This area of research aims to investigate the impact of UNESCO designations on the sustainable development of the territories and the valorisation of the cultural heritage therein. It also includes the detailed investigation of integrated management models for UNESCO designations. As a goal, it sees the creation of a database of multiple UNESCO designations worldwide, to study their system and functioning.

This research topic explores how cultural heritage can be conceived as a shared resource subject to dilemmas of collective action for its conservation, management and sustainable use. Although cultural heritage is increasingly seen as an asset contributing to economic and social development, its management requires coordination between local, national and international actors who may have different values, interests and objectives or political and economic power. This theme adopts economic and institutional approaches to analyse the enabling factors and barriers that influence the management of cultural resources, as well as the effectiveness of public, private and community governance models for local culture-based economic development.

This research area rotates around the measurement and monitoring the contribution of culture to national and local implementation of the 2030 Agenda Goals; It investigates the role of culture as a sector of activity and how it contributes across SDGs and policy areas, addressing the need to collect data and establish more reliable measurement systems for a better understanding of the multiple ways in which culture contributes to the economic, social and environmental dimensions of development.

This area focuses on the study of sustainability factors in cultural tourism, particularly in relation to the Agenda 2030 sustainable development goals. The integrated management of cultural resources must therefore take into account tourism as an economic, cultural and social force, which will be studied from the perspective of sustainable tourism and in relation to local communities. 

This research area aims to address the emerging challenges for the protection of cultural heritage from the many threats that have grown significantly in recent years, due to the emergence of new forms of conflict and the intensification of disasters. This area therefore explores the importance and role of culture in crisis and post-crisis scenarios and how this can be applied when working in the protection process as well as in post-conflict or post-disaster recovery.