Nordic Spatial Humanities

This project “Linking, Building and Sustaining Humanities Digital Spatial Infrastructures for Research in the Nordic Countries“ aims tobring together humanities researchers and research engineers and others in related sectors (museums, archives, libraries) who are working on geocoded humanities data pertaining to the Nordic countries and beyond.

The objectives are to (1) generate dialogue and exchange between relevant academic and non-academic sectors on the subject of spatial data and data infrastructures in the Humanities,and (2) facilitate a collaborative initiative whereby common principles regarding ontologies and metadata will be mapped out by members of the network. Collaborative data infrastructure solutions based on Linked Open Data (LOD) and FAIR data principles (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) will underpin and further advances in Humanities research that builds on geocoded data.

The project will be new co-operation since none of the project proposers have collaborated formally together previously, and great emphasis is placed on the participation – and leadership – of early career researchers. The project‘s Nordic added value lies in the creation of a new Nordic-centred network with a shared vision regarding geocoded humanities data and sustainability needs (amongst other things), as well as in positioning Nordic participants and spatial data at the heart of a working group that aims to submit a European grant application under the Research Infrastructures call in the Horizon Europe Program for 2021-2027. Concrete results from the collaboration will be published in the form of reports and scientific papers.

At each of the three planned workshops held in person (ideally, Covid-restrictions permitting but online if necessary) in Uppsala Sweden (May 2022), Bergen Norway (September 2022) and Reykjavík Iceland (May 2023), three work packages will be addressed: (1) establishing common metadata principles and ontologies in Nordic Humanities digital spatial infrastructure for research; (2) implementation of Linked Open Data principles to existing datasets curated by workshop organizers; (3) work towards the EU grant application mentioned above. Keynote speakers and invited participants will share theoretical and practical experiences relevant to the execution of each work package, and the mirrored structure of each workshop will ensure that milestones are reached and measurable progress is made cumulatively for each work package.