NEWS: HERA JRP CALL CLOSED

DEADLINE 7 APRIL 2009, 14:00 CET

The HERA Joint Research Programme (HERA JRP) partners have launched a joint call for trans-national Collaborative Research Projects (CRPs) in two humanities research areas: “Cultural Dynamics: Inheritance and Identity” and “Humanities as a Source of Creativity and Innovation”. By launching the first HERA JRP call for proposals, 13 national funding partners want to create collaborative, trans-national research opportunities that will derive new insights from humanities research in order to address major social, cultural, and political challenges facing Europe. In consultation with their national researcher communities, they have jointly defined and developed common research priorities, and created a new trans-national funding mechanism.

The beneficiaries of this Call are eligible scholars located in Austria, Croatia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Ireland, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Slovenia, Sweden and United Kingdom, irrespective of their nationality. Successful proposals will require the building of consortia of three or more partners based in three or more different HERA JRP countries. The total amount of funding available for both HERA JRP themes is 12,4 – 16,4 M€. To know more, visit the HERA website www.heranet.info.

4th HERA ANNUAL CONFERENCE “European diversities – European identities” and 1st European Conference for Collaborative Humanities Research (ECCHR) in Strasbourg, 8-9 October 2008

Three HERA annual conferences have helped to bring together, since 2005, Humanities scholars and policy makers to debate, in new ways, the role of Humanities in contemporary society under topics such as global development and culture, security and identity, the digital age and foresight. For the first time, this 4th HERA conference featured researchers supported by all major supra- and transnational public research funders for the Humanities in Europe.  To know more, visit the HERA website http://www.heranet.info

About HERA

HERA - Humanities in the European Research Area - is an EU 6th Framework Programme ERA-NET project aiming at strengthening the European voice in the Humanities. HERA brings together one pan-European and 13 national research funding agencies across Europe in order to coordinate research activities and thereby transcend historical limitations and develop new Europe-wide research agendas.

 

Aim

The main objective of HERA is to ensure that the European Research Area can fully benefit from key contributions consequent on humanities research. Because of the varied and yet essential nature of the field, a Europe-wide structuring initiative is particularly important for attaining such objectives. This aspiration will be accomplished through a number of supporting general objectives:

• to stimulate transnational research cooperation within the humanities
• to enable the humanities to play an appropriate and dynamic role in the ERA and within EU Framework Programmes
• to overcome fragmentation of research in the humanities
• to advance new and innovative collaborative research agendas
• to improve cooperation between a large number of research funding agencies in Europe
• to attract more funding to research in the humanities by raising the profile of the humanities

 These general objectives are complemented by a number of specific objectives:

• to serve as a forum for the exchange of operational expertise and policy initiatives between research councils for the humanities, leading to a systematic exchange of information on research policies, procedures, best practice, infrastructures, etc.

• to initiate activities aimed at developing efficient and accessible research infrastructure initiatives in the humanities by making full use of ICT developments
• to coordinate existing national research activities 1) through closer cooperation between existing nationally funded research programmes, 2) by topping-up funds for parallel programmes that add a comparative or European dimension to nationally focused programmes, 3) through preparation of joint calls for transnational research programmes

More information about the project:
HERA website

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Organisation of the final HERA conference (Work Package 5)

ESF is responsible for organising the final, 2008 HERA conference.

The annual HERA conferences are networking platforms that will serve as a general forum for academics and executives involved in or associated with the HERA network. The objectives of the annual HERA conferences are

• To raise awareness of HERA in the humanities research community
• To attract the attention of policy makers, universities and media
• To collect inspiration from the research communities regarding the future of HERA
• To discuss the priorities and strategies of HERA
• To discuss issues of relevance to the humanities in a broad sense:
         - the humanities’ contribution to the ERA
         - the possibilities offered by EU’s Framework Programmes for research

To access the HERA conference programme, please click here.

For more information about WP5, see the work-package description  or contact the Work-package leader, 

For information about specific conferences, please see:

• 2005 HERA Conference: " Past Into Present: Understanding Policy and Innovation in Europe" (London, British Library, 8 Dec. 2005)  - PDF
• 2006 HERA Conference: details to be provided in due course

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Research Infrastructures (Work Package 7)

The workpackage dedicated to research infrastructures in the Humanities has the following objectiv

• increase the accessibility and availability of relevant data for humanities researchers
• develop the basis for joint research infrastructures in the humanities, including the knowledge of tools and new methods. The joint data sharing for the benefit of humanities research will be developed
• compile a categorised list of reference journals in the Humanities in order to develop bibliometric tools to be employed by research managers and researchers alike

For more information about WP7, see the work-package description  (PDF) or contact the Work-package leader, 

Fore more information on ERIH (European Reference Index for the Humanities, sub-task 7.2.1) please click here.

Contact for ERIH: Dr. Doubravka Olsakova
                            dolsakova[at]esf.org

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Preparation of two joint research programmes (Work Package 9)

The ESF is Work Package leader for the HERA. See work package 9 (PDF)

• Task 9.1: Survey on legal barriers to joint research programmes in the Humanities. Deliverable 9.1.1. Synthesis report (PDF, 256 KB)
• Task 9.2: Design of a programme management structure and procedures
• Task 9.3: Implementation of a joint research-funding initiative I
• Task 9.4: Implementation of a joint research-funding initiative II

The time scale for is 38 months from 1 March 2005.

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Further activities

ESF participates also in the preparation of most other work-packages, notably:

• WP3    Exchange of information: Surveys in best practice (WPL: IRCHSS).
  See Peer Review Workshop_Schedule  (PDF)
• WP 4   Impact & quality assessment in humanities research(WPL: AHRC)
• WP 6   Thematic reports (WPL: AKA)
• WP 7   Research infrastructures

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Contacts for HERA and HERA JRP at ESF

Julia Boman
Junior Science Officer for HERA

Marie Suchanova
Administrator for HERA

hera[at]esf.org