Finno-Ugric Dataspace: interconnecting the tangible and intangible heritage of regional identity groups under the framework of ECCCH (FinFAIR)

FinFAIR develops a lightweight, scalable workflow that enables small museums, archives, and community collectors to create high-quality Heritage Digital Twins—interoperable digital representations linking tangible and intangible heritage within the European Collaborative Cloud for Cultural Heritage (ECCCH).

The project addresses a core barrier to participation: many institutions hold unique collections but lack the technical capacity to contribute structured, reusable data. FinFAIR demonstrates that with the Heritage Digital Twin Ontology (HDTO) and open tools such as Wikibase, even small organisations can produce Cloud-ready data aligned with FAIR and CARE principles. Three use cases test scalability: a Livonian corpus enabling a 360° micro-scale reconstruction of heritage; a larger Latgalian corpus with lower initial metadata depth; and a Baltic–Nordic corpus linking dispersed Finno-Ugric materials across borders.

By combining community-based curation with rigorous semantic modelling, FinFAIR delivers a reproducible method for integrating fragmented collections into a shared dataspace. The growing collection is openly accessible at finnougric.net, with ongoing updates documented at finnougric.substack.com. The resulting digital twins are not only interoperable but legally reusable, supporting future research, digital storytelling, and AI-driven applications within the Cloud.