Periodic Reporting for period 2 - ReIReS (Research Infrastructure on Religious Studies)
Berichtszeitraum: 2019-08-01 bis 2021-07-31
ReIReS is a project for starting community whose aim is to create a unique and ground-breaking research infrastructure (RI) on religious studies within the European Research Area. ReIReS improves the access of scholars to the data, information and sources concerning the study of the historical and cultural influence of the European religious heritage. ReIReS offers a unified common framework to the fragmentation of the scientific disciplines crossing/being crossed by religions and grants access to sources and tools to scholars from all over Europe and beyond. In pursue of this aim, ReIReS is also a framework for research activities aiming at integrating complementary scientific skills and capabilities, and organizing networking activities to foster a culture of co-operation between national research facilities, scientific communities, and other stakeholders. ReIReS offers transnational and virtual access to the most significant tools and sources in the field of religious studies: access grants to the research community the use of sources and tools within a comprehensive infrastructure and gives to the EU a leading role in a domain which is becoming more and more crucial for the understanding of inter-cultural dynamics and the conflicts of our time. It aims to establish a distributed RI with a sustainable plan of activities, including offering access to a wide range of high-level data and tools for advancing knowledge and innovation in the understanding of inter-religious society.
● establishing and developing stable networking activities including internal policy concerning the management of data provided by partner institutions; report concerning training methods, gathering the experience of trainers and specialists; updated Data Management Plan; Integration of User Services Report
● Work produced in delivering Transnational Access to Special Collections (TASC) and Transnational Access to Archival Documents (TAAD) included Publications of the TNA users, Presentation of all results of TASC/TAAD with the descriptions of all TNA users’ projects, planned publications and evaluation of the TNA users’ questionnaires, more university cooperation.
● Training activities produced Training activity models definition; Access to tools and informative material of training programmes for six schools; Online material archives for future project developments; Connection between institutions, collections and scholars through the training programmes; Knowledge exchange between the consortium members.
● In the context of Resource Discovery and Linking for Religious Studies, the partners have created:
- The unified discovery environment, now called ReIReSearch and being hosted at reiresearch.eu provides access to previously disparate sources related to religious studies from a singe platform(includes 10 datasets). This includes a domain specific metadata exchange model providing a fully documented and standardised way of sharing metadata between platforms and people.
- New methodologies for discovery and processing of large datasets
- A set of technical guidelines and metadata mapping specifications to allow new data providers to connect their data sources to ReIReSearch, either through APIs (data discovery) or by aggregation (data hub).
● For developing new methodologies in the context of our project, we did several workshops, webinars, 8 interviews with national key political decision makers and produced several positions papers
● To work on key sustainability aspects for ReIReS, the team worked on a Report on legal tools, Roadmap for scholarly implementation, Report on funding, Report on cooperation, Sustainability
● Work produced in delivering Transnational Access to Special Collections (TASC) and Transnational Access to Archival Documents (TAAD) included Publications of the TNA users, Presentation of all results of TASC/TAAD with the descriptions of all TNA users’ projects, planned publications and evaluation of the TNA users’ questionnaires, more university cooperation.
● Training activities produced Training activity models definition; Access to tools and informative material of training programmes for six schools; Online material archives for future project developments; Connection between institutions, collections and scholars through the training programmes; Knowledge exchange between the consortium members.
● In the context of Resource Discovery and Linking for Religious Studies, the partners have created:
- The unified discovery environment, now called ReIReSearch and being hosted at reiresearch.eu provides access to previously disparate sources related to religious studies from a singe platform(includes 10 datasets). This includes a domain specific metadata exchange model providing a fully documented and standardised way of sharing metadata between platforms and people.
- New methodologies for discovery and processing of large datasets
- A set of technical guidelines and metadata mapping specifications to allow new data providers to connect their data sources to ReIReSearch, either through APIs (data discovery) or by aggregation (data hub).
● For developing new methodologies in the context of our project, we did several workshops, webinars, 8 interviews with national key political decision makers and produced several positions papers
● To work on key sustainability aspects for ReIReS, the team worked on a Report on legal tools, Roadmap for scholarly implementation, Report on funding, Report on cooperation, Sustainability
1. Enable researchers to have a wider, simplified and more efficient access to the best research expertise and services they require to conduct their investigations
● Transnational Access offers to scholars access to 14 TASC and TAAD institutions to develop their projects in historical religious studies (online sources, instruments, files and databases, experts to discuss the project, the sources and the methodologies)
● welcoming 87 scholars from various European countries and countries associated to H2020
● The results of the TNA user projects will be published in recognized scientific journals. (18 publications by TNA users resulting from a ReIReS TNA Scholarship are available, 51 more are forthcoming, and 10 presentations are given at conferences
● The creation of the unified discovery environment, now called ReIReSearch and hosted at reiresearch.eu
2. Integrate the complementary capabilities of the operators of related infrastructures by developing synergies, strengthening a culture of cooperation and leading to improved and harmonised services
Creating synergies between TNA activities with Training activities, development of innovation in digital tools (WP6) and epistemological approach to the domain of historical religious studies.
3. Create innovation in methodologies concerning historical religious studies
Create new methodologies for discovery and processing of large datasets through the unified discovery environment a shared data model, a centralized access to datasets allowing researchers to investigate the possibility of creating a network of interlinked concept schemes or ontologies.
The TNA users’ projects will contribute to innovations in methodologies concerning historical religious studies because they cover new fields of research and topics that have not yet been studied.
4. Foster innovation in services and tools for research, by integrating and implementing the existing technological means and resources, particularly digital tools, but also by developing new and innovative instruments
The integration of tools has been achieved enabling data aggregation, discovery, mapping, normalisation, enrichment and access according to the defined access policies is planned. A set of technical guidelines and metadata mapping specifications allows new data providers to connect their data sources to the ReIReS unified discovery environment, either through APIs (data discovery) or by aggregation (data hub).
5. Educate a new generation of scholars that is ready to optimally exploit all the essential tools for their research
A training programme was established for (especially young) scholars and others, training the use and study of special documents in their holdings, and to digital humanities. With the input of experts, 12 trainings have been executed reaching 231 attendants (not counting the overlap).
More impact has been created by 34 attendants who trained others and transferred the knowledge and insights to new target audiences (reaching several hundred people).
6. Foster cross-disciplinary fertilisations and a wider sharing of information, knowledge and technologies across fields and between academic and industry;
TNA users interact intensively with the respective local experts and thus contribute towards the transnational networking in religious studies in Europe.
A commercial publisher plays an active role in ReIReS. The input member of the publishing industry, further aligns the interests of academics and publishers with regards to the visibility and discoverability of datasets.
ReIReS has been able to reach more than 1.1 mio people in Europe and beyond, thus spreading the word about ReIReS, its results and its meaning for the academic world and the wider audiences.
● Transnational Access offers to scholars access to 14 TASC and TAAD institutions to develop their projects in historical religious studies (online sources, instruments, files and databases, experts to discuss the project, the sources and the methodologies)
● welcoming 87 scholars from various European countries and countries associated to H2020
● The results of the TNA user projects will be published in recognized scientific journals. (18 publications by TNA users resulting from a ReIReS TNA Scholarship are available, 51 more are forthcoming, and 10 presentations are given at conferences
● The creation of the unified discovery environment, now called ReIReSearch and hosted at reiresearch.eu
2. Integrate the complementary capabilities of the operators of related infrastructures by developing synergies, strengthening a culture of cooperation and leading to improved and harmonised services
Creating synergies between TNA activities with Training activities, development of innovation in digital tools (WP6) and epistemological approach to the domain of historical religious studies.
3. Create innovation in methodologies concerning historical religious studies
Create new methodologies for discovery and processing of large datasets through the unified discovery environment a shared data model, a centralized access to datasets allowing researchers to investigate the possibility of creating a network of interlinked concept schemes or ontologies.
The TNA users’ projects will contribute to innovations in methodologies concerning historical religious studies because they cover new fields of research and topics that have not yet been studied.
4. Foster innovation in services and tools for research, by integrating and implementing the existing technological means and resources, particularly digital tools, but also by developing new and innovative instruments
The integration of tools has been achieved enabling data aggregation, discovery, mapping, normalisation, enrichment and access according to the defined access policies is planned. A set of technical guidelines and metadata mapping specifications allows new data providers to connect their data sources to the ReIReS unified discovery environment, either through APIs (data discovery) or by aggregation (data hub).
5. Educate a new generation of scholars that is ready to optimally exploit all the essential tools for their research
A training programme was established for (especially young) scholars and others, training the use and study of special documents in their holdings, and to digital humanities. With the input of experts, 12 trainings have been executed reaching 231 attendants (not counting the overlap).
More impact has been created by 34 attendants who trained others and transferred the knowledge and insights to new target audiences (reaching several hundred people).
6. Foster cross-disciplinary fertilisations and a wider sharing of information, knowledge and technologies across fields and between academic and industry;
TNA users interact intensively with the respective local experts and thus contribute towards the transnational networking in religious studies in Europe.
A commercial publisher plays an active role in ReIReS. The input member of the publishing industry, further aligns the interests of academics and publishers with regards to the visibility and discoverability of datasets.
ReIReS has been able to reach more than 1.1 mio people in Europe and beyond, thus spreading the word about ReIReS, its results and its meaning for the academic world and the wider audiences.