DRIVER – research infrastructure of the 21st century in Europe

Abstract

Europe’s leading position in the field of research and innovation, relying on traditions of a thousand years, turned out to be insecure in recent decades. The reason behind this phenomenon is the failing development of research infrastructure as compared to the situation in other, more dynamically developing countries of the world. Research achievements should be preserved not only as important sources, but also as tools securing strategic development and competitiveness. Acknowledging the significance of this effort the European Union spends major funds on maintaining and developing research infrastructure. DRIVER (Digital Repository Infrastructure Vision for European Research) is the largest multi-phase project targeted at creating general background research infrastructure, to be more precise, at developing a network of digital repositories. The primary aim is to set up and operate a robust, cohesive and flexible infrastructure for repositories equipped with advanced end-user functionality. DRIVER started in 2006 as an 18-month project with a total budget of 2.51 million EUR, with the IST priority of the 6th Framework Programme granting a support of 1.84 million EUR. The DRIVER programme has succeeded in creating a community of institutions and specialists which is able to implement its ideas about the infrastructure of an EU-repository and to develop them in the long run. The objectives of the DRIVER-II programme include efforts to strengthen the results of the first phase by developing a central search interface and selecting national aggregators on the one hand, and to further widen the DRIVER community on the other. The participation of Hungarian academic and research libraries in relevant projects is increasing. Hungarian academic institutions and the Library of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences set up the HUNOR (HUNgarian Open Repositories) consortium to elaborate the practice of open access in Hungary. As a result, participating universities received an invitation to take part in the OpenAIRE (Open Access Infrastructure for Research in Europe), project as well. Thanks to good international relations and relevant advocacy the archives of theses defended at three Hungarian universities (Corvinus University in Budapest, University of Debrecen and University of Miskolc) have become searchable at the DART-Europe portal (http://www.dart-europe.eu/) and in the DRIVER aggregator.