topic Research

National and international structural development

Innovative research infrastructures for the humanities and social sciences

The development of information and communication technologies opens up new perspectives in research. These technologies do not just facilitate work and provide easier access to resources; they also allow new forms of cooperation between researchers and enable innovative research approaches. Virtual research environments and systematic resource access for researchers have been common in the natural sciences for a long time. This does not apply to the humanities to the same extent, for various reasons. With its funding, the BMBF wants to address this strategic deficit in the humanities and social sciences.

In 2006, the BMBF took on the initiative of building up a virtual research environment. TextGrid - one of the first six projects funded under the D-Grid initiative - was the only such project for the humanities. Previous activities in this field were limited to individual researchers with special ICT skills who developed isolated applications for their own use. TextGrid was the first systematic, overarching approach to develop an innovative research infrastructure giving researchers free access to digital text resources and web-based tools and services. The TextGrid concept also integrates some of the isolated applications mentioned above.

In the international context, such virtual research environments are referred to as eHumanities - the e stands for "enhanced", in reference to the increased research capabilities.

These research environments offer researchers various benefits:

• Provision of research resources, tools and services
• New forms of location-independent cooperation
• Innovative research approaches, particularly on the basis of IT methods

The BMBF is funding the eHumanities in two key areas:

• Development of a research infrastructure
• Development of innovative research approaches based on this infrastructure

The TextGrid (2006-2012) and D-Spin (2008-2011) projects form part of the first priority. While TextGrid focuses on the development of virtual research environments for all the humanities and social sciences, D-Spin is the German funding line of the ESFRI project CLARIN (Common Language Resources and Technology), building up a research infrastructure of service centres in the language sciences. It will be followed by CLARIN-D starting in 2011 (funding until 2016). Similarly to TextGrid, DARIAH (Digital Research Infrastructure for the Arts and Humanities) is an ESFRI project that is building up a European research infrastructure for the humanities and social sciences.

Under its second priority, the BMBF is supporting the development of innovative research approaches. An example is the eAQUA project, which aims to extract structured knowledge from ancient texts for classical studies. In this project, text mining is used to analyse and interpret ancient and modern texts in order to acquire new insights and knowledge structures. The BMBF will issue calls for proposals to support such projects over the next three years. The first call in the area of eHumanities was published in May 2011.

Improved Data for the Social Sciences

Social and economic scientists depend on reliable and up-to-date information to be able to conduct accurate studies and provide convincing recommendations for action. The BMBF is funding pilot projects in order to provide researchers with better access to data which in the past has been either inaccessible or difficult to access. In its recommendations, the Council for Social and Economic Data, which was first established by the BMBF in 2004, supports science and politics in developing the data infrastructure as a prerequisite for internationally competitive empirical social and economic research.

The microdata required by social scientists and economists for their analyses is available in large quantities from official statistics, the Federal Employment Agency and the pension insurance institutions. However, this data is not collated for scientific use and is thus not processed and documented for scientific purposes.

The "Commission to Improve the Informational Infrastructure by Cooperation of the Scientific Community and Official Statistics" (KVI), which was set up by the BMBF in 1999, has drafted a number of recommendations for improving the situation of the empirical social and economic sciences and enhancing their international competitiveness. The BMBF implemented one of the central recommendations - the establishment of the German Data Forum (RatSWD) - on 1 November 2004. The German Data Forum consists of an equal number of scientists and heads of data producers. The principal tasks of the German Data Forum are to improve the use of data and access to data for empirical research in accordance with data protection legislation, and to further develop data collection. A significant factor in this context was the inclusion of a scientific privilege regarding access to data from official statistics in the Law on Statistics for Federal Purposes. The German Data Forum received a positive evaluation from the German Council of Science and Humanities and has since been expanded to include more fields of research and represent data providers more comprehensively.

A significant field of action is the expansion and securing of an information infrastructure in Germany on a long-term basis. This includes the milestones of establishing and testing research data centres at large-scale data producers and data service centres at scientific institutions.

Research data centres offer scientists improved access to microdata while complying with data protection laws by providing factually anonymized scientific use files or - in the case of data which cannot be anonymized and data which is particularly sensitive with regard to data protection - by setting up facilities for visiting scientists or allowing controlled remote data processing. Funding was granted to pilot projects on the design and testing of research data centres at the Federal Statistical Office, the statistical offices of the German Länder, the Federal Employment Agency and the Federation of German Pension Insurance Institutions.

The resulting data infrastructure for privileged use by empirical research plays a leading role internationally. In addition, the German Council of Science and Humanities has identified the German Data Forum as a positive example of self-organization on the part of science in the establishment of an efficient research infrastructure.