HISTORIUS-P. Development of the National Network of Infrastructure of Lituanistic Scientific Research and Heritage: the Design Phase.

Project cost (Litas): 294 900 LTL

Project executive team:

• dr. Rimvydas Laužikas, Project Head,
• dr. Regina Varnienė-Janssen,
• dr. Daiva Vaitkevičienė,
• dr. Donatas Saulevičius,
• Vilius Kučiukas,
• Ingrida Vosyliūtė.

Financing source: The Research Council of Lithuania. Programme title: The state and the Nation: Heritage and Identity.

Project aim: The Project is aimed at completing preparatory activities (design phase) for the development of the National Network of Infrastructure of Lituanistic Scientific Research and Heritage.

Project brief description: The principle behind the idea of the National Network of Infrastructure of Lituanistic Scientific Research and Heritage is a logical network structure commonly seen within the network society. An important source of problems in the heritage and history research is the fact that these scientific domains, scientific institutions, and their infrastructures are supervised by the Ministry of Education and Science, while the memory institutions and (heritage) information infrastructures of the key sources are supervised by the Ministry of Culture.

Owing to this, coordination is almost absent as regards the development of specialized, related to cultural heritage information systems and databases at scientific and memory institutions; databases of the same domain are not combined; options for collective search within remote databases are not ensured; international collaboration is not coordinated; acquisition of technological infrastructures is insufficient and not coordinated; certain activities duplicate one another; funds, scientific potential, and human resources are used inefficiently. The effects caused by the above-mentioned issues will be minimized after the introduction of the National Network of Infrastructure of Lituanistic Scientific Research and Heritage.

The objectives of the HISTORIUS-P Project are as follows:
1.    To draft a technical task for the feasibility study concerning the National Network of Infrastructure of Lituanistic Scientific Research and Heritage;
2.    To design and implement the feasibility study for the National Network of Infrastructure of Lituanistic Scientific Research and Heritage (as a service intended for public procurement);
3.    To draft an analysis of (1) European experience in developing similar infrastructures and (2) the pan-European and global interfaces with the Lithuanian Network;
4.    To design the prototype model of the National Network of Infrastructure of Lituanistic Scientific Research and Heritage and describe it in network specification terms;
5.    A global approach to the infrastructure development as well as application of the network paradigm along with the pan-European and global dimensions constitute the main distinguishing feature of the Project, as compared to other similar Lithuania-based research.