventive conservation of Cultural Heritage) project, primarily through general advisory, coordination and dissemination services, which enhance the communication and impact of the project. 

In 2022 ICCROM joined ARCHE (Alliance for Research on Cultural Heritage in Europe) - a spearheading coordination network of researchers, innovators, heritage professionals, institutional bodies and citizens which develops a pan European framework for a holistic approach to cultural heritage research and innovation.

E-RIHS is the European Research Infrastructure for Heritage Science that supports research on heritage interpretation, preservation, documentation and management. ICCROM contributes to E-RIHS by devising strategic partnerships at international and intergovernmental levels and by favouring measurement of sector statistics and performance indicators.

Through its Cultural Protection Fund, established in partnership with the UK Government Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), the British Council has helped ICCROM carry out several key activities, including field projects in Western Sudan and Kenya, the knowledge-building initiative Climate.Culture.Peace and the new project on Cultural Heritage for Inclusive Growth in Southeast Asia. 

The Canadian Conservation Institute and the Canadian Heritage Information Network participate in and support several initiatives at ICCROM, including Our Collections Matter, RE-ORG, First Aid and Resilience for Cultural Heritage in Times of Crisis (FAR) and the relaunch of the Bibliographic Database of the Conservation Information Network (BCIN). We also work together to enable organizations worldwide to translate our key co-publications on risk management into a variety of languages. 

Over the past ten years, the Korean Cultural Heritage Administration (CHA) has generously contributed to CollAsia, an educational programme for heritage professionals in Southeast Asia, helping ICCROM deliver capacity-building activities and publications. Since 2019, CHA has extended its support to ICCROM’s World Heritage Leadership Programme. 

In 2022, ICCROM and CHA signed a new five-year agreement to build heritage management and conservation capacities in the Asia-Pacific region and internationally. 

The ICCROM Library has joined the vibrant network of libraries and their communities across Europe participating in the European Cultural Foundation’s 2022 Europe Challenge. This partnership will facilitate the creation of a new special collection on themes related to heritage education and a dedicated space for young readers to ensure multicultural and multilingual variety. 

By providing Voluntary Contributions for staff positions, the Swiss Federal Office of Culture helped ICCROM embark on a restructuring initiative to improve its efficiency. Our Resource Mobilization function was established thanks to the support from the Swiss Government.

The Getty Conservation Institute has been a strong supporter of ICCROM in its various activities, among the most prominent being MOSAIKON – a collaborative initiative dedicated to improving the conservation of ancient mosaics in the Mediterranean region. Recently, the GCI helped ICCROM relaunch the BCIN Database and implement the international workshop “Connecting Collections: Unlocking Value in Heritage Samples Archives,” in Évora, Portugal. 

Through its generous contribution, the Government of Spain will support the use of Spanish in ICCROM’s activities in 2023, particularly for translations and the dissemination of information in Spanish.

Together with the Cultural Heritage Directorate of the Ministry of Culture and thanks to the contribution of the Institute for the Protection of Cultural Heritage of Slovenia, in November 2021 ICCROM’s World Heritage Leadership team organized a three-day workshop to support Slovenia in preparing two impact assessment studies requested by the World Heritage Committee. 

Through the Ministry of Culture (MiC), the Italian government provides ICCROM with the necessary premises, currently as part of the Complesso Monumentale di San Michele. In addition, representatives of Istituto Centrale per il Restauro (ICR) are regularly participating in the work of the ICCROM Council as ex officio members. 

The Ministry of Culture and Media of the Republic of Croatia has entrusted ICCROM with the condition assessment and planning for the long-term conservation programme of the Orlando Column in the Dubrovnik town centre. Other cooperation activities include the international symposium, PREVENT - Mitigating Fire Risk for Heritage jointly organized by the Ministry, the City of Trogir and ICCROM in October 2022. 

The Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation has joined forces with ICCROM in making Africa’s heritage a source of economic and social opportunity for youth in the continent, as addressed by the recently launched Youth.Heritage.Africa programme. 

Since 2013, ICCROM has been engaged in a fruitful collaboration with the National Cultural Heritage Administration of China, which includes the scholarship fund for course participants and interns set up by the Chinese authority. In January 2022, as part of the framework of cooperation between ICCROM and NCHA, a five-day online course on World Heritage management with a focus on China was delivered in collaboration with the Chinese Academy of Cultural Heritage. 

Within the framework of cooperation between ICCROM and the National Museum of Oman, ICCROM-Sharjah has provided technical and scientific advice and assisted in implementing the project, Rehabilitation of Royal Houses in Old Muscat, which converts historic houses into museums and tourist sites. 

Along with ICCROM and IUCN, the Norwegian Ministry for Climate and Environment is one of the founding partners of the World Heritage Leadership programme which applies a place-based and people-centred approaches to the management of heritage places. By connecting People, Nature and Culture, the programme provides ready-to-use tools and knowledge to improve heritage management practice through the work of the World Heritage Convention. In 2022 the Ministry renewed its commitment to fostering future leaders of the World Heritage Convention by extending its support to the programme’s second phase. 

Our collaboration with Nottingham Trent University’s Centre for Architecture, Urbanism and Global Heritage includes work within a joint research project on the sustainable reconstruction method for seismic-prone heritage areas in India and the implementation of the ICCROM Heritage Recovery Programme in Mosul.  

Over the course of several years, through its Cultural Emergency Response programme, the Prince Claus Fund has supported ICCROM’s First Aid and Resilience for Cultural Heritage in Times of Crisis programme in delivering training and publications, such as the First Aid to Cultural Heritage in Times of Crisis Handbook and Toolkit.  

Thanks to the Principality of Monaco’s support, in 2021 the First Aid and Resilience for Cultural Heritage in Times of Crisis (FAR) programme released PATH - Peacebuilding Assessment Tool for Heritage Recovery and Rehabilitation – the first publication of the Toolkit on Heritage for Peace and Resilience.  

To strengthen the capacities of heritage professionals from Saudi Arabia and neighbouring countries, ICCROM-Sharjah and the Saudi Heritage Preservation Society (SHPS) have launched a training series on international cultural heritage conventions and other cultural programmes called the Experts Program. This initiative is carried out thanks to the gracious support of the Ministry of Culture of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (MoC).  

In 2021, in collaboration with the Cultural Heritage Service of Emilia-Romagna, ICCROM organized a RE-ORG professional training course on the reorganization of museum storage for heritage professionals in Italy, involving ten museums in Emilia-Romagna. 

The Swedish Postcode Foundation has supported the First Aid and Resilience for Cultural Heritage in Times of Crisis programme in its attempts to integrate cultural heritage into disaster risk management, making it possible to deliver the project Culture Cannot Wait – Heritage for Peace and Resilience, release the publication A Story of Change and, more recently, to launch the new initiative Net Zero: Heritage for Climate Action. 

Our long-term partner UNESCO has helped us carry out a wide range of activities. Currently, ICCROM is supporting UNESCO's initiative, Revive the Spirit of Mosul, by delivering a two-year capacity-building programme for local heritage professionals and craftspeople, in partnership with the University of Mosul and with generous financial contributions from the United Arab Emirates and the European Union.

As a strong supporter of ICCROM’s First Aid and Resilience for Cultural Heritage in Times of Crisis programme, UNESCO helped prepare, translate and disseminate its key manual, Endangered Heritage: Emergency Evacuation of Heritage Collections.

ICCROM’s activities aimed at improving the conservation and management of World Heritage properties are carried out in close collaboration with the UNESCO World Heritage Centre. As an Advisory Body to the World Heritage Convention, ICCROM has a specific capacity-building role in implementing the Convention.