DARIAH in Croatia - Croatia in DARIAH

The round table DARIAH in Croatia - Croatia in DARIAH- which was held in Zagreb on January 28th 2016 in the Croatian Institute of History and was organized by the Institute of Ethnology and Folklore Research (IEF) – featured presentations and discussions on the topic of the development of digital infrastructure for research humanities and the arts. Participators were: Conny Kristel and Jacob Epler (DARIAH-EU), Karolj Skala, Davor Davidović and Eva Cetinić (Ruđer Bošković Institute), Ivan Marić and Draženko Celjak (Univeristy Computing Centre), Martin Smith (Ministry of Culture) and Tvrtko Zebec and Koraljka Kuzman Šlogar (Institute of Ethnology and Folklore).

In Croatia, which is the co-founder of DARIAH-ERIC Consortium (Digital Research Infrastructure for the Arts and Humanities), the IEF, as the national coordinating institution, is currently working on expanding the network of partner institutions and systematization of the national consortium. This round table was organized with the intention of introducing the newcomers, as well as potential new partners, to this pan-European organization and to the possibilities for cooperation. The goal was also to define the modalities for the organization and further actions of DARIAH-HR community.

The round table brought together interested humanists from various research institutes and several Croatian universities and also some computer scientists who are working on development of scientific research infrastructure. Visiting lecturers from the head offices of DARIAH-ERIC (dr. Conny Kristel from Amsterdam, one of the three directors, and Jacob Epler from Göttingen, DARIAH-EU communication officer) gave an overview of the consortium, presented the various options and models of inclusion of Croatian scientists in cooperation with DARIAH and gave guidelines for finding research grants in the field of digital humanities. They expressed particular satisfaction with extremely fast and interested expansion of partner-community in Croatia. The domestic panelists presented the current domestic and European scientific research infrastructure projects and national strategic plans in this area. Finally, as a conclusion, the most important steps to be taken towards further systematizion of DARIAH-HR consortium were defined.