The European Research Infrastructure for Heritage Science (E-RIHS) is a distributed Research Infrastructure to support research on heritage interpretation, preservation, documentation and management. E-RIHS will deliver integrated access to expertise, data and technologies through a standardized approach, and integrate world-leading European facilities into an organisation with a clear identity and a strong cohesive role within the global heritage science community. Through interdisciplinary access to the four platforms – E-RIHS ARCHLAB, E-RIHS DIGILAB, E-RIHS FIXLAB, E-RIHS MOLAB – E-RIHS supports a wide variety of research, from smaller object-focussed case studies to largescale and longer-term collaborative projects, and stimulates innovation in instrumentation, portable technologies and data science.

The long‐-term tradition of this field of research, the ability to combine science with innovation, and the support provided by EU-funded projects and integrating activities such as EUARTECH, CHARISMA, IPERION CH and IPERION HS in conservation science, and ARIADNE in archaeology, represent the background of E-RIHS.. Entered in the ESFRI Roadmap 2016, E-RIHS will offer access to a wide range of fixed and mobile instruments in national facilities of recognized excellence, physically accessible collections/archives and virtually accessible heritage repositories for standardized data storage, analysis and interpretation. Further developments are planned for extending the partnership and including more facilities outside Europe, gradually reaching the status of a Global Research Infrastructure.