Equipping a growing network of heritage professionals with the skills and tools to safeguard immovable heritage and living traditions amid escalating disaster risks, climate extremes and conflict
Disasters are increasingly challenging what we are prepared for. Climate extremes, environmental degradation, fragile infrastructure and existing vulnerabilities can interact to produce cascading impacts across entire territories.
Heritage is deeply embedded within these same territorial, environmental, social and governance systems. When disasters strike, the damage and loss can extend far beyond historic buildings and sites, disrupting living traditions, traditional skills, collective memory and the knowledge that connects communities to place.
While saving lives and meeting humanitarian needs must always come first, effectively protecting heritage begins well before an emergency. Risk reduction and preparedness are therefore essential. Heritage professionals need to understand and reduce risks, prepare for different emergency scenarios, work effectively across sectors, act safely when crises occur, and support the recovery of heritage places, communities and the living practices connected to them.
Against this backdrop, READY Track 2 has entered its in-person phase in Bucharest, Romania, bringing together 24 professionals from 19 countries from 7 to 18 September 2026 for two weeks of intensive, practice-based training, hosted with the generous support of Romania’s National Institute of Heritage.
Now in its second year, READY, is a multi-year capacity-development initiative, conceived and delivered by ICCROM’s First Aid and Resilience for Cultural Heritage in Times of Crisis (FAR) Programme Delivery Mechanism, with the expertise of 17 technical partners. READY is funded by the European Union through the Creative Europe Programme, whose sustained support is helping strengthen capacities for cultural heritage resilience across Europe and beyond.
Through Track 2, participants are strengthening their capacity to assess and reduce disaster risk, enhance emergency preparedness, undertake coordinated cultural heritage first aid when disasters occur, and support early recovery. Focusing on heritage cities, sites and buildings, together with associated living traditions and practices, the training equips professionals with the knowledge, tools and partnerships needed to safeguard heritage amid increasingly systemic and cascading risks.
From comprehensive disaster risk assessment to coordinated cultural heritage first aid
The learning journey began on 22 June and continued through 22 July 2026, with an intensive online training on comprehensive disaster risk assessment for cultural heritage, followed by participants applying their learning to heritage places in their own contexts.
Using a territorial approach to risk assessment, participants looked beyond individual heritage assets to examine the wider systems in which they are situated. By considering the relationships between heritage, landscapes, settlements, infrastructure, ecosystems, communities and governance across different scales, participants learned to identify how risks can emerge, interact and cascade throughout a territory.
In Bucharest, the focus will shift from understanding and assessing risk to coordinated action in a complex emergency. Participants will put ICCROM's codified Cultural Heritage First Aid Action methodology into practice, progressing through situation analysis; post-event, on-site damage and risk assessment; and security and emergency stabilization, while linking immediate actions to early recovery. Emergency documentation, risk management, communication and coordination underpin each step of this field-tested framework.
Participants will also take part in tabletop simulations involving Union Civil Protection Mechanism (UCPM) activation, practice coordination with Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) actors, and address operational challenges including hazardous materials, fire safety, site access, security and crisis communication.
Securing heritage and strengthening community recovery
READY Track 2 adopts an integrated, people-centred approach that takes an integrated view of immovable and intangible heritage. Instead, it recognizes the living dimensions of heritage and the dynamic relationships between heritage places, communities, practices, knowledge and skills.
Participants will explore these interconnections through participatory vulnerability and capacity assessment, analysis of loss and damage, and oral histories. This will help identify how disasters can affect both heritage places and the continuity of associated living heritage, while drawing on traditional knowledge, skills, coping mechanisms and community capacities to inform cultural heritage first aid and recovery.
From Risk to Readiness: Opening the dialogue in Bucharest
The in-person training began on 7 September with an inaugural ceremony. Following welcome remarks by the host institution, ICCROM’s Director-General and the European Commission officially opened READY Track 2, reaffirming their shared commitment to strengthening capacities to safeguard cultural heritage before, during and after crises.
"As an international Organization, ICCROM has a responsibility to drive this agenda together with our Member States – connecting heritage with disaster risk management, civil protection, humanitarian and development systems, and strengthening the capacities and partnerships needed to safeguard heritage and the communities that sustain it.
This ambition is anchored in the ICCROM Strategic Plan 2026–2031 and its CARE vision: to Conserve, Activate and Recognize heritage in all its forms and its full potential in enriching lives and livelihoods.
READY brings these three dimensions together by strengthening preparedness, capacities and partnerships, helping ensure that heritage is an integral part of resilient communities and societies." — ICCROM Director-General, Aruna Francesca Maria Gujral
"The READY project is a necessity as cultural heritage is integral to societal resilience, enabling communities to better withstand and recover from crises. With the EU funded READY Project, which trains professionals from both the cultural heritage and the civil protection community in disaster risk management, the EU commits to increase the resilience of Europe's cultural heritage sector, in line with the needs and objectives highlighted by the EU Preparedness Union strategy."— European Commission Director for Culture, Creativity and Sport , Georg Haeusler.
The ceremony continued with a strategic panel discussion, “From Risk to Readiness: Protecting Heritage amid Climate Extremes, Disasters and Armed Conflict.” Drawing on perspectives from the European Union, climate science, cultural heritage, architecture and Romania’s emergency-management system, the discussion addressed a central question for READY: how can policy, knowledge and institutional commitments be translated into preparedness and coordinated action before a crisis occurs?
The discussion explored priorities for cultural heritage resilience, evolving risks from climate extremes and complex emergencies, Romania’s preparedness context, and opportunities for stronger cooperation between cultural authorities, civil protection, emergency responders and other institutions. Together, these perspectives set the strategic context for the two weeks of practical training to follow.
"We are grateful to ICCROM, to the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Education, Youth, Sport and Culture, and to all the partners who have contributed to making READY possible. As the host partner in Romania, the National Institute of Heritage is honoured to be part of this effort. We hope that your time in Bucharest will be an opportunity not only to acquire new knowledge and practical tools, but also to develop lasting professional relationships."— Director of the National Institute of Heritage, Oana Zaharia
Building a Community of Practice
Throughout the two weeks, a multidisciplinary teaching team will blend theoretical learning with simulations, field exercises, case studies and guided group work. Participants will work through evolving scenarios, information scarcity, safety constraints and competing priorities, strengthening their ability to assess, document, communicate, coordinate and act effectively within multidisciplinary emergency response environments.
The learning will continue after Bucharest through field projects in participants' own contexts, where READY methods and tools will be adapted to local risks, heritage and institutional realities. With 25 new professionals joining the 24 trained through READY Track 1, the READY network will grow to 49 heritage risk managers and cultural first aiders. This growing network will provide a platform to exchange knowledge, strengthen cross-sector collaboration, and advance risk-informed heritage safeguarding across Europe and in other contexts facing similar risks.