Romania

Ana Irina Chiricuță graduated from the National University of Arts in Bucharest, with a bachelor’s and master’s degree from the Conservation-Restoration department. Over time, Ana Chiricuță participated in organising exhibitions, workshops, coordinating volunteer actions and presentations that involved interdisciplinary communication and interaction with heritage beneficiaries in local communities. She graduated from a course on heritage conservation “Establishing diagnosis” and a course on “Inventory of wooden churches”. She currently works at the National Institute of Heritage as a scientific researcher within the Historical Monuments Directorate on several research projects. She has coordinated preventive conservation workshops in summer schools organised by the institute in 2020 and 2021.

Eugen Vaida is an architect at Asociatia Monumentum, which has been a member organisation of Europa Nostra since 2019. He is a graduate of the Faculty of Architecture at the University of Architecture and Urban Planning „Ion Mincu”, in Bucharest. Among his many projects, Eugen coordinated the Daia Heritage Valorization Plan, developed by the Global Heritage Fund in 2017-2018, and is currently coordinating The Ambulance for Monuments project, which won an Award and the Public Choice Award at the European Heritage Awards / Europa Nostra Awards 2020. He had a defining role in the development of the summer school movement in Romania which has its key mission in educating young architects and students. He is a Member of the Advisory Group for the European Commission on heritage policies, the Founding member and president of The Federation for Transylvanian Heritage and advisor for the Romanian Ministry for Culture and National Identity. Eugen Vaida published numerous literary works on cultural heritage, including “Saving the culture of the other” (Alţîna, 2021) and “The Architectural Guidebook For Contextual Planning in the Saxon Area” of the Order of Romanian Architects (RURAL Working Group). Eugen Vaida became an Ashoka Fellow in November 2021, benefitting from a lifetime bursary to continue his work in the field of heritage from the world’s leading social entrepreneurship organisation. For its dedicated efforts in the education of the public of all generation, Asociatia Monumentum, lead by Eugen Vaida, was knighted by The Romanian Presidency in 2021.