Kate FERNIE (Connecting Archaeology and Architecture in Europe, Dublin, Ireland)

ARIADNEplus for heritage managers

ARIADNEplus is funded by the European Commission to support archaeological researchers, but we believe that the infrastructure it is creating is also important and useful for heritage agencies and managers.

The ARIADNE Portal is bringing together datasets from its partners and associates. Searches on an area or region reveal content provided by organisations within the country, from researchers overseas and international initiatives. The content types range from individual finds, monuments and sites, fieldwork reports to scientific datasets such as dendrochronology, LiDAR and dating. By bringing together these datasets ARIADNEplus has the potential to offer heritage managers a more comprehensive catalogue of information about the heritage in their region.

Digitisation and open access licences (the FAIR principles) are transforming access to fieldwork reports and other datasets useful for informing decisions about heritage management. As new datasets are shared the portal becomes more and more valuable. ARIADNEplus is open and would like to encourage new organisations, including heritage agencies as well as research organisations, to share their datasets. In this presentation we will explain how organisations can get involved and introduce the process of sharing data with the ARIADNEplus portal.

ARIADNEplus is a very lively network of people – archaeologists, researchers, professionals, managers – who are actively sharing and exchanging their results and knowledge. This includes people from different types of organisations which are developing and using systems to manage their datasets, for example geographic information systems. Joining the network offers opportunities to exchange news about projects (successes and lessons learned) and best practices.

ARIADNEplus also offers opportunities for young researchers and people who are at different stages in their careers. There are opportunities for working visits through the programme of ‘transnational access’ and to participate in training and webinars. In addition, the ARIADNEplus training hub is a dedicated online space which includes various training resources on topics such as managing datasets, repositories, open access principles, and so on.

Thus ARIADNEplus offers a range of interesting opportunities for heritage managers and archaeological professionals.