New project funding for European Holocaust Research Infrastructure (EHRI)

The EHRI consortium, led by NIOD, has received financial support from the European Commission for a new project EHRI-IP (EHRI-Implementation phase). This funding will enable to continue the work on the institutionalisation of EHRI.

Building on the previous EHRI-PP (preparatory phase) project, which concluded on May 31, 2023, the EHRI – IP goal is to take further steps required to establish EHRI a permanent research infrastructure - an ERIC (European Holocaust Infrastructure Consortium). This involves organizing and managing all the necessary groundwork, including the creation of necessary administrative and legal documents. The basis laid during the EHRI – PP are being further concretised. For instance, while the EHRI – PP project drafted the EHRI-ERIC statutes, the EHRI-IP project will formulate the internal regulations for the different bodies of EHRI-ERIC.

Building on EHRI

Coordinated by NIOD, the EHRI-IP includes partners from several countries. In Belgium, these are the State Archives/CegeSoma and Kazerne Dossin. The State Archives/ CegeSoma is tasked with the Operationalisation of the Central Hub work package, an extension of the Legal and Governance work package from EHRI-PP. The Operationalisation of the Central Hub WP is to build the various EHRI-ERIC bodies, to develop quality control tools and optimize the financial structure. Efforts will also continue to develop the EHRI Belgium National Node which currently has eleven potential members. Set to launch in February 2024, EHRI-IP will run for two years.

The Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science has taken the first step towards transforming EHRI into an ERIC by submitting an application to the European Commission on July 13, 2023. The necessary documents for this application, including the statutes, were approved by the Interim General Assembly, which comprises  11 members, the future potential founding members of EHRI -ERIC, including Belgium. The goal is to have the institutionalization of the EHRI-ERIC finalized by the end of 2024 or in early 2025.