Library

Breaking the Digital Ceiling – Key Insights from DOORS – Digital Incubator for Museums

This publication tells the story of our project through many voices – those of the DOORS team, the museum professionals that participated in the incubation programme, and the numerous experts who advised us or shared their knowledge in workshops, mentoring sessions, or talks. It’s a reflection on what we’ve done, and how our learnings can be used to design future funding schemes and programmes.

Self-reflection Tool

Designed as a print-your-own card deck, the tool facilitates a self-reflection exercise to help teams understand the digital maturity levels of their organisation and map out ways to improve their current paradigm.

This resource is for
programme facilitators & initiators museum professionals

Needs Assessment Report

Combining learnings from our survey, the first stage of the incubation programme, and interviews with experts in the sector, this resource brings together qualitative and quantitative research to formulate preliminary findings about the present and urgent needs of small and medium-sized museums. These findings were further elaborated and updated in Breaking the Digital Ceiling.

This resource is for
programme facilitators & initiators funding & research bodies

Incubation Strategy

Outlining the aims, concept, and methodology of the incubation programme, this resource is a peek ‘behind the scenes’. Beyond explaining the final architecture of the incubator, it unpacks the decisions to build on collective intelligence and remain agile, as ways to design a better-attuned programme that promptly responded to the needs of small and medium-sized museums.

This resource is for
programme facilitators & initiators funding & research bodies

Sparkle Report I

A tour-de-force of some of the most innovative digital projects coming from international museums, this resource reframes success as a learning opportunity and looks at the neglected impacts digital projects had on the institutions that implemented them.

This resource is for
museum professionals funding & research bodies

Sparkle Report II

A tour-de-force of the digital pilots developed under the banner of DOORS, the second part of the Sparkle Report looks at the concepts behind these projects, their impact on audiences and institutional culture, and the challenges teams had to overcome during their implementation.

This resource is for
museum professionals funding & research bodies

Financial Reporting Templates

These templates were designed to help the museums (aka the funding beneficiaries) draft their financial reports in line with the requirements of Horizon Europe. We also included a few pieces of advice.

This resource is for
museum professionals

Action & Sustainability Plan Template

These templates can help museum teams draft the sustainability strategy for their digital pilots, and think about the long-term organisational and financial sustainability of their project, as well as the impact it could have upon audiences, communities, or the sector now and in the future.

This resource is for
museum professionals

Progress-Sharing Sessions Templates & Briefs

A way of monitoring the progress of the digital pilots across the museums in our incubation programme, the progress-sharing sessions tackled topics aligned with the different development stages. Here are the topics and briefs we sent out to museums in preparation for each of the sessions.

This resource is for
programme facilitators & initiators

Mentor Feedback Form

In individual sessions, museums got advice from their mentors. We encouraged mentors to fill out these feedback forms, focusing on various aspects of the project.

This resource is for
programme facilitators & initiators

Exploitation Strategy

A summary of the outcomes of DOORS-Digital Incubation Strategy, our exploitation strategy explains how and by whom these outcomes could be used in the future, including tips on how to make the most of them.

This resource is for
programme facilitators & initiators

Call for Proposals & Application Process Report

The design of the open call and the application process is a useful resource for those who plan similar programmes in the future and need a blueprint.

This resource is for
programme facilitators & initiators

Communication Guidelines and Plan

Research projects like ours have a complex and challenging task when it comes to communication. For those developing similar projects, we share the framework we developed for communicating about the project and its numerous and diverse outcomes to different audiences.

This resource is for
programme facilitators & initiators