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Establishment of a sustainable national research data infrastructure – Gotha Research Campus is part of it

The research institutions located on the Gotha Research Campus of the University of Erfurt - Gotha Research Library and Gotha Research Centre as well as the Centre for Transcultural Studies/Perthes Collection - are participating together with other partners in the so-called NFDI 4Memory consortium led by the Leibniz Institute for European History (IEG) in Mainz. "4Memory" is one of several consortia in Germany working together to build a long-term and sustainable National Research Data Infrastructure (NFDI) for the digital age, and has been funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) since the beginning of the year.

"NFDI4memory" addresses the historically working humanities as well as all sciences that methodically use historical data for their epistemological interest. The consortium relies on close cooperation between historical researchers, information infrastructures and GLAM institutions (GLAM stands for "Galleries, Libraries, Archives, Museums", i.e. cultural institutions and memory organizations. GLAMs are public institutions, usually funded or supported by the public sector, that collect, preserve and develop cultural heritage).

In various task areas, the aim is to work together to standardize digital research practices, to make existing data models compatible and thus usable for everyone, to develop appropriate know-how for the collection, preservation, and use of digital research data, and thus to create a sustainable infrastructure for this data.

Dr Kathrin Paasch, Director of the Gotha Research Library, explains: "We are very pleased to be part of NFDI4memory. As we build shared digital infrastructures, we will be involved in developing uniform standards for historical research data and building skills in data literacy. Further networking between archives, libraries, museums and historical research is also central for us." And Professor Martin Mulsow, director of the Gotha Research Centre, adds, "We are very proud that the FactGrid platform that Dr. Olaf Simons built at the Gotha Research Centre of the University of Erfurt will now officially become part of the National Research Data Infrastructure. Hopefully, even more researchers will now use this impressive tool!"

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