Horizon Europe Partner Profile

1. Organisation Overview

The Digital Humanities Institute (DHI) at the University of Sheffield is a long-standing centre specialising in the development of sustainable digital research infrastructures and advanced computational methodologies for the Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH).

Since its establishment in the early 1990s, DHI has delivered 150+ externally funded research projects, collaborated with 180+ external partners, and received grants from 50+ national and international funders.

We combine embedded research software engineering, cultural heritage and societal data infrastructure expertise with interdisciplinary inquiry to support complex research involving large-scale cultural, historical, linguistic, and social datasets.

2. What We Contribute to Horizon Europe Consortia

DHI is an experienced partner in projects requiring:

  • Design and implementation of sustainable digital research infrastructures
  • Integration, structuring, and harmonisation of distributed cultural and societal datasets
  • Research software engineering and platform development
  • FAIR data implementation and interoperability
  • AI-supported analysis of large-scale textual and cultural data
  • Digital heritage infrastructures and archival systems
  • Responsible data governance and open science practices

We are able to lead or contribute to technical and infrastructure work packages, including platform development, data integration, computational analysis, sustainability planning, and capacity building.

3. Infrastructure and Sustainability

DHI operates secure research infrastructure and embedded research software engineering teams that support long-term digital sustainability. We design systems that prioritise interoperability, reproducibility, and open standards, ensuring that Horizon Europe outputs remain reusable, maintainable, and extensible beyond project lifetimes.

Over the years, our work has produced 80+ publicly accessible online resources and research tools that we continue to host and maintain.

4. Approach

Our approach integrates technical delivery with research-driven inquiry. All infrastructure and analytical development is grounded in active humanities and social science scholarship, ensuring that technical systems directly address meaningful research questions and societal challenges. This integration distinguishes us as a partner that can reliably deliver technically ambitious and intellectually rigorous work packages.

5. Collaboration

We welcome discussions with coordinators and partners across Horizon Europe clusters, particularly within:

  • Cultural Heritage and Creative Industries
  • Digital Infrastructure and Data Ecosystems
  • AI and Society
  • Civic and Societal Data Infrastructures
  • Research Infrastructure and Capacity Building

For collaboration enquiries, please contact: