Huminfra – digital research in the humanities

Huminfra is a digital infrastructure initiative for the humanities, where Halmstad University with DLC (Digital Laboratory Centre) is one of twelve partners involved. Huminfra aims to present, develop and make available digital resources and tools such as equipment, education, materials and expertise for researchers, students and an interested public, ultimately with the goal of strengthening national competitiveness.

Woman looking at a laptop, screen content displayd behind her. Photo.

Huminfra’s vision is to strengthen and promote the Swedish humanities, and ensure its international competitiveness.

A common structure

Research in the humanities places high demands on digital resources, tools and expertise, and these need to be gathered and easy to find. This is often not the case, but they are spread across different universities and organisations, and the individual researcher often spends time identifying and learning how to use them.

Above all, Huminfra is about building a common structure, a digital network, on a national level, to spread knowledge about, and access to, information. The web-based information platform huminfra.se compiles and links to Swedish digital/e-scientific data collections, tools, expertise and educational opportunities and makes these easily accessible.. This common approach to relevant resources and tools for researchers in the humanities in Sweden thus contributes to national efficiency and competitiveness.

Four main objectives

To create a web-based information platform that compiles and links to existing Swedish data collections, tools, expertise and training opportunities.
To create new national courses in e-science/digital methods for the humanities.
To prepare a Swedish membership in the European consortium for cultural heritage data, Digital Research Infrastructure for the Arts and Humanities (DARIAH-EU).
To disseminate knowledge about these methods and tools to researchers and other societal actors, and to create new opportunities for collaboration.

Vision

Huminfra’s vision is to strengthen and promote the Swedish humanities, and ensure its international competitiveness. Huminfra will strengthen research in areas of particular interest to Sweden (cultural heritage, languages spoken in Sweden, national archives) and make such research and resources visible and available internationally through DARIAH. Huminfra will also increase the visibility of the humanities, create new opportunities for innovation and impact, and promote collaboration with societal actors in areas such as the cultural sector, education, industry and healthcare.

Huminfra and DLC (Digital Laboratory Centre)

Halmstad University’s participation is led by Tomas Nilson, Senior Lecturer in History, together with colleagues with special expertise and interests in developing activities in digital labs in DLC (Digital Laboratory Centre), such as the E-sports lab, GIM-lab, the podcast studio and hybrid rooms.

Within the framework of Huminfra, Halmstad University has mainly invested in collaboration. This has been done partly through the development of our digital labs as meeting and collaboration spaces for knowledge development and dissemination at the School of Education, Humanities and Social Sciences, the cultural sector and cultural heritage institutions. Collaboration has taken place together with the rest of society – this in the form of citizen science with the intention of creating structures for mediation. This has been done through public lectures and workshops, among other things.

Twelve higher education institutions and units

To create a common entrance to all the different resources, good national coverage is required, and therefore higher education institutions, libraries and archives are gathered within the infrastructure. Huminfra comprises twelve higher education institutions and units: in addition to Halmstad University, Lund University, which leads the digital infrastructure, the Swedish School of Library and Information Science, the Swedish School of Library and Information Science, two units at the University of Gothenburg, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences the library, KTH, Linnaeus University, the National Archives, Stockholm University, Umeå University and Uppsala University.