Thirteen academic institutions from eleven countries are working on the establishment of a permanent European Research Infrastructure on Religious Studies, named RESILIENCE. Yesterday (September 9) they submitted an application for the Research Infrastructure to be included in the ESFRI Roadmap 2021. The inclusion of RESILIENCE in this Roadmap will assure partners that a framework to actually start the preparation phase of the infrastructure is in place.

Discerning the increasing interest in research on Religious Studies and the growing importance of these studies, RESILIENCE aims at improving access to knowledge related to religion. At the same time, tools and support are needed, in order to make available, interpret and handle this knowledge. RESILIENCE will respond to this need, establishing a permanent European Infrastructure on Religious Studies.

Building on the traditions of participating institutions, RESILIENCE’s history dates back to 2014. Since September 2019 the partners have been working on reaching the maturity required to be included in the ESFRI Roadmap 2021. A design has been made for the future infrastructure and the services have been defined, along with a sustainable budget and a stable governance model, which basically means that the Research Infrastructure is ready to start.

Inclusion of RESILIENCE in the Roadmap will assure partners of a framework to actually start in the near future the preparation phase of the infrastructure.

Characteristic in the infrastructure design is that it includes physical as well as digital access to knowledge about religion, and that it is uniquely user-centered: RESILIENCE supports its future users in finding, handling and sharing this knowledge. Although scholars in particular will make use of the research infrastructure, also others involved in religious matters such as librarians, policy makers and representatives of religious communities can benefit.

RESILIENCE will further enable researchers to integrate in a developed research society and be recognized for their research, by helping them to access more resources, to enhance digital skills, to participate in projects, to promote their research, to build a professional network etc.

Collection managers and librarians will benefit from advice and guidance offered by RESILIENCE regarding new developments in the field of Digital Humanities, especially for Religious Studies. The participation in a professional network helps them to promote their collections and to improve the work with the resources that they have in their collections.

RESILIENCE will offer religious communities access to broad physical and digital information and research in their practical field. It facilitates mutual networking between research and religious communities by connecting each with colleagues and via knowledge transfer.

The permanent research infrastructure has a minimum life cycle of 25 years and an estimated budget of around € 246 millions. 80% of this amount will be covered by the partners themselves through in-kind contributions, mostly dedicated to physical access services.

“Resilience aspires to provide wide access to religious knowledge, thereby cultivating peaceful coexistence and respect for religious diversity.” Pantelis Kalaitzidis, Director of the Volos Academy for Theological Studies.

Editorial note

About

The project RESILIENCE started in September 2019 and will last for at least two years. It has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 programme under Grant Agreement No 871127. Horizon 2020 is the European funding programme for research and innovation in Europe.

ESFRI

ESFRI is the European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures. It is a strategic instrument to develop the scientific integration of Europe and to strengthen its international outreach.

RESILIENCE Partners

• Albanian University UFO (AL)
• Bar-Ilan University (IL)
• École Pratique des Hautes Études (FR)
• Fondazione per le Scienze Religiose (IT)
• Institut für Angewandte Informatik (DE)
• KU Leuven (BE)
• Leibniz Institute of European History (DE)
• Sofiiski Universitet Sveti Kliment Ohridski (BG)
• Theological University of Apeldoorn (NL)
• University of Sarajevo (BIH)
• Uniwersytet Warszawski (PL)
• Volos Academy for Theological Studies (GR)
• Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Muenster (DE)

More

More information via www.resilience-ri.eu and the RESILIENCE Factsheet here

Videos

Watch our accompanying video on the ESFRI application submission

Watch our introductory video on RESILIENCE

Contact

Volos Academy for Theological Studies

Melissiatika, Volos- Greece, Zip Code 38001, P.O. 1308,

Tel: +30 24210-93553

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Nikolaos Asproulis: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

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