Thirteen academic institutions from eleven countries are working on the establishment of a permanent European Research Infrastructure on Religious Studies, named RESILIENCE. On 10 september 2020 the RESILIENCE partners 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.
About the Research 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.
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.
The need for the Research Infrastructure
Prof. Anna-Maria Totomanova from University of Sofia on the need for the Research infrastructure: “The research infrastructure enables researchers to do more in-depth research on the current processes in Europe and their deep roots in the past.”
Francesca Cadeddu (Fscire) about the submission and the importance of the Research Infrastructure:
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)
● University of Sofia ‘St. 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 :
Watch our introductory video on RESILIENCE here
Contact
Prof. Anna-Maria Totomanova, atotomanova@slav.uni-sofia.bg