idw – Informationsdienst Wissenschaft
Nachrichten, Termine, Experten
Nachrichten, Termine, Experten
For the extension of its digital research infrastructures the Heidelberg University Library has acquired funding of around 5.3 million euros from the German Research Foundation. This reflects the library’s involvement in the newly emerging national service center to support publicly financed open access infrastructures. In addition, work is to start on the basis for a long-term project to produce a digital edition of the medieval verse narrative “Willehalm” by Wolfram von Eschenbach. In a further funding phase, the DFG is to support the Specialized Information Services South Asia and Ancient Studies.
Press Release
Heidelberg, 14 March 2025
University Library: Extension of Digital Research Infrastructures
DFG allocates around 5.3 million euros to fund new and existing projects at Heidelberg University Library
For the extension of its digital research infrastructures the Heidelberg University Library has acquired funding of around 5.3 million euros from the German Research Foundation (DFG). This reflects the library’s involvement in the newly emerging national service center to support publicly financed open access infrastructures. In addition, work is to start on the basis for a long-term project to produce a digital edition of the medieval verse narrative “Willehalm” by Wolfram von Eschenbach. In a further funding phase, the DFG is to support the Specialized Information Services South Asia and Ancient Studies. And lastly, financial support was approved for the university fund to cover open access publication costs. In all, seven new third-party projects have been acquired in the past twelve months. “These grants are evidence of the key national and international role played by the Heidelberg University Library as driver of the innovative expansion of digital research infrastructures,” underlines library director Dr Jochen Apel.
The Diamond Open Access service center (SeDOA) is intended for researchers serving as editors of publications. SeDOA is to constitute a central contact point for advice and support when it comes to extending researcher-owned open access publication structures. Heidelberg University Library is part of the SeDOA consortium, which is organized as a decentralized network. It consists of 15 academic institutions under the direction of the University and State Library Darmstadt and further associated partners. Known as the German Diamond Capacity Centre, the service center will be part of a European network and boost international cooperation. For its activities within this consortium, Heidelberg University Library will receive funding amounting to approximately 160,000 euros over a period of three years.
The Specialized Information Service South Asia (FID4SA), which operates in cooperation with the South Asia Institute of Heidelberg University, will – in its now fourth funding phase – receive funding amounting to around 1.2 million euros. This is to be used, inter alia, to strengthen the infrastructures for open access publication and to improve access to scientific resources relating to South Asia worldwide through the archiving of digital image and object collections. The Specialized Information Service Ancient Studies (Propylaeum) will be financed to the tune of 670,000 euros – likewise in a fourth funding phase. In cooperation with the Bavarian State Library in Munich, Heidelberg University Library has since 2016 provided the central infrastructure of all subjects in the field of ancient-world studies for literature searches, digitization, e-publishing and the online presentation of scholarly content.
The project “Willehalm in Context”, planned in cooperation with the universities of Hamburg and Bochum, aims to study the 13th century Middle High German verse narrative for the first time in all its contexts and with all accessible contemporary and subsequent testimonies. The funding of around 180,000 euros will enable Heidelberg University Library to provide the technical basis for the long-term DFG project, which is planned to take ten years. The project’s goal is the continuing exploration and scholarly study of one of the most frequently transmitted secular works of Middle High German literature. It stems from the pen of poet Wolfram von Eschenbach, who lived and worked around the year 1200.
In addition to these four projects, the German Research Foundation during 2024 approved a grant of around three million euros for the Heidelberg University fund to cover open access publication costs. Also supported are a project to digitize and make available unique source material on the German art trade in the period from 1860 to 1950, and a project in which the Heidelberg copperplate engraving collection of Alois W. Schreiber – a collection used for university teaching in the early 19th century – is to be processed digitally and made available.
Contact:
Heidelberg University
Communications and Marketing
Press Office, phone +49 6221 54-2311
presse@rektorat.uni-heidelberg.de
https://diamond-open-access.de/en/sedoa – Diamond Open Access service center
https://doi.org/10.11588/edition.wik – Editing project “Willehalm in Context”
http://www.fid4sa.de/en/home – Specialized Information Service South Asia
http://www.propylaeum.de/en/home – Specialized Information Service Ancient Studies
Criteria of this press release:
Journalists
interdisciplinary
transregional, national
Contests / awards, Research projects
English
You can combine search terms with and, or and/or not, e.g. Philo not logy.
You can use brackets to separate combinations from each other, e.g. (Philo not logy) or (Psycho and logy).
Coherent groups of words will be located as complete phrases if you put them into quotation marks, e.g. “Federal Republic of Germany”.
You can also use the advanced search without entering search terms. It will then follow the criteria you have selected (e.g. country or subject area).
If you have not selected any criteria in a given category, the entire category will be searched (e.g. all subject areas or all countries).
