The project Elaboration of a Concept for European Academies Internet Gateway for the Social Sciences and Humanities (AGATE) was recently completed with the publication of the Final Report.
The project of the Union of the German Academies of Sciences and Humanities funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) from October 2015 until June 2017 aimed to conceptualise the framework of a pan-European digital infrastructure that improves the visibility and findability of the academies’ SSH research and facilitates international cooperations.
Therefore, the basic requirements of the future AGATE were mapped and possibilities examined for integration, reuse, and scaling of existing services and solutions. Two stakeholder workshops, numerous bilateral talks with representatives of European science academies and research infrastructure experts, as well as interviews with future users provided the necessary background information and feedback to conceptualize digital access to academies’ research. Furthermore, a potential core consortium of partners was formed, that is a working group comprising of academies and research infrastructures that declared a dedicated interest in actively contributing to a future implementation of AGATE.
Involvement of DARIAH
The DARIAH ERIC and its representatives were amongst the first supporters of the project – with Laurent Romary accepting a role as member of its scientific advisory board – and have provided – aside from substantial content-related input and feedback – considerable support by sponsoring the infrastructure café at the second project workshop (http://www.akademienunion.de/fileadmin/redaktion/user_upload/Publikationen/BMBF-Projekt/Final_Programme_AGATE_WS2017.pdf). This turned out to be a successful format for knowledge exchange between academies’ researchers and representatives of infrastructure organisations. Also for future developments close cooperation between the DARIAH ERIC and the AGATE core group is envisaged.
The Final Report “AGATE: Concept for a European Academies Internet Gateway for the Humanities and Social Sciences” (Ulrike Wuttke, Carolin Ott, Dominik Adrian and Simon Worthington) comprises a conceptual exposé for the projected portal, including recommendations for technical and organizational aspects, user and outreach concepts, as well as for sustainability and the planning of estimated resources.
Download the Report (Creative Commons Attribution 4.0.) via the following URL: doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.806179.
For more information about the project and the Final Report, visit: www.akademienunion.de/en/agate/ or contact agate@akademienunion-berlin.de.
