The DARIAH Theme refers an annual priority area set by the Board of Directors (in consultation with the SMT) around which a series of activities and events is developed. For 2017, we have selected ‘Public Cultural Heritage' as our third annual theme. The first theme in 2015 was ‘Open Humanities,’ which funded 7 small-scale collaborations in the domain. The second theme in 2016 focussed on “Public Humanities” and funded 7 projects.

Background: ‘Public Cultural Heritage’

 One of the major issues for scholars working with cultural heritage information is to identify which rights apply to the sources they are working with, in terms of use and above all of re-use when they intend to publish results based on these assets. This issue has become even more complex as various types of cultural heritage surrogates such as photos, 3D models, transcriptions or quantitative information have to be considered.

 The aim of the Data Re-Use Charter initiative is to reduce the effort required to negotiate the development of common understandings between Cultural Heritage Institutions and researchers. Researchers should thus have no difficulty finding and understanding information concerning the rights to use and re-use digital culture heritage objects, while cultural heritage institutions should have the ability to easily communicate their policies, thereby  gaining access to a larger user group.

 With a minimal framework, set up as an online resource, and a maximal intended impact in terms of access, enrichment and dissemination of digital information originating from cultural heritage institutions, the Charter will be a place where stakeholders will be able to express officially their requirements and commitments to make the exchange of cultural heritage information easier. The content of the Charter will include general Data Re-use principles as well as guidelines regarding formats, licenses, data hosting and redistribution. This should contribute to an increased social impact of cultural heritage data as well as the cooperation between research and infrastructure.

In this context, DARIAH would like to explore further the possible expectations of both cultural heritage institutions and researchers in the arts and humanities of what a closer working relationship might look like. The 2017 DARIAH Theme therefore seeks to bring cultural heritage institutions and researchers together in order to explore a variety of possible issues related to the expression of attribution and licenses, technical formats and recommendations for facilitating re-use, dissemination and hosting, etc. Such events could contribute to enriching the data re-use charter itself with additional or more precise features, but may also address the issues at the heart of the charter with out directly engaging with it.

Proposals

 We invite proposals from our DARIAH Institutions to organise events to explore this Cultural Heritage and Humanities Research theme and related topics. Theme events should examine relationships between researchers and cultural heritage institutions. This call will support DARIAH actions regarding the Data Re-use Charter and could cover technical (formats), editorial (researchers ‘contributions, crowd sourcing, etc.) social and of course legal aspects.

 We have earmarked €45,000 for 2017 for the DARIAH Theme and expect to support up to 5 initiatives. Grant holders will be expected to present the results of their work at the DARIAH annual events. They are also required to write an entry (with or without a poster, a quick video, etc.) about their projects on the DARIAH website.

 The Theme events could either be a larger conference and/or a series of workshops or more interactive events such as hackathons. We would expect that all theme-related activities involve more than one DARIAH Member and at least one outside organisation.

 Please submit 1-2 pages providing us with

• The topic your Theme activity would like to explore
• The background and relationship to existing or future DARIAH work
• A brief description of the kind of events that you would like to run
• The main partner and budget holding institution from the DARIAH network

 Application materials should also include an outline of the costs of not more than 1 page (spreadsheet or text). It is possible to charge small amounts of administrative support for the work but the majority of costs should be non-staff and funding the Theme events.

The deadline for submissions will be 15th April 2017. Please submit them directly on the website http://dariahtheme2017.sciencesconf.org (you need to create an account, then to register before submitting your abstract) AND send it to suzanne.dumouchel@dariah.eu. The reviewing process will be completed in May 2017. A Scientific Committee will be constituted among the DARIAH Senior Management Team. Grant agreements will be signed between DARIAH ERIC and the funded institutions in summer with projects started in autum.