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The ARIADNE project aims to establish a research infrastructure to ensure that the data contained in the digital archaeological repositories of different countries are made available online, so researchers can have direct access to the information. The digital library thus created will give scientific support to other initiatives, such as Europeana, the European digital library with which collaboration is planned making the documentation produced by archaeological research in various countries even more accessible.
Thanks to the ARIADNE project, archaeology enters the world of e-science, the virtual science based on the integrated analysis of data obtained experimentally, digitally and on field. In order to reach this result, the project intends to create a network of researchers, to implement training activities and search for new technological tools, necessary for the fulfillment of its objectives.
The project, coordinated by PIN – Educational and Scientific Services for the University of Florence, is participated by CNR and several of its institutes. In ARIADNE, MiBACT’s key role is that of data provider and expert in the field of digital libraries, thanks to the numerous national and European projects it has coordinated in this sector over the years. Among the European partners of the project are the Academy of Sciences of Austria, Bulgaria, Repubblica Ceca, Slovenia and Olanda as well as the German Archaelogical Institute; the national research centers of France, Greece, Ireland and Spain, and other cultural, academic and research institutes from Cyprus, United Kingdom, Romania, Sweden and Hungary, for a total of 24 partners representing 16 European countries.
The partners of the ARIADNE network work together to achieve a high level of interoperability between various datasets, and to improve thesauri in order to overcome the linguistic barriers. The paradigm of the linked data, data mining and the elaboration techniques of NLP (natural language processing) offer further opportunities for integration.
From the start ARIADNE has engaged researchers and users alike. The partners’ digital collections – made freely available to all – and a transnational access program (TNA) offer external research centers the possibility to carry out studies and to benefit from the many online services for free. As a training and support activity, the TNA program is crucial for the development of the next generation of archaeologists.
The project collaborates closely with the European Association of Archeologists, the membership-based association that represents this scientific community at the European level.

The project lasts four years and has been granted around 8 million euros in funding.


Framework

FP7-INFRASTRUCTURES-2012-1-313193

AreAS
  • Archaeology
  • Research Data Infrastructures
  • e-Science
Period

2013 – 2017 (48 months).