BACKGROUND
Europe has a long and rich tradition being a centre for the arts and humanities. However, the huge digital transformation that affects the arts and humanities research landscape all over the world requires that we set up sustainable research infrastructures, new and refined techniques, state-of the-art methods and an expanded skills base. Digital arts and humanities is a vast and fast growing research field. Leadership in this strategically important area has the potential to boost Europe’s position in the international scientific community. A major challenge in this regard is that, in many cases, arts and humanities research communities are very fragmented. Even though scholars engage in a vast array of collaborations across Europe, many ad-hoc funded research networks and associations are struggling to preserve their findings and data.
Responding to these challenges the Digital Research Infrastructure for Arts and Humanities (DARIAH) was launched as a pan-European network and research infrastructure for arts and humanities scholars working with computational methods. After almost a decade of expansion and consolidation after its inscription on the ESFRI roadmap, DARIAH became a European Research Infrastructure Consortium (ERIC) in August 2014, with the aim of supporting digital research as well as teaching digital research methods. Connecting research facilities in currently 17 European countries, the DARIAH model is based on a bottom-up participation of member countries.
The DESIR project sets out to strengthen the sustainability of DARIAH and firmly establish it as a longterm essential leader and partner within arts and humanities communities. Sustaining existing knowledge in digital arts and humanities in Europe and enabling new one in the context of DESIR involves a goal-oriented set of measures in order to first, maintain, expand and develop DARIAH in its capacities as an organisation and technical research infrastructure; secondly, to engage its members further, and measure and increase their trust in DARIAH; and thirdly, to expand the DARIAH network in order to further integrate new regions and communities.
