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| Leiden University Centre for Digital Scholarship | |
|---|---|
| Name | Leiden University Centre for Digital Scholarship |
| Established | 2016 |
| Type | Research centre |
| City | Leiden |
| Country | Netherlands |
| Parent | Leiden University |
Leiden University Centre for Digital Scholarship
The Leiden University Centre for Digital Scholarship is an interdisciplinary centre at Leiden University focusing on digital methods, digital humanities, and research support across faculties such as Faculty of Humanities, Leiden University, Faculty of Science, Leiden University, and Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences, Leiden University. It serves as a hub connecting projects funded by institutions including the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research, the European Research Council, and the Horizon 2020 programme, while engaging with external partners such as National Library of the Netherlands, The European Library, and Digital Public Library of America. The centre facilitates collaboration among scholars affiliated with institutes like KITLV, Huygens Institute for the History of the Netherlands, and Leiden Observatory.
The centre was established in the context of broader developments at Leiden University and international initiatives such as the Open Science movement and policies set by the European Commission for research infrastructure. Early precursors included activities from the University Library, Leiden University and projects linked to the CLARIAH national infrastructure and the DARIAH-EU network. Founding activities drew on expertise from researchers formerly associated with Max Planck Digital Library, the British Library, and the Stanford Digital Library Technologies Project. Over time the centre expanded its remit to respond to calls from funders like the European Research Council and collaborative platforms such as the Research Data Alliance.
The centre's mission emphasizes support for reproducible research, stewardship of digital collections, and the development of computational methods for scholars working with cultural heritage from institutions like the Rijksmuseum, Museums of South Holland, and the Africa Studies Centre Leiden. Objectives include enabling researchers funded by bodies such as the Wellcome Trust and the NWO to apply methods pioneered at institutions like King's College London and University College London, promoting interoperability according to standards endorsed by International Council on Archives and Europeana, and fostering partnerships with technology organizations such as Google Cultural Institute and Microsoft Research.
Governance aligns with Leiden University's administrative framework and involves advisory bodies with representatives from faculties, the University Library, Leiden University, and external stakeholders including the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. Leadership comprises directors and project managers coordinating with principal investigators from research groups affiliated with entities like Leiden Law School, Leiden Institute for History, and Leiden Bio Science Park. The centre interfaces with national consortia such as SURF and participates in steering committees similar to those of the Dutch Research Council and the European Open Science Cloud governance structures.
Services encompass research data management practices modeled after guidance from the Digital Curation Centre and the Center for Open Science, digitization workflows used by partners like the National Archives of the Netherlands, and textual analysis pipelines comparable to tools developed at University of Oxford and Princeton University. Programs include incubators for projects funded by the ERC and training tracks aligned with initiatives from CLARIN and DARIAH, plus community support for special collections from institutions such as the Leiden University Libraries Special Collections and collaborative digitization with the Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision.
The centre houses multidisciplinary research linking methods used in projects at Harvard University, Yale University, and Columbia University with local expertise from Leiden University Medical Center and the Institute of Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology. Collaborative grants have been pursued with consortia including Europeana Research, the Research Data Alliance, and thematic networks funded by the European Commission and the NWO. The centre participates in projects addressing provenance research akin to programs run by the International Council of Museums and computational analysis similar to initiatives at Max Planck Institute for the History of Science.
Training offerings draw on pedagogical models from KIT, University of Amsterdam, and Erasmus University Rotterdam, providing workshops on tools and standards used by projects at Princeton University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Programs target doctoral candidates enrolled in doctoral schools such as the Leiden Graduate School of Humanities and professional development for staff from archives like the Nationaal Archief and museum professionals from the Rijksmuseum. The centre contributes to curricula in collaboration with departments like Leiden Law School and Leiden School of Social Sciences.
Facilities include lab spaces for digitization comparable to studios at the British Library, computational infrastructure interoperable with platforms like the Dutch academic cloud (SURF), and repositories designed with principles advocated by the Open Archives Initiative and the World Wide Web Consortium. Technologies adopted range from text-mining frameworks used at Stanford University to linked open data standards employed by Europeana, supporting digital preservation practices resonant with the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions.