On 1 March 2019, the two research infrastructure networks CLARIN-D and DARIAH-DE started their cooperation on the common project CLARIAH-DE. Over a time frame of two years (2019-2021), the two established research infrastructures are to be merged within the framework of the project. In this way, researchers from the humanities and cultural sciences can considerably facilitate their scientific work with complex digital tools and special databases. The project is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and aims to contribute to the further development of national research infrastructures.
The kickoff on 8 and 9 April 2019 at the Leibniz Institute for the German Language in Mannheim was attended by more than 30 members of the twelve participating scientific institutions. On the first day, the researchers started by jointly discussing the first results and the current status of the work in the project, followed by intensive discussions on the perspectives of CLARIAH-DE within the framework of the Initiative for the National Research Data Infrastructure and on the embedding in the European context of the development of research infrastructures for the humanities. The following day, the different work packages of the project met in their working groups. These packages work on the harmonization of research data and the standards applied, the merging of services, the development of services for the joint promotion of young researchers and the integration of the various services for the outreach of CLARIN-D and DARIAH-DE.
CLARIN-D and DARIAH-DE share a common interest in the digital research of textual and linguistic sources from the perspective of the humanities and cultural sciences. For more than a decade, the two groups have each specialized in specific areas of research. The aim of CLARIN-D is to establish a network of centers closely linked to certain disciplines as the basis for a research infrastructure, especially for researchers in the humanities and social sciences. The disciplines cover a broad range of the humanities, for which language resources play a central role in research. DARIAH-DE supports research in the humanities and cultural sciences using digital methods and procedures with a broad research infrastructure consisting of four main elements: teaching, research, research data and technical components. Since March 2019, the network, which is funded by the German BMBF from 2011-2019, has been funded by 16 partners in an operational cooperation through their own funds alone.
The union of the infrastructures of both groups to CLARIAH-DE is an important milestone towards a common space for cooperative digitally supported research in the humanities, cultural sciences and social sciences in Germany and Europe.
CLARIAH-DE is co-coordinated and supported by the German Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen and the Göttingen State and University Library. Other involved partners are the Academy of Sciences and Literature, Mainz, the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities, the Gesellschaft für wissenschaftliche Datenverarbeitung mbH Göttingen, the Herzog August Bibliothek Wolfenbüttel, the Institute for German Language Mannheim, the Hamburg Center for Language Corpora, the Otto-Friedrich-University of Bamberg, the Technische Universität Darmstadt, the Leipzig University and the Julius-Maximilians-University of Würzburg as well as all institutions involved in the CLARIN-D and DARIAH-DE alliances.
Anne Klammt and Roberta Toscano, CLARIAH-DE Office
Translation: Raisa Barthauer
Cover image: The CLARIAH-DE Network at the Kickoff Meeting on 8 April 2019 at the Leibniz Institute for German Language, Mannheim
Author: Dr. Annette Trabold
License: CC BY-SA 4.0
