Cultural Heritage Management & Venture Lab, Ahmedabad – grant from the European Union

The Centre, in partnership with a university in Spain and municipalities in India and Spain, received a European Union Grant for a project titled ‘Cultural Heritage Management & Venture Lab in Ahmedabad, India’. This project aimed to promote entrepreneurship in the heritage sector and bring inter-disciplinary stakeholders on a single platform in order to conserve and promote the city’s cultural heritage as well as its economic development. The project begun in December 2013 and completed in September 2016.
Project Objective:
‘To strengthen the capacities of cultural agents and facilitate an environment for creativity, innovation, professionalization and entrepreneurship in Cultural Heritage & Management in order to allow the people of the State of Gujarat to fully benefit from the potential of cultural heritage as an economic value.’ 
With this in view, a permanent legal entity in the form of Ahmedabad Cultural Heritage Cluster (ACHC) Trust has been set up. Ahmedabad Heritage Venture Lab (AHVL) has also been set up in order to incubate, mentor and promote start ups and entrepreneurship. To reach to the goal, the project had done surveys of heritage stakeholders, diagnostic studies of a few heritage sectors, and accordingly formulated the strategy of intervention and promotion of entrepreneurship ventures around heritage. One of the major outcomes of the project was the publication of a best practices manual for the cultural heritage management sector. 
Project Partners
Casa de la India, Valladoild, Spain www.casadelaindia.org
Centre for Heritage Management, Ahmedabad University, Ahmedabad, India
Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation, Ahmedabad, India http://ahmedabadcity.gov.in/
Valladolid City Council, (UVA). Valladolid, Spain http://www.valladolid.es/
University of Valladolid (UVA), Valladolid, Spain http://www.uva.es/