One year into the 3DBigDataSpace project, we have already reached an important milestone. With the project running from February 2025 to July 2026, there is not much time left, however, plenty of exciting developments still ahead of us. Looking back on the past twelve months, it is clear that strong collaboration and focused effort have laid solid foundations for what is to come.

Over the past year, 3DBigDataSpace has made significant progress in building a shared European ecosystem for 3D cultural heritage. The project brings together ten core partners, supported by associated partners and subcontractors, all working towards a common goal: making Europe’s 3D heritage data more accessible, better enriched, and easier to reuse at scale.

One of the most significant achievements has been the rapid expansion of available 3D content and infrastructure: 

To support reuse across disciplines, the project has developed one unified viewer framework with currently 13 different (purpose specific) 3D viewer engines that can be used with more than 71,000 models. The main  idea is to enable to provide a middleware to integrate different viewer stacks and enable users to choose viewers needed. These include mobile, AR, geospatial and advanced rendering solutions. Three concrete XR reuse cases, covering research, education and tourism, are already demonstrating how 3D data can be meaningfully reused beyond documentation. New tools for mesh optimisation and XR-ready derivatives further facilitate the use of 3D models in web platforms, AR/VR applications and mobile environments.


3D Viewer

Capacity building has been a central pillar from the start. Over the first year, the project organised a Summer School in Heiligenkreuz with 50 participants, delivered eight workshops across Europe, and launched a course via the Europeana Academy on the 4DBrowser. Hands-on training at institutions such as the Hunt Museum in Ireland has helped bridge the gap between advanced technologies and everyday heritage practice. Looking ahead, capacity-building activities will continue with the ICOMOS Summer School in Inari, Finland, in June 2026, alongside additional workshops in Poland.

On the technical side, the data enrichment pipeline has been significantly strengthened. The platform now supports both automated and manual georeferencing and scaling of 3D models, point cloud classification with user-defined classes, and cross-domain enrichment using VLM and LLM technologies. Multiple viewer environments are integrated into a unified runtime, allowing seamless access to nine selectable 3D viewers and enabling immersive applications such as digitally supported cultural routes.

After one year, 3DBigDataSpace already demonstrates what is possible when technology, collaboration and training come together. With more than 71,000 models accessible, integrated services running in a single heritage data processing environment, and a growing European community engaged through capacity building and outreach, the project is well on track. The coming months promise further developments, new tools and deeper engagement making the final stretch of the project an especially exciting one.