Federated Digital Research Infrastructures (DRI) for the Arts and Humanities Communities

This report aims to reflect the collective voice of the Arts & Humanities (A&H) research communities advocating for access to Digital Research Infrastructure (DRI) in ways that support their digital research workflows and data management practices. The (A&H) communities bring together researchers across three thematic areas broadly categorised by the A&H Research Council into: 1) Histories, Cultures and Heritage, 2) Creative and Performing Arts, as well as 3) Languages and Literature. The research in these areas is funded mainly by the UKRI Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and supported by the Infrastructure for Digital Arts and Humanities (IDAH).
IDAH gives researchers dedicated data services which cater for different disciplines and/or types of data, including the Distributed System of Scientific Collections (DiSSCo); the Archaeology Data Service(ADS); the Literary and Linguistic Data Service (LLDS); the British Library Research Repository; the Museum Data Service (MDS), the Heritage Science Data Service (HSDS), and the Enact Practice Research Data Service. In addition, IDAH engages with the A&H research and practice communities to improve skills and promote the overall culture around data, tools and software, for instance, in terms of practices, value and role in decision making, through initiatives such as the Digital Skills in Arts and Humanities (DISKAH) Network, the Collaborative Computational Project for Arts, Humanities, and Culture (CCP-AHC) and Data Culture.
The research conducted to establish the requirements of the A&H communities for federation involved a thorough review of established research and evidence published in relevant literature. These reports were compiled and analysed thematically highlighting insights from the A&H subdisciplines, as well as cross-disciplinary research, in terms of data practices, tools and workflows, collaboration and professional development. It should also be emphasised that the Arts & Humanities (A&H) research communities are not a single, homogeneous group. Research needs vary considerably across subdisciplines and are further1Federated Digital Research Infrastructures (DRI) for the Arts and Humanities Communities Report shaped by career stage, access to institutional infrastructure, collaborative contexts, and levels of digital skills. Acknowledging and addressing diverse requirements is therefore critical to ensure that a federated DRI is accessible, inclusive and equitable, and that it can effectively support the broad A&H research and practice communities.