The General Assembly of the DARIAH ERIC recently voted unanimously to accept Bosnia and Herzegovina’s application for full membership in the Digital Research Infrastructure for the Arts and Humanities.
“It’s a real pleasure for me to welcome Bosnia and Herzegovina as DARIAH’s 20th member state,” said DARIAH Director Toma Tasovac. “Every country that joins DARIAH makes a commitment to work systematically on developing and sustaining digital tools, assets and methods for the arts and humanities. This is great news both for our Bosnian colleagues and for DARIAH.”
DARIAH’s activities in Bosnia and Herzegovina will be coordinated by the University of Sarajevo while core partners in the consortium include the Academy of Music of the Sarajevo University, Archive of Bosnia and Herzegovina, National Museum of BiH, Historical Archives Sarajevo, University of Zenica, University of Tuzla, University of East Sarajevo, University of Bihać, University “Džemal Bijedić” Mostar, University of Mostar, and Društvo za digitalizaciju tradicijske kulturne baštine.
“Participation in DARIAH-EU will enable visibility of Bosnian and Herzegovinian cultural heritage at the regional and European level,” said Lana Paćuka, National Coordinator for Bosnia and Herzegovina. “We hope that DARIAH-EU will create a network for easier flow of information and connections which will be helpful for all researchers and institutions. We would like to build strong connections with institutions that are already members of the DARIAH-EU infrastructure. That kind of cooperation would allow us to see examples of positive practice that we should apply in the same way in BiH.”
National Priorities
The primary focus for Bosnia and Herzegovina will be the digitisation of existing resources, documents and materials stored in institutions of national importance, to be made available not only to a narrow research circle but also to the wider scientific and cultural society in Bosnia and Herzegovina and beyond.
“Digitisation will have a positive effect on raising general awareness of the importance of the humanities and arts in educating younger generations. Technology allows the humanities and arts to be visible and will thus strengthen Bosnian and Herzegovinian society” said Lana Paćuka.
As part of its DARIAH activities, the national consortium in Bosnia and Herzegovina will work towards enabling greater visibility of national cultural heritage at the regional and European level, collaborating with a number of institutions and cultural heritage organizations in order to support and encourage new research and achieve societal impact based on the values of humanity, innovation and creativity.
“Bosnia and Herzegovina is the second non-EU country to join DARIAH,” said Tasovac. “This is very important. A truly European infrastructure must go beyond the realms of the European Union because the humanities as such know no borders. We’re looking forward to establishing closer ties with Bosnian researchers and benefiting from their expertise and perspectives.”
