Building a Digital Research Community in Medieval and Early Modern Studies: The Australian Network for Early European Research

• Main Author: Toby Burrows
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Open Library of Humanities 2012-02-01
• Series: Digital Medievalist
• Subjects: Research Networks; Digital Humanities; Australia; Medieval Studies; Early Modern Studies
• Online Access: https://journal.digitalmedievalist.org/articles/36

This paper examines the work done by the Australian Network for Early European Research (NEER) to build a national digital research community in this field. Funded through the Australian Research Council's Research Networks programme during the period 2005-2010, NEER's overall goal was to enhance the scale and focus of Australian research in medieval and early modern studies. Developing and implementing appropriate digital technologies was one of the main methods used to address this goal. In the end, NEER's digital programme produced three main services: a service for collaboration (Confluence), a service for the publication and storage of research outputs (PioNEER), and a service for identifying and engaging with the objects of this research (Europa Inventa). This paper evaluates the effect of these services on Early European research in Australia. It also considers their future, now that government funding for NEER has ended.