News from CLARIN-D

NFDI: Memorandum of Understanding and Letters of Intent published

The four consortia in the humanities, NFDI4Culture, NFDI4Memory, NFDI4Objects, and Text+, published a Memorandum of Understanding in the beginning of July. This memorandum is the basis for the joint establishment of a national research data infrastructure (NFDI) in the humanities and cultural sciences. It is the goal of the four consortia to build up a joint academic research data infrastructure in order to “[p]reserv[e] the extensive collections of data that already exist in the humanities and cultural studies across generations and the ones that are created anew on a daily basis and [to] mak[e] them accessible for research” (MoU, p. 1). In the MoU, a seven-point plan is introduced which defines the responsibilities and the form of the cooperation between the various partners. The goal is, among other things, to meet the diverse needs of the various research areas in the humanities with regard to questions of research data management. 

In doing so, the initiatives comply with a recommendation of the German Council for Scientific Information Infrastructure (RfII) which, in 2016 already, pointed out the necessity of a “national collaborative network that grows over time and is composed of various specialised nodes” (p. 2).

On July 12, the submitted NFDI letters of intent were published by the DFG. A total of 24 initiatives handed in a binding letter of intent regarding the submission of a proposal in 2019. Text+: Language- and Text-Based Research Data Infrastructure is among them as well as the Consortium for research data on material and immaterial cultural heritage (NFDI4Culture). A non-binding letter of intent was handed in by 23 further initiatives regarding a submission in 2020, and 3 other initiatives declared their intention regarding a submission in 2021.

CLARIAH-DE Website online

Following the merger of the two research infrastructures CLARIN-D and DARIAH-DE in 2019, the homepage of this joint project, CLARIAH-DE, is now online. You can visit the webpage at http://www.clariah.de/indexEN.html to learn more about this exciting new project, its goals and prospects, the partners involved, and how this research infrastructure can help you personally in your research. 

In view of the success of both CLARIN-D and DARIAH-DE as research networks in the humanities and cultural sciences, these infrastructures now combine their forces in a joint project funded by the Federal Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF) over the course of two years (2019-2021). With the help of CLARIAH-DE, the two partners’ services regarding technical infrastructures, repositories, research and teaching services will be further aligned, integrated, further developed and jointly maintained in the future.

Congratulations on ESU's 10th anniversary!

July 23, 2019 marks the beginning of the 10th European Summer University in Digital Humanities, with the title “Culture and Technology”, at the University of Leipzig. On the occasion of this anniversary, CLARIN-D would like to cordially congratulate the summer school’s initiator and patroness, Prof. Dr. Elisabeth Burr, and her team. Until August 2, international and national students will deepen, apply and extend their abilities in applied DH areas in multi-day workshops with the help of first-rate lecturers from home and abroad. The range of courses is highly diverse: text- and corpus-based approaches, image, video and sound analyses, ethical and legal questions, geocoding and DH methods and technologies in general - the ESU illustrates the diversity of the Digital Humanities. Due to Elisabeth Burr’s long-standing commitment, the participants do not only profit from the lecturers’ expertise during the courses, high-class international lecturers also prove anew each year this summer university’s range and reach. At the same time, the participants are able to discover the beautiful city of Leipzig and its cultural events during evenings out and free-time activities on the weekends. The ESU has long been an inherent part of the Digital Humanities in the German-speaking world. 

CLARIN-D has been a part of the ESU in Leipzig since 2014 and provides travel grants as well as language resources, tools and services. In this fashion, it wants to directly reach out to its users and demonstrate use cases. Due to the generous support from CLARIN ERIC, employees from CLARIN-D centres and experts from the working groups are able to pass on their knowledge and expertise. Moreover, junior researchers can also receive travel grants. Scholarship holders of last year’s ESU have described their impressions and experiences in reports. These reports can be found on CLARIN-D’s website: https://www.clarin-d.net/en/current-issues/478-progress-reports-on-the-european-summer-university-esu-2018-online 

CLARIN-D is looking forward to many more workshops to come in Leipzig and wishes all participants and lecturers at the ESU as well as Elisabeth Burr’s team a wonderful stay and summer in Leipzig.