EU-funded Research on
Digital Preservation
Javier Hernández-Ros
European Commission, Information Society and Media
Unit "Cultural Heritage and Technology Enhanced Learning“
APA 2011 Conference, 8-9 Nov., London
EU policy actions related to DP
 "i2010 Digital Libraries" initiative (2005)
- strategy for digitisation, online accessibility and digital
preservation of Europe's collective memory
 Commission Recommendation on
Digitisation and Online Accessibility of
Cultural Material and Digital Preservation
(2006 – updated 27.10.11)
- national strategies and quantitative and qualitative
targets, including financial planning
- improved conditions for digital preservation
EU policy actions
 Member States' Expert Group on Digitisation and
Digital Preservation (2007)
- exchange of good practices, monitoring progress in EU
Member States
 Communication from the Commission: 'Scientific
Information in the Digital Age: Access,
Dissemination and Preservation' (2007)
- digital repositories for science and research
- will be followed (first half 2012) by a
recommendation for improving access to, management
of and preservation of scientific publications and data
EU policy actions
 "The New Renaissance", report of
Commission's Reflection Group ("Comité
des Sages") on digitisation on Digitisation
and Digital Preservation (January 2011)
- set of recommendations for the digitisation, online
accessibility and preservation of Europe's cultural
heritage in the digital age
 Recommendation on Digitisation and
Digital Preservation (October 2011)
- asking Member States to step up their efforts, pool
their resources and involve private actors in digitising
cultural material and making it available through
Europeana
Pioneer Work under FP6
• Awareness rising activities
• Establishment of common problem definitions,
terminology and concepts
Memory institutions as drivers
• Building up a solid body of expertise in the
European research community
– influence on international standardisation initiatives
(e.g. PREMIS, OAIS, TRAC).
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Recent and ongoing work
• Fundamental research
– moved beyond the preservation of simple documents
and data towards interactive objects, embedded
objects, ontologies and ephemeral data
– e. g. LiWA (Web archiving), PLANETS (validation of
objects according to format specifications and of
preservation actions)
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Recent and ongoing work
• Applied research & development
– addressing needs of user communities holding large
collections of complex digital objects, e.g. audiovisual
archives (PrestoPRIME)
– improving workflows through automation, decision
support and scalability (e.g. SCAPE, ARCOMEM,
ENSURE)
– broad range of use cases
• industry and services sector: aerospace, health
care, finance
• science: astronomy, genomics
• governmental and broadcasters' archives
• libraries and web archives
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Recent and ongoing work
• Networking
– broadening of the digital preservation community
– increasing participation of industry players as
solution providers or problem owners (e.g. APARSEN,
SHAMAN, TIMBUS)
– Foundations
• Open Planets Foundation: provides practical solutions
and expertise, building on R&D outputs of PLANETS
• competence centre for preservation of digital
audiovisual material: PrestoCentre
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Significant Institutions in Digital
Preservation Projects
x
10.04.2015
9
Targeted Stakeholders of Digital
Preservation Projects
10.04.2015
10
ICT Programme: Funding of
Digital Preservation Research
FP7
68.4 M€
10.04.2015
FP6
24.9 M€
FP5
0.9 M€
11
Some achievements of
EU-funded research
• methods and tools for preservation planning: PLANETS
• formal models to characterise digital objects:
DigitalPreservationEurope
• OIAS-based technology platform, tested on various
types of content: CASPAR
• emulators for obsolete media (early computer games):
KEEP
• advanced tools for web archiving: LiWA
• framework for digital preservation in the context of
memory institutions: SHAMAN
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New Research:
Next Call for proposals

ICT Call 9
– 18 January until 17 April 2012

Budget for objective "Digital Preservation"
– € 30 million
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Digital Preservation in the ICT Work
Programme 2011-2012
Target Outcomes
a) More reliable and secure preservation technologies and
methods
(funding scheme: STREP)
b) Technologies and systems for intelligent management
of preservation (IP)
c) Interdisciplinary research networks (NoE)
d) Promotion schemes for the uptake of digital
preservation research outcomes (CSA)
The Future: vision of digital
preservation landscape
Now
Near future
Long term
preservation of
files / data
preservation of complex
material: heterogeneous
and evolving content (web),
applications, processes…
preservation of
knowledge and user
experiences
innovative
technologies
established technologies:
scaling to high volumes and
varied material, validated
with end users, standards...
transparent technologies: preservation
embedded in digital
objects & their life-cycle
digital holdings
of memory
institutions
digital assets of
all types of organisations
(administrations, industry,
businesses, service sector)
the digital memory of
the society and of
individuals
The New EU Financial Framework
2014- 2020
• Horizon 2020 – Commission
proposes a significant increase to
Research and Innovation funding
• Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) cross-border infrastructures in energy,
transport and ICT to strengthen the
internal market
Horizon 2020 in the
Multiannual Financial Framework
• Multiannual Financial Framework (2014-2020)
Commission proposal adopted on 29 June 2011
• Proposed amount for Horizon 2020: €80 billion in
constant 2011 prices (~€90 billion in current prices)
• 46% increase compared to current period (2007-2013)
• Research and innovation increases to 8.5% of overall EU
budget
• For decision by European Council, European Parliament
•
Horizon 2020 – Objectives and
structure
Shared objectives and principles
Tackling Societal Creating Industrial
Leadership and ComChallenges
petitive Frameworks
Excellence in the
Science Base
Common rules and funding
schemes
Key features
• Clear set of objectives based on Europe 2020 and
Innovation Union
• Integrating research and innovation in a seamless
programme
• Focus on overall policy priorities – using a challenge
based approach
• Programme structured by objectives
• Common toolkit of funding schemes
Connecting Europe Facility CEF
2014-2020
• Commission proposal to promote the
completion of:
– Energy priority corridors €9.1 billion
– Transport core network €21.7 billion
– Broadband and key digital services
€9.2 billion
• High speed Internet
• 9 European Digital Infrastructures
Connecting Europe Facility CEF:
Key digital services
• Access to digital resources of European
heritage:
– make available large collections of
European cultural resources in digital form
– Foster their re-use by third parties
• Core platform: Europeana
• Generic services
– Includes competence centres on
digitisation and preservation of digital
cultural heritage
• DigiCult web site
http://cordis.europa.eu/fp7/ict/
telearn-digicult/digicult_en.html
• Contact
infso-digicult@ec.europa.eu
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