Objects as Evidence is unique two-week summer course led by a team of researchers, curators, conservators and scientists from the Rijksmuseum Conservation Department, the Bard Graduate Center in New York and the Conservation Department of the University of Amsterdam.

New Approaches in the Conservation of Contemporary Art (NACCA) is a Marie Curie ITN for 15 PhD’s, designed by experts working in museums, heritage organisations and universities that have a profound experience in the field of contemporary art conservation and conservation research. It consists of a research and a training part in summer schools and winter schools, including public events. NACCA is coordinated by the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at Maastricht University and executed in collaboration with several European project partners, including UvA's Conservation and Restoration department.

In 2015 the first Summer School was held in the Villa Noailles in Hyères. This Summer School was be held during the last two weeks of July and focused upon two rooms in the villa. Villa Noailles was designed and built between 1923 and 1933 by the architect Robert Mallet-Stevens in close cooperation with the Noailles themselves. The interior of the villa was designed and realised in the same period by several designers and artists, including the Dutch Theo van Doesburg and Sybold van Ravensteyn. The programme involved a reconstruction of the wall painting designed by Theo van Doesburg in the ‘Chambre des Fleurs’ and research of the colours used in the ‘Chambre d’amis’ by Sybold van Ravensteyn. The Summer School was organised by the UvA Conservation and Restoration Department in close cooperation with Villa Noailles.

For the first time in 2014, the summer campaign of the Amsterdam Free University the Plakari Project included a collaboration with the UvA Conservation and Restoration Department. This initiative involved a team of two Post-Master trainees from the Glass, Ceramics and Stone specialisation and one trainee from the specialisation Metal. Metal conservation lecturer Tamar Davidowitz supervised the conservation of the archaeological finds made since 2010. It turned out to be a successful cooperation resulting in the stabilisation, cleaning and reconstruction of a large number of objects. Interesting and important discoveries were also made as a result of the fruitful collaboration, as anticipated to be the case in the future. Students, trainees and lecturers from the UvA Conservation and Restoration Department will keep on participating in this project during the summer.

Every year a two-week on-site practical workshop takes place in Halden for the conservation of Frederikshald’s theatre sceneries from the 1838 baroque theatre in Halden. The collection consists of at least four scenery sets and many single pieces, dating from 1838 up to circa 1920. The set pieces consist of a variety of surfaces on canvas: matt glue-bound and/or oil-paint. 

The Department of Conservation of the IAKH University in Oslo organises the international summer school, in collaboration with the UvA Conservation and Restoration Department, the Institutt für Restaurierungs- und Konservierungswissenschaft of the Fachhochschule in Köln and the Halden Historiske Samlinger.

The first "Oranienbaum Summer School" took place in 2011 and was succeeded by another one in 2012, following the first conservation initiative at Schloß Oranienbaum, which was the "Oranienbaum Colloquium" for PhD Candidates in Conservation in 2008, the later Ulrich Schießl PhD-Colloquium.

Both Oranienbaum Summer Schools were organised by Claudia Hörster, Keeper of the Art Collection at the Royal Archives in The Hague, and Dr Wolfgang Savelsberg, Head of the Department of Palaces / Collections Kulturstiftung Dessau Wörlitz. The schools each lasted for four to five weeks, and both Dutch and German students participated. Besides the UvA Conservation Department, the Wall Paintings Departments of FH Potsdam, ABK Stuttgart and HfbK Dresden participated.

In 2011 the ‘Chambre in Chinoiserie Style’ was treated and in 2012 the ‘Anti-Chambre’, also a Chinoiserie.

Historical Techniques in Arts and Crafts (HiTec) aims to capture an important kind of intangible cultural heritage. Conservation students of the HAWK University of Applied Arts and Sciences Hildesheim/Holzminden/Göttingen, the Metropolia University in Helsinki, the University of Fine Arts in Budapest and the University of Amsterdam work together to document the traditional manufacturing processes of linen, paper, printing, book binding and carving masks.

The first two-week course was organized by the HAWK in 2011 partly in Hildesheim, partly in Hildesheim and partly in the open-air museum Rahden (Germany). The main focus was on the documentation of the peasant plant fiber processing. The students participated in a documentary film workshop and the necessary tools and craftsmanship steps were practically understood and documented. The video From Flax to Linen is one of the results.

In 2012 the project continued in the Netherlands on the subject of manufacturing techniques of paper and books. Organized by the University of Amsterdam, this project took place over two weeks at various sites in Amsterdam and Antwerp. The focus was on the documentation of small-scale book production from papermaking to printing techniques to bookbinding. Students and lectureres in conservation of the HAWK University of Applied Arts and Sciences Hildesheim/Holzminden/Göttingen, the Metropolia University in Helsinki, the University of Fine Arts in Budapest and the University of Amsterdam worked together. The video From Paper to Book is one of the results.

In 2013 the Hungarian University of Fine Arts of Budapest joined the consortium and the last HiTec workshop took place in Hungary. The students were able to gain experience in the technique of mask carving and learned about folk traditions. On a Journey to Mohács (Hungary) a third video was to document the intangible cultural heritage of the Busójárás. The Busójárás is known as the biggest carnival event in Hungary, with a masquerade with intricately carved wooden masks as its special feature.

Ethics and Ethnographic Objects Conservation (EthCon) is an Erasmus project jointly organized by three institutions teaching conservation: HAWK University for Applied Sciences and Arts Hildesheim (Germany), Helsinki Metropolia University of Applied Sciences (Finland) and University of Amsterdam (The Netherlands).

EthCon is funded as an “Intensive Program” within the European Lifelong Learning Program over the period of three years. Each year a two-week seminar brings together students, teachers and museum specialists working with ethnographic objects in various ways. The aim is to develop an ethical framework to discuss the complex issues that occur when confronted with the analysis and treatment of these objects, in order to develop an interdisciplinary methodology for the conservation of ethnographic collections. Students in conservation, science, and anthropology will learn to assess the risks for these kinds of collections and what kind of decisions can be made to reduce those risks. Teachers and students will learn to work with the didactic concept of ‘communities of inquiry’ and advance interdisciplinary and international cooperation in teaching in conservation of cultural heritage.