The CLARIN-PLUS project ran from September 2015 to December 2017, with European Commission Horizon 2020 funding scheme. It was conducted by CLARIN (coordinator) and three more partners: the Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen, the University of Copenhagen and Charles University. The project aim was to consolidate and strengthen the CLARIN infrastructure in the following areas: the central technical hub and central office, partnerships with other infrastructures, outreach and governance. This page presents a short summary of the project’s results.
Central Infrastructure Hub
The enhanced Virtual Language Observatory workflow for metadata harvesting has led to improved discoverability of language resources and tools. Redesigns have been realized for CLARIN’s advanced “gateway applications” that demonstrate the added value of the distributed infrastructure: Federated Content Search and the Virtual Collection Registry. Several innovative and user-friendly web services/applications have been integrated into the CLARIN ecosystem, e.g. the Language Resource Switchboard. The coverage of CLARIN’s Service Provider Federation has been extended and it now reliably connects researchers from over 1700 institutions to CLARIN. They can login with existing accounts. An enhanced monitoring system for federated login is in place.
Central Office
The CLARIN website was redesigned and is now providing an effective and user-friendly experience, and increased visibility and discoverability of data. A style guide was developed to strengthen CLARIN’s visual identity and to promote the harmonization of the online communication by the CLARIN consortia in the various associated countries.
Partnerships with other research infrastructural initiatives were initiated or strengthened. New models of coordination/collaboration with a.o. DARIAH, EUDAT, Europeana, RDA and the LAPPS Grid have been developed.
Outreach
The project aimed at attracting new countries and new communities of use. Communication instruments have been developed to demonstrate the potential for impact in more diverse ways. To inform the various types of (potential) stakeholders the so-called CLARIN Value Proposition was published. The online Digital Humanities course registry, a joint initiative of DARIAH and CLARIN, has been relaunched. Several workshops were organised aiming at the following two goals:
- facilitating the creation of new consortia
- focusing on specific data types and the scholarly communities that work with them
The latter was a stepping stone towards the creation of the overview of CLARIN Resource families.
Governance & Sustainability
A thorough assessment of the CLARIN governance structure and financial sustainability was conducted which led to the adoption of new statutes with a slightly adjusted governance structure, and priorities for future development, central vs. decentral tasks, as well as a landscape analysis.
Further reading:
- CLARIN-PLUS factsheet
- CLARIN-PLUS provided funding to support visiting a CLARIN centre or expert. This instrument will be continued: mobility grants
