Course in planning for nature and culture interpretation (CIP)

This course is for you who work with planning for nature interpretation (naturvägledning) or heritage/culture interpretation (kulturvägledning). It is relevant for a wide range of sites and areas where you want to communicate with visitors about the local stories and values, for example national parks, heritage sites, visitor centers (such as naturum) and museums. Maybe you work:

• in the public sector (kommun, länsstyrelse, myndighet) with areas, sites and trails for the public
• at a consultancy firm producing exhibitions for naturums and museums or interpretation for visitor sites.

Join this course to explore how heritage sites — from museums and historic towns to natural reserves and gardens — can be made more meaningful and accessible for all. You will discover the essentials of heritage interpretation and, together with others, work on a real site to create inspiring and practical planning proposals. The course ends with presenting your interpretive ideas for a site that would promote a more inclusive future of heritage.

The course is structured according to a European standard, owned by Interpret Europe. Participants that successfully meet all certification requirements of the course will be certified as interpretive planners, by Interpret Europe. Read more about the course content here.

The course enables you, as a planner, to add interpretive components into your word by offering paths to deeper meaning of heritage, and by fostering mindfulness towards our shared future. An interpretive plan for the site guides the planer when producing for example panels, exhibitions, design and guided tours. But more importantly interpretive plans focuses on creating meaningful experiences for visitors by connecting them through communication with local stories and universal values.  

Our trainer is Valya Stergioti, who is a very experienced certified interpretive trainer, and one of the co-creators of this course. See posts from Valya's former courses here.

Here you can see pictures from CIP courses around Europe.

The course will be held in English. 

Venue for the course is SLU in Uppsala. During the course we will work with an area in the beautiful campus Ultuna, as well as visit a different site to get inspiration and provoke new perspektives.

Included in the course fee: 

• attendance at pre-course online meeting in June
• personal mentoring by the trainer for a series of pre-course assignments (optional)
• attendance at the main course in Uppsala 16-21 August
• entrance fee for one site visit
• dinners together at a restaurant on the 16 and 20 August.

Accommodation and lunches are not included in the course fee.

Course program

The course programme is intense and covers all that is relevant for adding the interpretive component to planning for and together with local people and visitors around specific heritage sites. We will learn from an experienced trainer and from each other in a systematic and participatory way. The content can be seen as answering these questions: 

• Why (purpose and basics of heritage interpretation and interpretive planning).
• Who (whom we are planning for and whom we should involve).
• What (defining the key phenomena and critical interpretive themes).
• How (developing specific proposals for individual interpretive services).

It is recommended that you as a participant have some previous experience in planning.

The course as a whole consists of three parts:

1. Introductory online meeting

A webinar will be held at the beginning of June. This introductory part is recommended, but not obligatory. It is an opportunity for participants to meet each other, and to gain an initial understanding of the course content and logistics. After this meeting, you will get four pre-course assignments: a series of questions that are based on Interpret Europe's theory about quality, value-based interpretation. These act as an introduction to the course. 

2. Main course at SLU in Uppsala

The main course consists of 6 full course days: 16-21 August 2026, from Sunday morning till Friday afternoon. 

It includes training activities, presentations, study visits, individual and group work. You, together with other participants, will work as a team to develop interpretive proposals for a site. On the last day, all participants will present their proposals.

Topics included in the main course:

• What is heritage and what does it mean to interpret it?
• Considering values, frames, meanings and universal concepts.
• Working with stakeholders around heritage
• Visitor analysis and how to foster active participation
• Considering the situation of the site management
• Assessment of existing interpretive services
• Options for new personal and non-personal services
• Creating new services including accessibility/sustainable aspects
• Parallel to the above the participants work in teams on interpretive planning proposals, to be shared on the last days. 
• Perspectives and limitations of interpretive planning.

3. Online meetings after the course

Those participants who would like to be certified by Interpret Europe as Interpretive Planners will need to develop an interpretive plan or adapt an existing one and submit its outline to your trainer. To assist you in this work, you will have the chance to attend three online meetings (total of seven hours) as coaching milestones that help you fulfilling your certification task.

This part of the course is not obligatory and has an extra cost of 180 Euros / 2000 SEK.

More information about course content

Read more about the course on the Interpret Europe website.

Certification

Certification requires:

• full attendance at the main course
• passing tests
• submitting an own interpretive plan
• individual membership in Interpret Europe.

Membership at Interpret Europe

The course is for members in Interpret Europe. For new members there is a discount of 25 % on the fee for the first calendar year (2026). To become certified you have to be member. The fee for Swedish citizens with discount is 60 euros. More information here.

Number of participants

The course is designed for a number of 8 to 18 participants. 

Contact and questions

For questions about the course content you may contact the trainer Valya Stergioti at vster@outlook.com. 

For questions about practical issues you may contact Per Sonnvik at per.sonnvik@slu.se