Sven Lieber

<p>Hi everyone, </p><p>it has been a while since we talked about research infrastructures. Many of them might sound abstract or just like super specialized app stores. But today we have a brief look into something very tangible: heritage objects that are analyzed by instruments or are digitized in other forms. There is lots of diverse data in Heritage Science.</p><h1>❓ FAIR Buzzword Bingo: what is E-RIHS?</h1><div><hr></div><p>There are already countless intertwined research and infrastructure initiatives in the cultural heritage field, even more beyond it. In this category I will focus on one of the many FAIR data-related initiatives, this week:<strong> the European Research Infrastructure for Heritage Science (E-RIHS)</strong></p><p>I have introduced some research infrastructures related to the <em>Social Sciences and Humanities</em> (SSH) in previous editions. For example CLARIN about language data or DARIAH about Digital Humanities. But actual cultural heritage is broader, it’s about both <strong>cultural and natural heritage. </strong>The latter refers to for example monuments and paintings or in the future maybe even <em>CD-Roms</em>. Let’s have a look at what Heritage Science is and which role FAIR data plays in the European Research Infrastructure for Heritage Science.</p><div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link is-viewable-img image2" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F44a708f9-d198-42a0-8b2c-99eea0b1fa5d_530x530.jpeg" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F44a708f9-d198-42a0-8b2c-99eea0b1fa5d_530x530.jpeg 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F44a708f9-d198-42a0-8b2c-99eea0b1fa5d_530x530.jpeg 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F44a708f9-d198-42a0-8b2c-99eea0b1fa5d_530x530.jpeg 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F44a708f9-d198-42a0-8b2c-99eea0b1fa5d_530x530.jpeg 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F44a708f9-d198-42a0-8b2c-99eea0b1fa5d_530x530.jpeg" width="530" height="530" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/44a708f9-d198-42a0-8b2c-99eea0b1fa5d_530x530.jpeg&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:530,&quot;width&quot;:530,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:null,&quot;alt&quot;:null,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:null,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:false,&quot;topImage&quot;:true,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:null}" class="sizing-normal" alt="" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F44a708f9-d198-42a0-8b2c-99eea0b1fa5d_530x530.jpeg 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F44a708f9-d198-42a0-8b2c-99eea0b1fa5d_530x530.jpeg 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F44a708f9-d198-42a0-8b2c-99eea0b1fa5d_530x530.jpeg 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F44a708f9-d198-42a0-8b2c-99eea0b1fa5d_530x530.jpeg 1456w" sizes="100vw" fetchpriority="high"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="16" height="16" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="#FFFFFF" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></div></div></a><figcaption class="image-caption">Heritage Science, where cultural heritage and technology meets. Picture from the European Research Infrastructure for Heritage Science at https://e-rihs.eu</figcaption></figure></div><p>In short, Heritage Science covers several scientific fields, such as chemistry and biology, or art history and engineering. Very diverse! It has to be interdisciplinary because it studies and preserves materials and techniques from the past. I'm only a computer scientist, so please forgive my vague description, but as far as I understand it, you have to use <strong>state-of-the-art techniques and instruments</strong> to treat very old objects <strong>very carefully</strong>. But as well as knowledge of the materials used and how to treat them, you also need to understand the object in a <strong>wider cultural and humanities context</strong>.</p><p>Sounds interesting, but also like a lot of work where standard office programs like Word or Excel might not be too helpful. After all, there might be data from <strong>3D scans</strong>, <strong>molecular analysis</strong>, <strong>dating and aging tests</strong>, <strong>physical and thermal characterization</strong>, and more. As a researcher you also need to collaboratively work together with colleagues from different institutions in possibly different countries. Check the short introduction video below to get an idea.</p><div id="youtube2-xWxAi2XAoDo" class="youtube-wrap" data-attrs="{&quot;videoId&quot;:&quot;xWxAi2XAoDo&quot;,&quot;startTime&quot;:null,&quot;endTime&quot;:null}" data-component-name="Youtube2ToDOM"><div class="youtube-inner"><iframe src="https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/xWxAi2XAoDo?rel=0&amp;autoplay=0&amp;showinfo=0&amp;enablejsapi=0" frameborder="0" loading="lazy" gesture="media" allow="autoplay; fullscreen" allowautoplay="true" allowfullscreen="true" width="728" height="409"></iframe></div></div><h2>Background E-RIHS</h2><p>There have been different collaborative projects in the past, but since 2016 the new kid in town is the European Research Infrastructure for Heritage Science (E-RIHS). It <strong>entered the ESFRI roadmap in 2016</strong> and thus joined other large scale research infrastructure initiatives. </p><p>The initiative is in full swing. A first <em>preparatory phase</em> project has already been completed (<a href="https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q123413373">Q123413373</a>) and another <em>implementation </em>project (<a href="https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q123413608">Q123413608</a>) has started with the aim of creating a legal entity for E-RIHS in the form of an ERIC (see <a href="https://fair-data-digest.org/archive/6">FDD#6</a>). In addition, another platform integration project (IPERION HS) has been launched with a budget of <strong>more than 6 million Euro</strong>.</p><p>E-RIHS is organized in a <strong>central hub</strong> and in so far <strong>14 national nodes</strong>. For example, the national node for Belgium was founded in 2019 and consists of <em>The Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage </em>(<a href="https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q2235462">Q2235462</a>), <em>The Royal Museums of Art and History</em> (<a href="https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q945059">Q945059</a>), and <em>The Royal Library of Belgium</em> (<a href="https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q383931">Q383931</a>). My employer thus and a few partners of our <em>MetaBelgica </em>project (<a href="https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q119717964">Q119717964</a>). However, not related to MetaBelgica, different departments are involved :-) </p><p class="button-wrapper" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://www.e-rihs.eu/national-nodes/&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Check out all 14 national nodes&quot;,&quot;action&quot;:null,&quot;class&quot;:null}" data-component-name="ButtonCreateButton"><a class="button primary" href="https://www.e-rihs.eu/national-nodes/"><span>Check out all 14 national nodes</span></a></p><h2>E-RIHS and FAIR data</h2><p>According to their website, E-RIHS <em>“believes in Open Science”</em> and the FAIR principles are <em>“fundamental to their vision”</em>. This includes a data-curation policy and mandatory data management plans. Documentation and research data is available on <a href="https://zenodo.org/communities/e-rihs">Zenodo </a>and <a href="https://explore.openaire.eu/search/find/research-outcomes?fv0=E-RIHS&amp;f0=q&amp;resultbestaccessright=%22Open%2520Access%22">OpenAIRE</a>.</p><p>The diverse data of the <strong>three service platforms</strong> related to the IPERION HS project catalogue of services make it clear that FAIR data is needed. <a href="https://www.iperionhs.eu/archlab/">ARCHLAB</a> providing access to largely unpublished datasets. Data created by the instruments in the <a href="https://www.iperionhs.eu/fixlab/">FIXLAB </a>research facilities or by the distributed mobile instruments of <a href="https://www.iperionhs.eu/molab/">MOLAB</a>. Already digitized data as well as measurements of physical objects that need to be Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable!</p><p>I’m curious to learn about more future outcomes of the project related to FAIR data. Let me know if anyone of you is working on it or a related project.</p><div><hr></div><p>That’s it for this week of the FAIR Data Digest. If you found the content interesting, please share and subscribe. See you <em>in two weeks</em>!</p><p>Sven</p><div class="captioned-button-wrap" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://fairdata.substack.com/p/fair-data-digest-21?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email&utm_content=share&action=share&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Share&quot;}" data-component-name="CaptionedButtonToDOM"><div class="preamble"><p class="cta-caption">Thank you for reading FAIR Data Digest. This post is public so feel free to share it.</p></div><p class="button-wrapper" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://fairdata.substack.com/p/fair-data-digest-21?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email&utm_content=share&action=share&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Share&quot;}" data-component-name="ButtonCreateButton"><a class="button primary" href="https://fairdata.substack.com/p/fair-data-digest-21?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email&utm_content=share&action=share"><span>Share</span></a></p></div>

on the meeting point of cultural heritage and technology: Heritage Science. Looking at the European Research Infrastructure for Heritage Science and the need for FAIR data not only coming from digitized content but also from measurements of specialized scientific instruments.


FAIR Data Digest #21

<p>Hi everyone,</p><p>greetings from Karlsruhe in Germany where I am attending a conference about research data infrastructure at the moment. More on it probably next week ;-) For this week already a warm up, I will talk about our contribution to this conference, the <strong><a href="https://www.kbr.be/en/projects/metabelgica/">MetaBelgica</a></strong> project (I talked about earlier at <a href="https://fair-data-digest.org/archive/5">FAIR Data Digest #5</a>).</p><div class="subscription-widget-wrap" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://fairdata.substack.com/subscribe?&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Subscribe&quot;,&quot;language&quot;:&quot;en&quot;}" data-component-name="SubscribeWidgetToDOM"><div class="subscription-widget show-subscribe"><div class="preamble"><p class="cta-caption">Thanks for reading FAIR Data Digest! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.</p></div><form class="subscription-widget-subscribe"><input type="email" class="email-input" name="email" placeholder="Type your email…" tabindex="-1"><input type="submit" class="button primary" value="Subscribe"><div class="fake-input-wrapper"><div class="fake-input"></div><div class="fake-button"></div></div></form></div></div><div><hr></div><h1>🔍 Insights: The research data infrastructure MetaBelgica</h1><div><hr></div><p>If I ask you to get data about a specific book, you might go to the national library. If I ask about a specific painting you go to the museum that has it. This is more or less straightforward, usually the library wouldn’t have (possibly contradicting) data about the painting from the museum.</p><p>However, for metadata related to persons, organizations, locations and events this is another story. The library will have data about the author of books. And if one of those author happens to be a painter, the museum will have data about that painter too! Those institutions not necessarily talk to each other, meaning that curators of both institutions create the same data twice. Hopefully it is the exact same data, otherwise, who to trust if one information is different in both data sources?</p><p>This is were the MetaBelgica project (<a href="https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q119717964">Q119717964</a>) comes in! Currently there is no single trustworthy data source about persons, organizations, time/events and locations (entities) related to Belgian Cultural Heritage. Sure, some foreign institutions might have data, and some local Belgian institutions too. But if they are not properly linked this is a problem. In a best case scenario they both at least point to a platform such as Wikidata. But then Wikidata becomes the source of truth, which actually is not what it is meant or want to be. There should always be references to claims made on Wikidata.</p><div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link is-viewable-img image2" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F2ab7797a-1f26-45a3-adc3-112ffe2efca1_1016x557.png" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F2ab7797a-1f26-45a3-adc3-112ffe2efca1_1016x557.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F2ab7797a-1f26-45a3-adc3-112ffe2efca1_1016x557.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F2ab7797a-1f26-45a3-adc3-112ffe2efca1_1016x557.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F2ab7797a-1f26-45a3-adc3-112ffe2efca1_1016x557.png 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F2ab7797a-1f26-45a3-adc3-112ffe2efca1_1016x557.png" width="1016" height="557" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/2ab7797a-1f26-45a3-adc3-112ffe2efca1_1016x557.png&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:557,&quot;width&quot;:1016,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:135739,&quot;alt&quot;:null,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;image/png&quot;,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:true,&quot;topImage&quot;:false,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:null}" class="sizing-normal" alt="" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F2ab7797a-1f26-45a3-adc3-112ffe2efca1_1016x557.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F2ab7797a-1f26-45a3-adc3-112ffe2efca1_1016x557.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F2ab7797a-1f26-45a3-adc3-112ffe2efca1_1016x557.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F2ab7797a-1f26-45a3-adc3-112ffe2efca1_1016x557.png 1456w" sizes="100vw" loading="lazy"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="16" height="16" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="#FFFFFF" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></div></div></a><figcaption class="image-caption">Whereas collection-related metadata is unique for each partnering institution, entities are shared which leads to problems.</figcaption></figure></div><p>The Royal Library of Belgium (my employer) is one out of ten <em>Federal Scientific Institutes (FSIs)</em> in Belgium. Five of those are related to Cultural Heritage. And the following four are joining forces in the MetaBelgica project: <em>The Royal Library</em> (<a href="https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q107329675">Q107329675</a>), the <em>Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage</em> (<a href="https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q2235462">Q2235462</a>), the <em>Royal Museums of Fine Arts</em> (<a href="https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q377500">Q377500</a>), and the <em>Royal Museums of Art and History</em> (<a href="https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q945059">Q945059</a>). We talking about millions of Belgian entities that we want to combine.</p><p>Hence we want to solve this problem on a national level in the federated state of Belgium. We want to combine the data of the majority of Belgian Federal Scientific Institutes active in the Cultural Heritage domain. This sounds easy, but actually is a lot of work. On the one hand, a lot of (possibly poor quality) data needs to be integrated. On the other hand, those are different institutions with which use different tools and data standards and follow different cataloging rules.</p><p>Roughly there are two challenges to solve: integrating the data in the first place using an interoperable data model, and govern and curate the data in a shared entity management system. For the integration we rely on Linked Data techniques and our experiences from the <a href="https://www.kbr.be/en/projects/beltrans/">BELTRANS </a>project (<a href="https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q114789456">Q114789456</a>). Related to the platform, we haven chosen to use Wikibase (<a href="https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q16354758">Q16354758</a>), the open source software behind Wikidata. That software enables curators of the different institutions to manage the data without technical skills like programming.</p><p>Next to providing FAIR data, our goal is the <strong>longevity of the platform</strong>. Therefore we would like to include the operation of the platform into the daily cataloging tasks of the partnering institutions. This means that during the project we have to study the status-quo and develop both organizational and technical solutions on how we can manage our data together.</p><p>Curious? Check out the link below to find the presentation that I will give today at the <a href="https://www.nfdi.de/cordi-2023/?lang=en">1st Conference On Research Data Infrastructure</a> (CoRDI) (<a href="https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q120753666">Q120753666</a>). Here is also a link to the proceedings including our submitted abstract (<a href="https://doi.org/10.52825/cordi.v1i">DOI: 10.52825/cordi.v1i</a>).</p><p class="button-wrapper" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8337301&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;View the presentation slides&quot;,&quot;action&quot;:null,&quot;class&quot;:null}" data-component-name="ButtonCreateButton"><a class="button primary" href="https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8337301"><span>View the presentation slides</span></a></p><div><hr></div><p>That’s it for this week of the FAIR Data Digest. I hope you found the content interesting. Don’t forget to share or subscribe. See you next week!</p><p>Sven</p><div class="subscription-widget-wrap" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://fairdata.substack.com/subscribe?&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Subscribe&quot;,&quot;language&quot;:&quot;en&quot;}" data-component-name="SubscribeWidgetToDOM"><div class="subscription-widget show-subscribe"><div class="preamble"><p class="cta-caption">Thanks for reading FAIR Data Digest! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.</p></div><form class="subscription-widget-subscribe"><input type="email" class="email-input" name="email" placeholder="Type your email…" tabindex="-1"><input type="submit" class="button primary" value="Subscribe"><div class="fake-input-wrapper"><div class="fake-input"></div><div class="fake-button"></div></div></form></div></div><p></p>

why you should care about a single trustworthy data source for Belgian heritage metadata?


FAIR Data Digest #15

<p>Hi everyone,</p><p>if you are a researcher and you want to follow the FAIR data principles you are not left alone. In today’s edition I will try to explain what ERIC is and what they have to do with FAIR data. </p><p>As for work updates: I was on a small camping vacation in France, so there are no work updates, but I came back with many ideas for the future! :-) </p><div class="subscription-widget-wrap" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://fairdata.substack.com/subscribe?&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Subscribe&quot;,&quot;language&quot;:&quot;en&quot;}" data-component-name="SubscribeWidgetToDOM"><div class="subscription-widget show-subscribe"><div class="preamble"><p class="cta-caption">Thanks for reading FAIR Data Digest! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.</p></div><form class="subscription-widget-subscribe"><input type="email" class="email-input" name="email" placeholder="Type your email…" tabindex="-1"><input type="submit" class="button primary" value="Subscribe"><div class="fake-input-wrapper"><div class="fake-input"></div><div class="fake-button"></div></div></form></div></div><p></p><div><hr></div><h1>❓ FAIR Buzzword Bingo: ERIC</h1><div><hr></div><p>There are already countless intertwined research and infrastructure initiatives in the cultural heritage field, even more beyond it. Every week I will focus on one of the many FAIR data-related initiatives, last week I’ve covered <a href="https://fair-data-digest.org/archive/5#§fair-buzzword-bingo-europeana">Europeana and the Cultural Heritage Cloud</a>, <strong>this week: the European Research Infrastructure Consortium (ERIC)</strong></p><p>Some of the initiatives I will present in upcoming editions officially have the ending ERIC, for example CLARIN-ERIC. <strong>So what is an ERIC?</strong> An ERIC is a <strong>E</strong>uropean <strong>R</strong>esearch <strong>I</strong>nfrastructure <strong>C</strong>onsortium (<a href="https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q15808872">Q15808872</a>). A <em>legal entity</em> within the European Law that was established by the EU Council Regulation 723/2009 (<a href="https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q120506553">Q120506553</a>).</p><blockquote><p><em>“An ERIC […] should have as its principal task the <strong>establishment and operation of a research infrastructure</strong> on a non-economic basis and should devote most of its resources to this principal task”</em> - Council Regulation 723/2009 (<a href="https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q120506553">Q120506553</a>)</p></blockquote><p>Since 2009 ERICs have been formed around various research disciplines, from cultural heritage to marine biology or carbon dioxide storage. In the open access article <a href="https://doi.org/10.1051/epn/2020305">The ERIC Consortium: A New Type of EU Research Institution</a>, Carlo Rizzuto stresses that the <strong>more than 20 existing ERICs</strong> have a <strong>major impact in extensive fields of research</strong>. </p><div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F42112b11-4344-4c87-a694-6ccd4161a4a0_1004x391.jpeg" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F42112b11-4344-4c87-a694-6ccd4161a4a0_1004x391.jpeg 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F42112b11-4344-4c87-a694-6ccd4161a4a0_1004x391.jpeg 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F42112b11-4344-4c87-a694-6ccd4161a4a0_1004x391.jpeg 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F42112b11-4344-4c87-a694-6ccd4161a4a0_1004x391.jpeg 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F42112b11-4344-4c87-a694-6ccd4161a4a0_1004x391.jpeg" width="526" height="204.84661354581672" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/42112b11-4344-4c87-a694-6ccd4161a4a0_1004x391.jpeg&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:391,&quot;width&quot;:1004,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:526,&quot;bytes&quot;:null,&quot;alt&quot;:&quot;ERIC Forum - Ceric&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:null,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:true,&quot;topImage&quot;:false,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:null}" class="sizing-normal" alt="ERIC Forum - Ceric" title="ERIC Forum - Ceric" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F42112b11-4344-4c87-a694-6ccd4161a4a0_1004x391.jpeg 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F42112b11-4344-4c87-a694-6ccd4161a4a0_1004x391.jpeg 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F42112b11-4344-4c87-a694-6ccd4161a4a0_1004x391.jpeg 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F42112b11-4344-4c87-a694-6ccd4161a4a0_1004x391.jpeg 1456w" sizes="100vw" loading="lazy"></picture><div></div></div></a><figcaption class="image-caption">Logo of the ERIC Forum: https://www.eric-forum.eu</figcaption></figure></div><p>Based on <a href="https://doi.org/10.3030/823798">additional funding</a> of almost € 1.5 million, the <strong>ERIC Forum</strong> (<a href="https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q120510649">Q120510649</a>) was set up. Representatives of each ERIC are organized within this forum. According to their website, the ERIC Forum’s aim is to <em>“advance operations of ERICs and to strategically contribute to the development of ERIC related policies.”</em>. It does so by for example <strong>strengthening the coordination and networking</strong> between ERICs.</p><h2>ERIC and FAIR data</h2><p>In February 2023, the ERIC Forum published a <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20230710193401/https://www.eric-forum.eu/2023/04/05/eric-forum-position-paper-2023/">position paper</a> regarding the <em>“Public consultation on the past, present and future of the European Research &amp; Innovation Framework programmes 2014-2027”</em>. <strong>It mentions the acronym FAIR seven times!</strong></p><blockquote><p><em>“ERICs are key enablers of Open Science and their quality-managed services facilitate FAIR research data and outputs”</em> - ERIC Forum position paper</p></blockquote><p>Having support for FAIR data at such a basic level has of course enormous advantages. By using standardized research infrastructure, the creation of FAIR data isn’t a burden for individual researchers anymore. Instead, the underlying research data infrastructure is already FAIR by-design and there would be trainings about it. I think this is highlighted best in the following recommendation the ERIC Forum has for the next Horizon Europe program with respect to experimental data: </p><blockquote><p><em>“Funding for standardization efforts for experimental data as key to produce FAIR data. <strong>ERICs are a ‘central’ structure to promote standard development </strong>between different research institutions in Europe as well as beyond with their international partners”</em> - A recommendation from the ERIC Forum’s position paper</p></blockquote><p></p><p><strong>What do you think about ERICs?</strong> Are you aware of any ERICs in your field of research? Under the following link you can find a small fact sheet about ERICs and a full list of existing ones.</p><p class="button-wrapper" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://web.archive.org/web/20230710192614/https://eur-lex.europa.eu/EN/legal-content/summary/european-research-infrastructure-consortium-eric.html&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;ERIC fact sheet and full list&quot;,&quot;action&quot;:null,&quot;class&quot;:null}" data-component-name="ButtonCreateButton"><a class="button primary" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20230710192614/https://eur-lex.europa.eu/EN/legal-content/summary/european-research-infrastructure-consortium-eric.html"><span>ERIC fact sheet and full list</span></a></p><div><hr></div><p>That’s it for this week of the FAIR Data Digest. I hope you found the content interesting. Don’t forget to share or subscribe. See you next week!</p><p>Sven</p><div class="subscription-widget-wrap" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://fairdata.substack.com/subscribe?&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Subscribe&quot;,&quot;language&quot;:&quot;en&quot;}" data-component-name="SubscribeWidgetToDOM"><div class="subscription-widget show-subscribe"><div class="preamble"><p class="cta-caption">Thanks for reading FAIR Data Digest! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.</p></div><form class="subscription-widget-subscribe"><input type="email" class="email-input" name="email" placeholder="Type your email…" tabindex="-1"><input type="submit" class="button primary" value="Subscribe"><div class="fake-input-wrapper"><div class="fake-input"></div><div class="fake-button"></div></div></form></div></div>

what is the European Research Infrastructure Consortium (ERIC)?


FAIR Data Digest #6

<p>Hi everyone,</p><p>did you ever wonder how FAIR data is put into practice? This week I went down the rabbit hole and what I brought back is the start of a new series to <strong>unravel the many FAIR data initiatives</strong>. There are also some good news for (Belgian) FAIR data in my work update!</p><div class="subscription-widget-wrap" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://fairdata.substack.com/subscribe?&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Subscribe&quot;,&quot;language&quot;:&quot;en&quot;}" data-component-name="SubscribeWidgetToDOM"><div class="subscription-widget show-subscribe"><div class="preamble"><p class="cta-caption">Thanks for reading FAIR Data Digest! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.</p></div><form class="subscription-widget-subscribe"><input type="email" class="email-input" name="email" placeholder="Type your email…" tabindex="-1"><input type="submit" class="button primary" value="Subscribe"><div class="fake-input-wrapper"><div class="fake-input"></div><div class="fake-button"></div></div></form></div></div><p>❓ This week I have read that <em>Europeana </em>is preparing the <em>ECHOES </em>proposal to respond to a <strong>€ 110 million</strong> call for a <em>European Collaborative Cloud for Europe’s cultural heritage</em>, because they are also coordinating the complementary <em>Common European Data Space for Cultural Heritage</em>. <strong>Wait, what …? What does this even mean? And what are all these acronyms?</strong> Let’s find out in the new <em>FAIR Buzzword Bingo</em> series, where I will focus on one initiative per week. Today: Europeana.</p><p>🏢 While working with book translations in  the <a href="https://www.kbr.be/en/projects/beltrans/">BELTRANS </a>project, we often have to deal with so-called authority data. That is for example data about <em>contributors </em>and <em>places </em>related to book translations. As you might have guessed, there are possibly different data sources with maybe contradicting data. To avoid this and to have a single trustworthy data source in the future for Belgian authority data, we submitted the <strong>research infrastructure project </strong><em><strong>MetaBelgica </strong></em><strong>that got accepted!</strong></p><p></p><div><hr></div><h1>❓  FAIR Buzzword Bingo: Europeana</h1><div><hr></div><p>There are already countless intertwined research and infrastructure initiatives in the cultural heritage field, even more beyond it. While I went down the rabbit hole I thought it would be nice if I make a <em>series </em>out of it. Every week I will focus on one of the many FAIR data-related initiatives, <strong>this week <a href="https://www.europeana.eu/en">Europeana</a>.</strong></p><div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2" target="_blank" href="https://www.europeana.eu/en" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fd55d8b8d-48ef-4ee6-82e0-32db5895882f_361x198.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fd55d8b8d-48ef-4ee6-82e0-32db5895882f_361x198.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fd55d8b8d-48ef-4ee6-82e0-32db5895882f_361x198.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fd55d8b8d-48ef-4ee6-82e0-32db5895882f_361x198.png 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fd55d8b8d-48ef-4ee6-82e0-32db5895882f_361x198.png" width="361" height="198" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/d55d8b8d-48ef-4ee6-82e0-32db5895882f_361x198.png&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:198,&quot;width&quot;:361,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:null,&quot;alt&quot;:&quot;File:Europeana logo black.svg&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:null,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;https://www.europeana.eu/en&quot;,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:true,&quot;topImage&quot;:false,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:null}" class="sizing-normal" alt="File:Europeana logo black.svg" title="File:Europeana logo black.svg" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fd55d8b8d-48ef-4ee6-82e0-32db5895882f_361x198.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fd55d8b8d-48ef-4ee6-82e0-32db5895882f_361x198.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fd55d8b8d-48ef-4ee6-82e0-32db5895882f_361x198.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fd55d8b8d-48ef-4ee6-82e0-32db5895882f_361x198.png 1456w" sizes="100vw" loading="lazy"></picture><div></div></div></a></figure></div><p>Europeana logo, <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0">CC BY-SA 4.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons</p><p><strong>Europeana </strong>(<a href="https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q234110">Q234110</a>) is a web portal with which you can discover <strong>millions </strong>of cultural heritage images and texts that are provided by over <strong>4,000 institutions</strong> across Europe. The data is collected not directly, but via a network of aggregators. Like this you are able to discover cultural heritage collections since 2008, Europeana’s inception date.</p><p>Did you know that <strong>cultural tourism</strong> represents up to <strong>40%</strong> of all tourism in Europe? And that the cultural and creative industries contribute <strong>3.95% of total EU value added (€ 477 billion)</strong>? (<a href="https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/news/commission-proposes-common-european-data-space-cultural-heritage">source</a>) In order to accelerate the digitization of cultural heritage assets, the European Commission launched the <strong>Common </strong><em><strong>European Data Space for Cultural Heritage</strong></em>, for which Europeana will be at the basis.</p><p>Last but not least, cultural heritage institutions need to be supported so they can benefit in the digital age. Umbrella organizations such as the <a href="https://www.ne-mo.org/">Network of European Museum Organisations NEMO</a> were advocating for a cloud solution, according to <em>Christian Ehler</em> from the European Parliament. Eventually, under funding of the Horizon Europe programme, there was a call for a <strong>European Collaborative Cloud for Europe’s Cultural Heritage</strong>.</p><p><em>Christian Ehler </em>argues further that</p><blockquote><p>the cloud is a big equalizer for museums in deprived areas of Europe that currently are happy that they hold up operations.</p></blockquote><p></p><p>And this is the context in which Europeana wants to submit a proposal together with various partners (from which I will cover a few in future editions). That joint proposal is called <strong>European Cloud for Heritage OpEn Science (ECHOES)</strong>. They imagine it the following way:</p><blockquote><p>Through the Cloud, [an international group of researchers] could have access to online tools and/ or develop applications that would facilitate their joint work: from exchanging datasets and data files, to accessing collaborative workspaces and workgroups, as well as having direct interaction possibilities, along with storing data under European jurisdiction.</p></blockquote><p><a href="https://pro.europeana.eu/post/europeana-initiative-responds-to-call-for-a-european-collaborative-cloud-for-cultural-heritage">Read here </a>about Europeana’s upcoming proposal or check out the press conference introducing the call for the cloud solution.</p><p></p><p class="button-wrapper" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://audiovisual.ec.europa.eu/en/video/I-226882?lg=INT&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Watch the launch of the cloud call&quot;,&quot;action&quot;:null,&quot;class&quot;:null}" data-component-name="ButtonCreateButton"><a class="button primary" href="https://audiovisual.ec.europa.eu/en/video/I-226882?lg=INT"><span>Watch the launch of the cloud call</span></a></p><div><hr></div><h1>🏢 Work updates</h1><div><hr></div><h2>MetaBelgica</h2><p>It is one thing to <em>publish </em>FAIR data, but it is another thing of <em>working with</em> FAIR data. As a consumer who gets FAIR data from different sources, you may still have to combine it somehow. And what if the different data sources contradict each other? Which data source is more authoritative?</p><p>Imagine the following use case:</p><p>The Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage in Belgium has an <a href="http://balat.kikirpa.be/object/7602">online record</a> about the painting the <em>marriage of Joseph and Maria</em>, which contains information about the painter <em>Rogier Van der Weyden</em>. At the Royal Library of Belgium (KBR), there is also a <a href="https://opac.kbr.be/LIBRARY/doc/AUTHORITY/13971128">record </a>about the same painter, yet both entities are maintained at both institutions at the same time and with different spelling variants (<em>Rogier Van der Weyden</em> or <em>Rogier de la Pasture</em>). Due to the <strong>uncoordinated creation and maintenance of Belgian entities, (inter)national users of our catalogues experience a gap in knowledge on these authorities</strong>, they need a single trustworthy data source about Belgian entities!</p><p>At KBR, we therefore teamed up with the <em>Royal Museums of Fine Arts</em>, the <em>Royal Museums of Art and History</em> and the <em>Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage</em> to create a single trustworthy data source for cultural heritage authority data (persons, organizations, time and locations): the <em>MetaBelgica </em>platform. <strong>The project got accepted!</strong> The platform will run on the Open Source Wikibase software that is also used by Wikidata. The project did not start yet, but be sure that I will talk about it again once it did.</p><p class="button-wrapper" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://www.belspo.be/belspo/impuls/project_en.stm#MetaBelgica&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Basic MetaBelgica info&quot;,&quot;action&quot;:null,&quot;class&quot;:null}" data-component-name="ButtonCreateButton"><a class="button primary" href="https://www.belspo.be/belspo/impuls/project_en.stm#MetaBelgica"><span>Basic MetaBelgica info</span></a></p><div><hr></div><p>That’s it for this week of the FAIR Data Digest. I hope you found the content interesting. Don’t forget to share or subscribe. See you next week!</p><p>Sven</p><div class="subscription-widget-wrap" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://fairdata.substack.com/subscribe?&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Subscribe&quot;,&quot;language&quot;:&quot;en&quot;}" data-component-name="SubscribeWidgetToDOM"><div class="subscription-widget show-subscribe"><div class="preamble"><p class="cta-caption">Thanks for reading FAIR Data Digest! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.</p></div><form class="subscription-widget-subscribe"><input type="email" class="email-input" name="email" placeholder="Type your email…" tabindex="-1"><input type="submit" class="button primary" value="Subscribe"><div class="fake-input-wrapper"><div class="fake-input"></div><div class="fake-button"></div></div></form></div></div>

What are Europeana and the Cultural Heritage Cloud? And Hello MetaBelgica!


Rogue Scholar Posts

FAIR Data Digest #21

FAIR Data Digest #15

FAIR Data Digest #6

FAIR Data Digest #5