Research Community Work Plan

The Steering Group of the Research Community consists of:

Steven Claeyssens, Curator of Digital Collections, KB, the National Library of the Netherlands (The Hague) (Chair)
Rebecca Kahn, Post-doctoral Researcher, University of Vienna (Co-Chair)
Flavia Bruni, Research Fellow, University of Chieti-Pescara (Councillor)
Ines Vodopivec, Deputy Director, National and University Library of Slovenia (Councillor)
Alba Irollo, Research Coordinator , Europeana Foundation (The Hague) (Community Manager)

The Europeana Research Community aims to foster the use of digital cultural heritage in academia and research.

The members of the Research Community are encouraged to:

Gain a better understanding of methods and needs for research and university teaching purposes based on digital cultural heritage, computational methods and digital tools;
Explore new ways to foster and support digital literacy and work in a collaborative way at the international level, including the use of different languages;
Strengthen the connections between cultural heritage professionals, academics researchers, and university students;
Share knowledge, case studies and good practices, especially with reference to the reuse of digital cultural heritage in academia and in cross-sectoral initiatives that combine dissemination with outreach to the general public;
Nurture theory as well as practices;
Jointly work on topics of common interest;
Explore possible collaborations and partnerships for new (funded) initiatives.

The members of the Steering Group facilitate these goals by:

Stimulating information sharing via the community communication channels - namely the mailing list and social media, as well as creating onboarding content to orient newcomers;
Participating in relevant working groups, meetings and conferences;
Fostering partnerships within the community, between members working in cultural heritage institutions, in universities and research institutions;
Presenting the activities of the community at relevant events;
Helping to facilitate the work of Europeana to bring academia closer to the data space for cultural heritage.

The priority areas for 2024 are:

Supporting engagement with the academic and research communities in the common European data space for cultural heritage.
Providing guidance and insight to the community in the complex European heritage and research ecosystem(s).
Further developing a presence and promoting the common European data space for cultural heritage in communities of academics, researchers, university students, cultural heritage professionals interested in digital scholarship.

The special activities for 2024 are:

Disseminating and contributing to expanding the workflow to publish “Collections as Data” and testing the training material - on the reuse of digital cultural heritage in Higher Education and Research - that DARIAH (Digital Research Infrastructure for the Arts and Humanities) and the Europeana Foundation are developing within the Implementation Plan for the European data space for cultural heritage.
The Datasheets for Digital Cultural Heritage joint Working Group with EuropeanaTech will continue their work on Datasheets for Digital Cultural Heritage, in 2024 with a focus on disseminating and evaluating the use of the first version of the datasheets. We intend to publish the results in an open academic journal on digital humanities as well.
Publishing a practical guide for humanities scholars to the European digital cultural heritage and research infrastructures.
Publishing training roadmap for newcomers in presentation or video format.
Cooperating with international organisations to facilitate community engagement and promote the European data space for cultural heritage (i.e. TPDL24.).

In addition to these special activities, we will continue our regular activities:

Organising a regular online Europeana Research Café, an informal space for sharing best practices and discussing new insights;
Presenting the work of the community on Collections as Data, Datasheets for Digital Cultural Heritage and the common European data space for cultural heritage at relevant workshops and conferences.
Organising online hands-on workshops and events, such as seminars, roundtable discussions, and symposia.

The Research Community activities are targeted at cultural heritage professionals, academics, researchers, and university students.

The Research Community work plan for 2024 contributes to the strategic priorities of the Europeana Network Association in a number of ways:

Supporting capacity building and digital transformation in cultural heritage institutions, especially capacity building of professionals who deal with academics, university students and researchers in their daily work, by supporting them in understanding the needs existing in the academic and research sector when it comes to the reuse of digital cultural heritage, and in developing new workflows to make data reusable.
Harnessing the potential of individual ENA members, by investing efforts in informal events like the Research Community Cafés and workshops that, more than webinars, envisage active participation, and by encouraging community members to collaborate in the organisation of events at the national level in languages other than English.
Collaboration with the Europeana Foundation, Europeana Aggregators’ Forum and wider networks, by relying on the structural collaboration with the Europeana Research initiative and aligning the community’s objectives with this initiative and its partners in academia and research within the common European data space for cultural heritage, especially DARIAH (Digital Research Infrastructure for the Arts and Humanities).

Discussion list: All members of the Research Community are invited to join the Research Community Discussion List.
Research Community Newsflash: A short newsflash announcing the Cafés and giving an update on other activities from the community.
X (formerly Twitter): The Europeana Research account on Twitter (@EurResearch) is the main channel used by the Europeana Foundation to keep the community members informed on a daily basis.
LinkedIn: Important updates will be shared through the Europeana LinkedIn group
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.

Activity	Purpose	Cost
Active participation at conferences and organisation of workshops	To promote the activities of the community at relevant conferences and workshops & build practical capacity within the community	EUR 1430
Discussion list	To facilitate more engagement and exchanges from the community members	EUR 70
Production of Practical Guide	Designing and producing the Practical Guide	EUR 300
Training roadmap for newcomers	Designing and producing roadmap	EUR 200
Collections as Data event at KBR, Brussels	Dissemination of Collections as Data workflow and results, capacity building within the community	EUR 2000
Total		EUR 4000

Previous work plans