07.11.2022

NFDI4Memory becomes part of the national research data infrastructure

At its meeting on 4 November 2022, the Joint Science Conference (GWK) of the Federal Government and the Länder decided on the applications for the third round of calls for proposals for the National Research Data Infrastructure (NFDI). The NFDI4Memory consortium, coordinated by the Leibniz Institute for European History (IEG) Mainz, was approved.

NFDI4Memory is a pacemaker of institutional, subject-specific and methodological innovations in the historically working humanities: For the first time, the consortium integrates historical research, memory and information infrastructures nationwide in a digital research data infrastructure. In this way, it enables the sustainable transformation of research in the historical sciences. The consortium is supported by eleven institutions with extensive experience in digital methods and more than 70 participating institutions from the entire
disciplinary and epochal breadth of historical research.

The spokesperson of the consortium, Prof. Dr. Johannes Paulmann, Director of the IEG, sees the approval as a forward-looking decision: "NFDI4Memory opens up new areas for historical research on the basis of increasingly digitized and digital data as well as digital methods and supports cultural change in science." The consortium promotes digital skills in universities, research institutes, archives, libraries and collections and creates basic structures and
incentives for innovation and new career paths.

NFDI4Memory is developing a portfolio of key services that systematically link historical scholarship and digital resources in its five-year work-programme. Its internationalization strategy ensures that global perspectives and international partners are incorporated. NFDI4Memory ensures the importance and critical function of historical research in society, culture and politics in the context of the digital transformation. Through the funding, NFDI4Memory becomes part of the NFDI. In this cross-disciplinary infrastructure, valuable data from science and research will be systematically accessed, networked and made usable in a sustainable and qualitative manner for the entire German science system. The Federal Government and the federal states will provide up to 90 million euros
annually from 2019 to 2028 for the development and funding of the NFDI in its final phase. The Federal Government will contribute 90 percent of the costs, while the federal states will bear 10 percent.

Contact:
Prof. Dr. Johannes Paulmann (spokesperson of the consortium), Tel: +49 (0) 6131-39-39362
E-mail: 4memory@ieg-mainz.d