Connecting maritime museums worldwide to preserve maritime culture, inspire ocean stewardship, and empower members to safeguard shared maritime heritage.
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This project's duration was 6 years
£1 million
The International Congress of Maritime Museums (ICMM) is a global network of maritime heritage institutions.
Global Maritime Histories is a programme developed in collaboration with the International Congress of Maritime Museums (ICMM). It will deliver new and authoritative perspectives into the urgent debate about how to address global safety and sustainability challenges in the maritime economy.
The programme will leverage the outreach programmes of more than 120 member museums to act as professional 'storytellers', a key component in understanding and promoting change. The activities will be designed around material that enriches understanding of the human experience of past transitions and the history of technical developments related to a safe and sustainable future.
Organisations such as UNESCO and ICOMOS emphasise the importance of historical insight to inform strategies for dealing with global issues such as climate change. However, cultural institutions and public bodies need more funding, training, and capacity to participate fully in advocacy for the change we need. The programme will address this crucial capacity-building challenge and benefit from the unprecedented engagement opportunities provided by the Cultural Heritage Network of the UN Decade of Ocean Science to promote Ocean Stewardship.
The programme will allow the ICMM to build capacity in a global network of museum professionals and increase its impact on local communities and ocean stewardship initiatives.
The project will consist of three two-year phases, with the core activity of soliciting and funding individual research and engagement projects within museum partners, especially the proposals coming from diverse and less-resourced institutions. The projects will support local voices in a global context of maritime environment issues, encourage ocean literacy in visitors, and equip policymakers with case studies of successes and lessons learned. This will enhance the museums' role in promoting the key themes of the programme and demonstrate how cultural heritage assets can deliver research that may support solutions for sustainability and ocean health concerns.
The pilot phase during 2024-2026 focuses on a set of ‘prospect projects’ who applied for funding in November-December 2024. The pilot projects include:
In October 2025, ICMM welcomed expressions of interest for the second round of the Global Maritime Histories: Case Studies grant.
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