Centre for e-Research (CeRch)

CeRch was established by King’s in November 2007 in response to the Arts & Humanities Research Council’s decision to withdraw funding from the AHDS at the end of March 2008. It was at this point that CeRch became fully operational. It incorporates the staff and activities of the AHDS Executive, which had been based at King’s since 1995. CeRch is led by Sheila Anderson, with Lorna Hughes as one of the senior managers.

CeRch began life with a number of infrastructure research projects developed within its AHDS auspices, and is vigorously pursuing new opportunities. It has established a particularly strong e-Research programme, including development of Virtual Research Environment (VRE) frameworks and tools. Other areas of research focus include: Research infrastructures, including data creation, curation, preservation, and grids; methods in arts and humanities research, in particular the use and impact of advanced technologies; and knowledge creation and management. CeRch has a portfolio of 15 projects worth over 2M GBP.

CeRch is also continuing its engagement in a range of national and international activities. These include: hosting the Arts and Humanities e-Science Support Centre (AHeSSC); publication and maintenance of the ICTGuides, which documents projects, methods and tools; arts-humanities.net, a web 2.0 collaborative environment. It is also funded to assist with facilitating a national network of expert centres in the digital humanities. It has a leading role in the EU-funded DARIAH project – Digital Research Infrastructure for the Arts and Humanities.