Research Community work plan 2021

The ENA Membership campaign run in 2020 confirmed the Research Community as the biggest community of the ENA, with over 1,600 members. The campaign also proved an excellent opportunity to understand the daily work needs of all these professionals sharing such a particular interest in research. 

Whether they work in academic research, in the cultural heritage sector or in education, to community members, research means new ways to produce knowledge thanks to digital cultural heritage. They may be willing to experiment with computational methods and digital tools, or they may have a responsibility to make cultural heritage more accessible and reusable through technology. Based on this, a partially renewed steering group has identified what should be our community’s objectives in 2021.

Read and download the full Research Community work plan below. You can also join the Europeana Research Community. 

1. Steering Group Composition

As of March 2020, the Steering Group of the Research Community consists of:\

Chair: 

• Steven Claeyssens, Curator of Digital Collections, KB, the  National Library of the Netherlands (The Hague)

Co-Chair: 

• Maria Engberg, Senior University Lecturer, Malmö University 

Manager: 

• Alba Irollo, Research Coordinator (in charge of Europeana Research), Europeana Foundation (The Hague)

Steering Group Members: 

• Tamara Butigan, Head of the Digital Library Department, National Library of Serbia (Belgrade)

2. Community Aspiration

The Europeana Research Community aims to foster the use of digital cultural heritage in research.The members of the Research Community are encouraged to:

• gain a better understanding of research based on digital cultural heritage, computational methods and digital tools,

• strengthen the connections between cultural heritage professionals and researchers,

• share case studies and best practices,

• jointly work on issues of common interest,

• explore possible collaborations and partnerships for new (funded) projects.

The members of the Steering Group facilitate these goals by:

• stimulating information sharing via the community communication channels,

• identifying relevant resources, training material, etc.,

• participating in relevant working groups, meetings and conferences

• fostering partnerships within the community, with cultural heritage and research institutions,

• presenting the work of the community at relevant workshops and conferences,

• helping to facilitate the work Europeana is doing in research related fields,

• supporting the active engagement by the larger community.

3. Priority Areas, Actions and Themes

The Europeana Research Community is still in its infancy. That is why the following areas were chosen as priority areas by the Steering Group for 2021: 

1. Getting to know our members

2. Start building a community

3. Start developing a presence in communities of researchers interested in digital humanities and of professionals interested in digital cultural heritage.

In each of these areas, several actions have been identified for the year 2021. We will, for instance, analyse the data gathered from the recent Membership Campaign to gain a better understanding of the members of our community. We will prioritise actions and initiatives, like the participation in non-typical conferences, to reach potential members and make them aware of the community's existence and benefits. We will also start sending a newsletter via the community discussion list, which will have the form of a recap email of what has been published on PRO; it will also invite the community members to share their experiences and to actively participate in the activities planning by expressing their preferences via a quick poll. All of the other actions are grouped under four themes.

Every three months a new theme is introduced. For every theme (1) a curated newsletter is published, (2) a webinar or other online event is organised, and (3) a post-event survey is distributed.

The four themes are:

• Q1 Impact in research, with a symposium in collaboration with the Impact SG and the Research Advisory Board
• Q2 Understanding Europe’s digital infrastructure(s) for research (EOSC, DARIAH, CLARIN, etc.), with a webinar
• Q3 Building relationships with researchers, with a webinar
• Q4 Generic services, with a training event

4. Communication Channels 

• Discussion list: All members of the Research Community are invited to join the Research Community Discussion List.

• Research Community Newsletter: Every three months a curated newsletter is published on the discussion list.

• Twitter: The Europeana Research account on Twitter (@EurResearch) is the main channel used by Europeana to keep the community members informed on a daily basis.

• Europeana Research Community Pro Page: The Research Community Pro Page provides the community with practical information, useful resources and (upcoming) activities.

• ENA Newsletter: The most relevant achievements and plans of the Research Community can be shared through the ENA Newsletter.

5. Budget