MTA BTK– Research Centre for the Humanities, Hungarian Academy of Sciences
The Research Centre for the Humanities, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest (MTA BTK) is the leading research centre in the humanities in Hungary and in East-Central Europe, with more than 400 full-time employees. Because an interdisciplinary approach is crucial to framing all phases and components of the research, coordination and project management will occur in close cooperation between the MTA BTK (the coordinating institution representing the disciplines of historical studies, art history, literature, ethnography and the history of music) and its partner, MTA TK (representing sociology and political science). MTA BTK has been long committed to international cooperation and has traditionally been an important centre of comparative and European social science and history in Eastern Europe. The Centre’s researchers follow the intellectual traditions related to the study of regional cultures, area studies and cultural history. The researchers adopt multi and trans-disciplinary methodologies. MTA BTK includes the following institutes of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences: the Institute of History, the Institute of Literary Studies, the Institute of Art History, the Institute of Ethnology, the Institute of Musicology, the Institute of Philosophy, the Institute of Archaeology, and the Research Centre for Social Research.
IFIS PAN – Institute of Philosophy and Sociology, Polish Academy of Sciences
The Institute of Philosophy and Sociology is one of the research centres of the Polish Academy of Sciences. Established in 1956, it is one of the oldest institutes of sociology in Eastern Europe. The Institute’s primary objective is to carry out advanced research in philosophy and sociology and also in cognition and communication. In addition to research, the Institute is engaged in education, publishing and the popularisation of the sciences. In 2004, the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology gained the status of the Centre of Perfection granted by the Ministry of Science and Information as the first institute in the First Department (of Social Sciences) of PAN.
TCD – Trinity College Dublin
Trinity College Dublin is one of the top universities that offer training and pursue research on Slavic studies in English. This qualifies the institution to lead WP7, coordinating and preparing the handbook on collections of cultural opposition. TCD is recognised internationally as Ireland’s premier university and was ranked 71st in the top 100 world universities and 25th in Europe in the 2014/2015 QS World University Rankings. The Arts and Humanities enjoy a particularly strong place in these rankings: in the QS World University Rankings by Subject 2015, TCD was ranked 39th in the world in History (14th in Europe), 32nd in the world in English (9th in Europe), and made the top 50 in Modern Languages (49th, 16th in Europe). TCD is also highly successful at securing research funding, especially from EU-funded programmes. TCD has the world’s oldest tradition of modern language studies, with chairs dating back to 1776. The Department of Russian and Slavonic Studies in the School of Languages, Literatures and Cultural Studies is the only academic centre of East European Studies in Ireland. Due to its unique position, it functions as the hub of activities and initiatives related to the field. The Department’s teaching and research interests include Slavic—mostly Russian and Polish—languages, literatures, history, cultural history and contemporary society.
IOS –Institute for East and Southeast European Studies, University of Regensburg
The Institute for East and Southeast European Studies (IOS), located in Regensburg (Germany), is an independent research facility, organized as a public foundation. IOS closely cooperates with the University of Regensburg, enjoying the status of an affiliated institute (“An-Institut”). The University of Regensburg is one of the leading research institutes in Southeast European studies, incorporating history, literary studies, sociology, political science and economics. Their long track record of comparative regional expertise makes them an ideal institution to serve as WP5 leaders, responsible for designing the final set of recommendations on cultural policy and exhibition. IOS also has a long track record of comparative multi-country research and successful coordination of international cooperation. Staff expertise covers virtually all areas of the history, culture and society of South-eastern Europe and all the languages of the region. IOS publishes leading peer-reviewed interdisciplinary journals in the field of Southeast European studies, which focus on policy-related social science and humanities research. IOS is organized in two research departments (Dept. of History, Dept. of Economics) and a department for library and electronic research infrastructure. Accordingly, research deals with the historical and economic development of Eastern and Southeastern Europe, with a focus on the Balkans and countries of the former Soviet Union, including countries in Central Asia. Historical research focuses mostly on the 19th and 20th centuries. IOS has added a focus on state socialism to its research profile. IOS edits four international journals on history, politics, and economics, all of which are peer-reviewed: Südost-Forschungen, Jahrbücher für Geschichte Osteuropas, Südosteuropa: Journal of Politics and Societies, and Economic Systems. IOS also edits two historical book series: Südosteuropäische Arbeiten and the digital series digiOST.
MTA TK– Centre for Social Sciences, Hungarian Academy of Sciences
The primary objective of the Centre for Social Sciences is to conduct basic research in the social sciences. In addition to nurturing research, the Centre provides a forum for social science discussions through the organisation of conferences and the provision of infrastructural support for both the associations of social sciences and their most important social science journals in Hungary. MTA TK has two digital repositories: the Research Documentation Centre (RDC) and the Voices of the 20th Century Archive (“Voices”). RDC is a digital repository of the CSS that archives the data of research projects conducted at the Centre for the Social Sciences. “Voices” explores the heritage of Hungarian qualitative sociological knowledge, documents the history of Hungarian qualitative research, fosters research on the history of the discipline on the basis of its collections and provides both reflection and professional self-reflection upon the methodological and epistemological challenges in interview sources and the potentials of secondary analyses of the qualitative sources.
LII – Lithuanian Institute of History
The Lithuanian Institute of History is a state-funded research institution and Lithuania’s main historical research centre, concentrating largely on the history of Lithuania and its historic neighbours. The Institute has seven research departments, a library, and a manuscript division. The Institute has substantial experience in international research projects organized on the basis of the strong links it has formed with scholars at European universities and research institutes. The Institute’s extensive links with foreign partners, including the MTA BTK, with which it has worked closely on a number of projects, and its experience organizing an array of international conferences (for instance the annual Vilnius Symposium on Late Soviet and Post-Soviet Issues) and joint publications make it an invaluable participant in this undertaking.
CUNI – Charles University, Prague
The Faculty of Arts of Charles University is currently one of the largest and most important scientific and educational institutions in the humanities in the Czech Republic, with close to one thousand employees. The Institute of Czech History at the University specializes in Czech history in the context of Europe and Central Europe, from the beginnings of Czech history to the present day, and analyses the different state systems to which the Czech Lands have belonged in different periods of history. The Contemporary History Seminar has recently shifted focus to the transformation of Czech society following the fall of communism in 1989. Members of the faculty of the Institute are involved in numerous regional and international research projects, including the contemporary history research project entitled Czechoslovakia’s Federal Assembly 1989–1992: the Emancipation of Legislative Power, which analyses the history of Czechoslovakia’s parliamentary system during the country’s transition from communism to democracy.
UB – University of Bucharest
The Faculty of Political Science, University of Bucharest (FSPUB) emerged as the first faculty of political sciences based on western university curricula in post-communist Romania. FSPUB was founded with the support of a French academic consortium with the goal of emancipating the study of politics from the ideological tutelage of the communist party. In addition to the initial undergraduate curriculum in French, similar programs in Romanian and English were established in 1995 and 1997, respectively. The FSPUB professors integrate scientific research and academic teaching with civic responsibility and public involvement. FSPUB collaborates or is a partner in projects not only with numerous institutions of higher education and research, but also with think tanks, cultural centres, embassies, ministries, governmental agencies, representatives of international organizations and non-governmental organizations from Romania and abroad. By contributing to the advancement of knowledge regarding societies in transition through transdisciplinary research and by stimulating social changes through innovative teaching, FSPUB has been instrumental in the process of democratic consolidation in Romania.
HIP – Croatian Institute of History
The Croatian Institute of History (HIP) is a public, non-profit scientific research organization which is regarded as the leading research institute in the field of history in Croatia. The main goal of HIP’s scientific program is to represent all periods of Croatian history in a regional and wider international context and to apply comparative, interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary approaches through cooperation with researchers from other institutes and institutions in the humanities and social studies. From its establishment onwards, the bulwark of the Institute’s projects and activities were primarily focused on contemporary history, first and foremost the history of communism and the socialist revolution in Croatia within Yugoslavia, and after the democratic changes in 1990 to more recent history, including the Croatian War of Independence (1991-1995). HIP publishes four scholarly journals: Časopis za suvremenu povijest [Journal of Contemporary History] (Cro), Povijesni prilozi [Historical Contributions] (Cro), Scrinia Slavonica (Cro), Review of Croatian History (Eng).
Comenius University, Bratislava
Comenius University in Bratislava is the oldest, largest and most well-reputed university in Slovakia. It has thirteen faculties and it offers BA, MA and PhD programs in all major disciplines. It has some 25,000 students and boasts extensive research capacity. The university has a long tradition of participation in international research programs, and it has a well-developed network in the fields of the humanities in East-Central Europe. The Department of Musicology at Comenius University was established in 1921 and is one of the oldest musicological research centres in the region. Their expertise will help the project develop a more nuanced understanding of music collections of cultural opposition. The university’s musicology programme is influenced by its geographical and cultural context, as it finds itself in the very heart of Central Europe, where musicology developed as a university discipline. The institute maintains important connections with partner institutions in Vienna, Prague, and Budapest.
The University of Oxford
Oxford is a collegiate university, consisting of the central University and colleges. The Programme on Modern Poland (POMP) was launched in July 2013 at St Antony’s College. Its goal is to direct and coordinate study and discussion of modern Poland with research and academic exchanges, seminar series, invited lectures, conferences and academic publications. POMP’s curriculum focuses on modern Poland—that is, on changes that took place in the 1980s and the post-1989 transformation. On the conceptual level the programme is based on fields in the social sciences and humanities that cover political, economic, sociological, historical and cultural aspects, along with analysis of regional relationships. POMP is an interdisciplinary initiative that highlights the merit of studying the country in the relationship to the continent, its neighbours in the region, and European and global institutions. Oxford University, St Antony’s College, Programme on Modern Poland will cover the Polish exile, which was one of the biggest cultural exile groups of the former socialist countries.
MTA SZTAKI–Institute for Computer Science and Control
The coordination and implementation of IT work related to database management and registry development will be done by MTA SZTAKI, which has a long track record of building electronic registries and databases of historical source material and making these available in the framework of European cooperative projects financed by European Research Council. MTA SZTAKI—the Institute for Computer Science and Control of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, member of ERCIM and a Centre of Excellence of the EU—performs basic and application-oriented research in an interdisciplinary setting of computer science, engineering, information technology, intelligent systems, process control and wide-area networking. The Institute also conducts contract-based target research and development and provides training and expertise for domestic and foreign academic, industrial, governmental and other partners. The Department of Distributed Systems fosters research on and development of distributed computer systems, including digital library systems, context-aware pervasive systems, groupware applications and services and semantic and world wide web (service) technologies. DSD runs the W3C Hungarian Office. DSD is an active community member of S-Cube for Software, Systems and Systems Network and of the international community for digital library research in Europe, with professional experience in JAVA, XML, RDF, OWL and SPARQL technologies. DSD also works for large multinational companies, such as RICOH (Japan) in the area of R&D of collaborative systems and services, RIM (Canada) for mobile systems, and EADS Space Transportation (France).