The Project group consists of three individuals with complementary qualifications and professional backgrounds.

Axel Christophersen is Director of the Museum of Natural History and Archaeology, and a professor of archaeology at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. Mr Christophersen has more than 30 years of experience as a scientific photographer, and photo-documented the large archaeological excavations in Trondheim, Norway for the Directorate for Cultural Heritage in Norway.

Kim Sørenssen is a social anthropologist, photographer and managing director of an NGO in Norway. Mr Sørenssen has resided in Asia for seven years, speaks Mandarin Chinese and has a wide-ranging career background including wildlife photography in Nepal, and managing the Trondheim Centre for Urban Form.

Amund Sinding-Larsen is an architect, senior advisor at The Norwegian Directorate of Public Construction and Property, and president of ICOMOS Norway. Mr Sinding-Larsen has a career spanning 30 years of working with the protection of historical cities in Africa, the Middle East and Asia. Co-author of The Lhasa Atlas, published in English in 2001 and then in Chinese and Tibetan in 2005, supported by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Mr Sinding-Larsen has extensive field experience from Afghanistan, and a large contact network within international cultural heritage management. Christophersen and Sørenssen have cooperated since 1998 in China (Xi'an) and Tibet (Lhasa) with cultural heritage protection, and with knowledge transfer regarding research and documentation of cultural heritage.