Both long term storage of (big) data and the short-term availability of some of RESILIENCE's services were presented and discussed during the RESILIENCE panel at the annual conference of EuARe 2021, which is being held this week in Münster.
For many, the EuARe 2021 conference was the first they physically attended after 1.5 years. Some of them also visited the RESILIENCE panel, organized by Volos Academy for Theological Studies.
After a general introduction by Hans-Peter Grosshans (University of Münster) on the phenomenon of research infrastructures, Karla Boersma (TUA) elaborated on this for the RESILIENCE’s research infrastructure, explaining that several working groups are currently working on a “light version”of some of the services that can probably be offered in early 2022.
These services cover a form of Transnational Access (direct, supported and free accesss across borders to physical and digital collections, which enables users to speed up their research significantly), as well as , information, support and advice on how to set up data management for one’s research, e.g. when setting up a so called Data Management Plan.
Marco Büchler (Infai) explained about big (religious) data and what you need to do to store them and to make them findable and accessible for a long time. This is an important service of RESILIENCE, guaranteeing reseachers that their research data will be visible and therefor can be used during a longer period.
From the lively exchange it appeared that there is an interest in storing and sharing data on all kind of topics in religious studies, including oral history. The questions that went deeper into the matter, such as about copyright and legal aspects of making data available, could not all be answered fully at this time. This is because RESILIENCE is only at the beginning of the preparation phase and now faces the task of working out the services in more detail. In doing so, it will make use of questions and wishes from (future) users.