RESILIENCE’s General Assembly gathered last week in Palermo, discussing the progress made in the various Work packages and the work to be done in this phase.
It was good and insightful to know from the different work packages what progress had been made so that internally the different tasks can be better coordinated. The overview below provides some examples:
The status of RESILIENCE (Preparatory Phase, running from June 2022 to May 2026) was presented by General Executive Director Francesca Cadeddu. RESILIENCE is on its way becoming an ERIC (European Research Infrastructure Consortium) and has already completed many requirements for the ESFRI application. Most documents, like the scientific case and vision/mission statement, are in place or under construction, others need need external input to be developed.
Important for becoming an ERIC is also the political and financial support of national authorities, representing the future member countries. All partners are in contact with their national authorities and applications have been made or are underway.
Work needs to be done in increasing inclusiveness related to the various religions in terms of data collections and understanding the needs of disciplines such as psychology or sociology.
Extending the number of partners in as many countries as possible is necessary for RESILIENCE in its efforts in becoming an ERIC. In light of this, it was gratifying to learn that a clear cooperation policy is now in place and that the number of partners is steadily expanding
One form of cooperation is also in place with the ITSERR project, the Italian Strengthening of the ESFRI RESILIENCE, which is developing tools, data and software for the Religious Studies community. The white papers, software and datasets that are in preparation can nurture RESILIENCE in its future phases. Currently ITSERR is going through a learning process, which RESILIENCE can also benefit from. This includes, for example, the use of Artificial Intelligence in developing services.
The team working on Services, led by KU Leuven, has made considerable progress. It allowed the General Assembly to glimpse into the future of the research infrastructure and what it can offer as core services. Also a first overview of the Service Analysis Template was presented, a tool for collecting available services and for structuring them into several categories, indicating their interrelatedness.
The University of Münster is leading the Work package on users and their requirements. After several interviews with scholars and librarians from all over Europe, it begins to become increasingly clear where users’ needs lie: at the top of those needs are accessibility and networking. Because of RESILIENCE’s user-centered approach, this is important information for the further development of the services.
For each Work package the planning was discussed, thereby giving each other an opportunity to coordinate the work, especially needed now given that RESILIENCE is at the halfway point. In the fall, several topics related to coordination and more general to the progress made will be discussed in detail in a meeting together with the Advisory Board. The next General Assembly will be in December of this year.
The General Assembly is composed of representatives of the partners of the consortium, and its meetings are the place where strategic issues can be discussed. Usually the General Assembly convenes twice a year.