Major EU Holocaust Research project
Posted on 18/11/2010
Barbed wired at Dachau
The Centre for e-Research (CeRch) at King’s College London will play a key role in the design and implementation of a major European research infrastructure that will bring together Holocaust archives from around Europe and elsewhere. The aim is to create a cohesive body of integrated research materials that will be made available online to the public.
The European Holocaust Research Infrastructure (EHRI) project is a €7m EU-funded project that aims to provide open access to Holocaust material such as documents, objects, photos, film and art. It involves 20 partner organisations in 13 countries, making it the most important European research project about the Holocaust to date.
EHRI was launched on 16 November in Brussels in front of a distinguished audience including the European Commissioner for Research Máire Geoghegan-Quinn, the Education Minister of Israel, Gideon Sa’ar, and various other dignitaries from Germany and the Netherlands.
Attending the launch event, Professor Jan Palmowski, Head of the School of Arts & Humanities, said: ‘This project confirms the international reputation of Digital Humanities and e-research at King’s. We are very pleased to provide some of the key research for this project which will be a landmark in scholarship on the Holocaust. And we take great pride of the EHRI’s impact not just amongst the scholarly community, but amongst the wider public as we seek to preserve and enhance the memory of the Holocaust in new ways.’
CeRch will lead on the overall development of EHRI's digital research infrastructure, and on the strategic work packages on researcher requirements and the technical development of a Virtual Research Environment (VRE), which will offer online access to the archives.
Integrated approach
Sheila Anderson, Director of the Centre for e-Research, and speaker at the launch in Brussels, said: ‘This distinctive project brings together historians, archivists and e-researchers in a collaboration that will ensure an integrated approach to the development of a Holocaust research infrastructure. This integrated approach will ensure that EHRI can support research, education and remembrance for a broad range of users. We are honoured to be a part of the project.’
Tobias Blanke, leading the project for King’s and part of the EHRI Executive Management Team, said: ‘This is a unique opportunity for us to work with researchers in this all important European area of European history and continue our research on developing next generation virtual research environments for humanities.’
In the coming four years historians, archivists and research infrastructure experts will come together to create a unique resource combining now dispersed archives around Europe. Special attention will be paid to education and outreach by ensuring the online availability and maximum open access to the material.
EHRI will be an example and forerunner for digital research in a wide range of new disciplines in historical research and archival practices. The project is coordinated by NIOD, the Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide studies in Amsterdam.
www.ehri-project.eu
Notes to editors
Centre for e-Research
Established in 2008, the Centre for e-Research (CeRch) is a research centre located in Information Services and Systems (ISS) – an academic centre outside the Schools and departmental structure at King’s aimed at facilitating interdisciplinary, institutional, national and international collaboration. The Centre is both an academic centre researching, publishing and teaching in its areas of expertise and developing and teaching on the MA in Digital Asset Management (MADAM) programme, and a contributor to ISS-related activities supporting e-research, data management, and the curation and preservation of research data. This unusual combination of research, development, and practice provides the centre with a unique insight into how theoretical work can be applied and translated into practical applications and services. http://www.kcl.ac.uk/iss/cerch
King’s College London
King’s College London is one of the top 25 universities in the world (2010 QS international world rankings), The Sunday Times ‘University of the Year 2010/11’ and the fourth oldest in England. A research-led university based in the heart of London, King’s has nearly 23,000 students (of whom more than 8,600 are graduate students) from nearly 140 countries, and some 5,500 employees. King’s is in the second phase of a £1 billion redevelopment programme which is transforming its estate.
King’s has an outstanding reputation for providing world-class teaching and cutting-edge research. In the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise for British universities, 23 departments were ranked in the top quartile of British universities; over half of our academic staff work in departments that are in the top 10 per cent in the UK in their field and can thus be classed as world leading. The College is in the top seven UK universities for research earnings and has an overall annual income of nearly £450 million.
King’s has a particularly distinguished reputation in the humanities, law, the sciences (including a wide range of health areas such as psychiatry, medicine, nursing and dentistry) and social sciences including international affairs. It has played a major role in many of the advances that have shaped modern life, such as the discovery of the structure of DNA and research that led to the development of radio, television, mobile phones and radar. It is the largest centre for the education of healthcare professionals in Europe; no university has more Medical Research Council Centres.
King’s College London and Guy’s and St Thomas’, King’s College Hospital and South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trusts are part of King’s Health Partners. King’s Health Partners Academic Health Sciences Centre (AHSC) is a pioneering global collaboration between one of the world's leading research-led universities and three of London's most successful NHS Foundation Trusts, including leading teaching hospitals and comprehensive mental health services. For more information, visit: www.kingshealthpartners.org.
Further information
Alison Denyer, Senior Communications Manager, Public Relations Department, Email: alison.denyer@kcl.ac.uk Tel: 020 7848 3073