Based on learnings from this research, 15 design principles have been developed, outlining the purpose, governance, management, and evaluation of the knowledge curating design:

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1. The design is committed to provide professional development knowledge for everyone interested to enter or is already working or volunteering in ECHA organisations or as freelancers.

2. The design aims to enable quality induction and ongoing professional development for everyone involved in the ECHAsystem management.

3. The design will contain knowledge resources for users (organisations and freelancers) and for providers (train-the-trainer, and guidance on how to develop knowledge resources).

4. The design will have a two-tier development process, i) a proactive plan to inform operations across the objectives and operational drums, and ii) a crisis process for developing and disseminating knowledge resources at speed.

5. The design activity will be delivered by an inclusive umbrella structure of partnerships and networks, by engaging organisations and individuals across all ECHAsystem habitats and all common objectives and operational drums. Knowledge curation will be part of people’s work (not additional or voluntary), integrating knowledge work and knowledge rewards into ongoing operations.

6. The design’s activities will actively refrain from causing direct or indirect harm to providers (organisations or individuals) of knowledge resources.

7. The knowledge resources will be checked by expert networks to meet quality criteria before being included, and will provide a democratic plurality of views.

8. The design promotes open access and follows the Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reproducible (FAIR) principles.

9. A range of knowledge resource formats will be available to suit a wide range of accessibility needs and learning styles.

10. The design will use analytics and user feedback to proactively plan the development of knowledge resources.

11. The knowledge resources need to be effective in improving organisational sustainability in the ECHAsystem.

12. The design aims to enhance diversified financial models for user organisations and to engage government, charitable, and commercial organisations in partnerships.

13. Through partnerships and networks, the design activity will efficiently utilise existing knowledge provision and financial resources, and be sustainable over the long term (multiple decades).

14. The design will have an evaluation process to measure the quality and quantity of its outputs.    

15. The design aims to increase the cultural, social, economic and environmental capital of the cultural heritage ecosystem and will link to measurable user organisations’ outcomes.