Highlights and Future Perspectives
The event H2IOSC: Strengthening Research Infrastructures, Consolidating the Federation took place on Wednesday, April 8, at the Sala Marconi of the CNR Headquarters in Rome.
The meeting marked an important opportunity to share the results achieved by the H2IOSC project and to reflect on its future perspectives. H2IOSC brings together the four Italian nodes of European Research Infrastructures in the Social Sciences and Humanities domain: CLARIN-IT, DARIAH-IT, OPERAS-IT and E-RIHS.it, which leads the cluster collaboration.
The event provided a valuable occasion for exchange and discussion among participants, highlighting the shared path of growth and strengthening the sense of community around the project’s objectives.
The day was structured into two main thematic phases, combining presentations, discussions, and moments for exchange among participants.
The event opened with institutional remarks by Salvatore Capasso, Director of the Department of Social sciences and humanities, cultural heritage of the National Research Council of Italy (CNR DSU) which set the scene by highlighting the strategic relevance of H2IOSC within the national and European research infrastructure landscape.
The morning sessions, chaired by Monica Monachini, CLARIN-IT Coordinator and Alberto Bucciero, E-RIHS.it Delegate, focused on strengthening the infrastructures and building the federation. Discussions were centered on results and opportunities related to resource alignment and service availability, with contributions from representatives of the project’s work packages.
The early afternoon session chaired by Cristina Marras, OPERAS-IT Delegate, continued with a focus on resources accessibility, addressing key challenges and presenting the progress achieved in making services and resources more accessible to the community.
The second part of the afternoon chaired by Emiliano Degl’Innocenti, DARIAH-IT Coordinator, shifted towards consolidating the federation, with discussions on the validation digital service system adopted, the project’s sustainability roadmap presented by Veronica Colautti, H2IOSC Research Manager, and communication strategies.
The session concluded with reflections on future directions, outlining the next steps for the evolution of H2IOSC. The final message is clear: H2IOSC should no longer be considered a project nearing its end, but an already operational system, a functioning cluster of infrastructures delivering services and supporting research activities.
Looking ahead, the priority is to ensure continuity, strengthening governance, and sustainability to enable the transition from a coordinated federation to a stable ecosystem.
The event concluded with final remarks by Michele Mazzola (Italian Ministry of University and Research), who acknowledged the work carried out by the H2IOSC community and placed it within the broader vision of the PNRR investment in national research infrastructures.
He underlined how, despite a complex and rapidly changing context, the Italian research system has demonstrated both scientific excellence and a strong capacity to implement large-scale projects. In this perspective, H2IOSC fully reflects the original ambition of the national investment.
Looking ahead, he stressed the importance of ensuring sustainability and continuing to build on the results achieved, consolidating and strengthening the research infrastructure ecosystem in the years to come.
The challenge now is to sustain and scale H2IOSC, transforming a successful project into a lasting pillar of the research ecosystem.