Agiatis Benardou Delivers Keynote and Receives IEEE Award

DARIAH and ECHOES, the European Cloud for Heritage OpEn Science, provided two important points of reference. Benardou highlighted DARIAH as an example of how Research Infrastructures create durable structures for cooperation, bringing together people, expertise, standards, training, governance and services beyond the lifespan of individual projects. She also drew on current work within ECHOES, which is establishing the European Collaborative Cloud for Cultural Heritage, to show how infrastructure design can move beyond providing access to data and tools towards enabling collaboration between diverse cultural heritage communities.

A key theme was the need to design infrastructure around real practices rather than imagined or generic “users”. Drawing on the ECHOES Collaborative Research Scenarios, on which she works with colleagues from The Cyprus Institute, Benardou discussed the institutional, technical, legal and practical barriers that can make collaboration difficult, particularly for smaller and less well-resourced organisations. She argued for low-friction participation, sustained investment in training and capacity building, and infrastructures that preserve human judgement and accountability as AI becomes increasingly integrated into research and cultural heritage workflows.

Ultimately, the keynote called for a human-centred understanding of digital infrastructure: one in which technological development is evaluated not only by the amount of data, tools or services provided, but by the new forms of research, collaboration and knowledge production that it makes possible. The keynote was very well received and sparked extensive discussion among conference participants, particularly around the relationship between technological innovation, Research Infrastructures, institutional capacity and the human dimensions of digital cultural heritage.

IEEE TCCH Education and Training Award

The conference also marked an important recognition of Benardou’s contribution to the field. During IEEE CH 2026, she received the IEEE TCCH Education and Training Award, an international distinction recognising her contribution to education, training and skills development within European Research Infrastructures for the Social Sciences and Humanities.

The award was formally presented to Benardou on 8 September in Venice, during IEEE Cyber Humanities 2026, on the same day as her keynote. The distinction recognises work closely connected to themes that have characterised her engagement with DARIAH and the wider European Research Infrastructure landscape: strengthening interdisciplinary skills and capacity, supporting research communities, and placing people and sustainable knowledge exchange at the centre of digital transformation.

Together, the keynote and the award highlighted the importance of human-centred approaches to the future of digital Research Infrastructures, ensuring that technological innovation is accompanied by the skills, communities and sustainable structures needed to enable meaningful research and collaboration.