[Development of advanced compatible materials and techniques and their application for the protection, conservation and restoration of cultural heritage assets Nanosciences, Nanotechnologies, Materials and new Production Technologies - NMP]
Project HEROMAT - Protection of Cultural Heritage Objects with Advance Multifunctional Materials is a four-year research project funded under the Seventh Framework Programme of the European Union (Seventh Framework Programme - EP7), with a total budget of 3.47 million. The project HEROMAT started on 1 December 2011, and the coordination of this multidisciplinary project was entrusted to the Faculty of Technology in Novi Sad. The project involves 10 partners from five countries: Slovenia, Italy, UK, Russia and Serbia (4 universities and 3 institutions of cultural heritage and 3 SMEs).
The FP7 multidisciplinary research cooperation project HEROMAT is directed towards the development of innovative environmental friendly materials with value added functions aimed to the protection of immovable Cultural Heritage assets.
The HEROMAT project will contribute to an effective, long-lasting solution for the prevention of degradation, keeping the authenticity, functionality and the aesthetic appearance of the cultural assets and having socio-economic benefits.
The Pan-European HEROMAT team from Serbia, Slovenia, Italy, UK and Russia, will cross-link the experts that will be focused on the restoration and consolidation of two historical objects located in urban (Bač fortress, Serbia) and rural (Manor in Dornava, Slovenia) environment, both having continental climate.
The HEROMAT project investigation involves the chain of activities from the synthesis, establishment of the methodology for characterization and testing of novel protective materials through their pilot production and, finally, to the in situ application and monitoring, giving also their life cycle assessment.

The outputs of HEROMAT project will be a set of novel materials applicable for the protection of different inorganic mineral substrates providing multiple added functions: consolidation, self-cleaning and anti-microbial effect.

The overall goal of the HEROMAT project is the improvement of the physical state as well as the resistance to degradation of the monuments sustaining the functionality and the aesthetic appearance through a long period of time.
The Provincial Institute has tasks within all 10 work packages and special responsibility as leader of WP 10, which deals with the dissemination of the project results. To this end, many activities were completed in 2012 and 2013, from the preparation of promotional material, to the organization of a round table on the materials. See: www.heromat.com
The project emerged as a logical continuation of the cooperation established between The Provincial Institute and the Faculty of Technology, University of Novi Sad on topics related to the understanding of the processes of material degradation, especially cooperation in the developmental project of integrative protection of cultural heritage "Centuries of Bač." Cooperation between the two institutions, achieved through number of projects in the past years, has a new quality gained through joint participation in the international research projects - HEROMAT, where the Faculty of Technology is in the role of coordinator and Provincial Institute in the role of partner.