ITSERR launches its second call for applications for the Transnational Access (TNA) programme!
Foreign scholars (European and non-European) and PhD students – individuals or teams – within the fieldwork of Religious Studies or within the fieldwork of IT for DH can apply for a funded research fellowship to visit the special libraries, collections, archives and IT laboratories of the ITSERR TNA network of hosts.
ABOUT US
ITSERR is the Italian research project aimed at enhancing the ESFRI RESILIENCE Research Infrastructure, whose high interdisciplinarity is finalized to meet the evolving needs of the Religious Studies scientific community by enriching the diversity, the quality and innovation of the knowledge in this specific domain. The project is developed thanks to the collaboration between humanists (experts on History, Philology and Christian, Islamic and Jewish Studies, but also archaeologists working on topics and sites related to the domain of Religious Studies) and IT engineers.
The ITSERR is a consortium of 5 partners including:
- Institute of Information Science and Technologies (ISTI-CNR) “Alessandro Faedo”;
- University of Modena and Reggio Emilia;
- University of Palermo;
- University of Turin;
- University of Naples l’Orientale.
All of them are contributing to the progress of the Religious Studies as the project is willing to play a pivotal role in enriching the diversity, the quality and innovation of knowledge produced by the community of the Religious Studies becaming the driver of a new match with the new assets of AI/BD/HPC. . Institutes and Departments across Italy are involved in the advancement of Religious Studies according their own features and specificities:
IT Institutes and Departments, such as ISTI -CNR, the Department of Engineering “Enzo Ferrari” at UniMORE or the Mathematics and Computer Science and the one of Engineering at UniPa, are leaders in bringing innovation within the domain,
Department of Historical Studies at UniTo and Department of Asia, Africa and Mediterranean (DAAM) at UniOr are developing new methodologies within the Religious Studies and Archaeology, and
Departments that are highly involved in Religious Studies through the excellence of their didactic and research, such as the Department of Education and Humanities (DESU) at UniMORE or the Department of Cultures and Societies at UniPa.
The main goal of the project it related to its high interdisciplinarity as it is offering to the Religious Studies the possibility to create new specific tools for the enhancing of the domain, but also the way to applicate to it others already existing and really suiting for its purposes and objectives.
All these centres and libraries grant access to their collections , documents and rare books as well as to their virtual sources and to excellence IT laboratories. Within the consortium each partner participates with some specific Institutes and Departments to the development of the activities of the WP of the projects. To discover more about each WP see our website and the following table.
| ITSERR WP | MAIN TOPICS | OUTCOMES |
| WP3-T-Res | Creation of critical editions of primary sources and a categorization of printed religious normative sources | Development of two open-source softwares (CRITERION and GNORM) for the creation of critical editions and the automatic analysis and categorization of printed religious normative sources through data mining techniques and 3D visualization |
| WP4-DamSym | Translations of the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed as a case study | Development of softwares and algorithms for texts to improve understanding techniques to the investigation of semantic textual issues, using the translations of the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed as a case study |
| WP5-Digital Maktaba | Cultural heritage data in non Latin Languages | Creation of a digital cataloguing system for libraries specialized in religious studies that need to manage cultural heritage data in non-Latin alphabets, starting with the Arabic alphabet |
| WP6-YASMINE | Two case studies: “Sanctuaria,” which focuses on shrines and their connections, and “Plorabunt,” a database of individuals killed in places of worship since 1982 | A tool – called YASMINE – using artificial intelligence to extract and analyze data and knowledge from various sources, including the web for use in religious studies research |
| WP7-REVER | Archival documents connected to Regesta (scholarly summaries) and translations of the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed as a case study ecclesiastical sources | Development of an expert-augmented machine learning algorithms that can reconnect archival documents to their regesta |
| WP8-UbiQuity | References to the Bible and the Qur’an in ancient commentaries | Development of a machine learning search engine for identifying references to the Bible and the Qur’an in ancient commentaries and designed to search through two large corpora: Christian and Islamic commentaries |
| WP9 -TAURUS | Creation of a dataset based on the collection of cuneiform tablets with religious content from the Eastern Collections of the Royal Museums of Turin, one of the most compete and ancient of Italy. | Development of a software toolkit for 3D visualisation and fruition of historical heritage artefacts and materials; the toolkit is intended for specialised researchers in the field of Religious Studies and Archaeology, transversally applicable to other domains. |
| WP10 – ReTINA | Religious and magical texts on different supports from the Nile Valley | Review the state of the art in the field of study by analyzing digital archives containing religious texts from different times, regions, languages, and media. Development of common guidelines for digitization and digital archiving by optimizing existing data models. A software prototype to note down and visualize the text. |
ITSERR TNA PROGRAM
Through its Transnational Access Programme ITSERR offers support and expertise for research stays at leading Italian Universities and research centres holding relevant collections within libraries and archives for Religious Studies together with outstanding IT laboratories for the increasing of the development of Digital Humanities.
European and non-European scholars and PhD students are invited to apply for a funded research fellowship to visit the special libraries, collections, archives and IT laboratories of ITSERR TNA hosts.
The call will be open from December 10th 2024 to January 25th 2025.
HOW ITSERR TNA WORKS?
ITSERR TNA funded programme foresees ingoing and outgoing mobility.
- Foreign scholars (European and non-European) and PhD students – individuals or teams – within the fieldwork of Religious Studies or within the fieldwork of IT for DH, can apply for funded TNA within the nodes of the ITSERR network (ingoing mobility).
- ITSERR scholars and PhD students from programs of the ITSERR consortium can apply for funded TNA within the framework of the RESILIENCE TNA calls to stay in one of the TNA Hosts of the RESILIENCE RI (outgoing mobility). More detailed information on the next RESILIENCE TNA Call for Applications can be found here: https://www.resilience-ri.eu/cfa-tna/
Funded TNA for research teams are a specific feature of the ITSERR project as it ensure the collaboration and the development of the research leaded by each team. Please note that this opportunity is dedicated exclusively to ingoing mobility within the Italian network of hosts of ITSERR.
Please note that this second call for application is dedicated exclusively to ingoing mobility.
ITSERR TNA fellowships are funded by NextGenerationEU – National Recovery and Resilience Plan (Piano Nazionale di Ripresa e Resilienza, PNRR) and awarded on a competitive basis, based on specific eligibility criteria (see below).
BENEFITS OF ITSERR TNA
Beyond the effective access, both physical and virtual, to the unique collections, IT laboratories and expertise of the leading Italian Universities and research Institutions ITSERR TNA covers the following costs:
- Economy flights
- Accommodation close to the Institutions (by booking full board accommodations also the cost of daily subsistence is covered)
- Free access to collections and services
- Expertise on the main topics of the WPs
Our founded TNA is featured by the following duration of the period of research at ITSERR TNA hosts:
- one/two weeks according to the kind of research leaded and to the kind of instruments to use.
- Until one month for individual fellows or teams participating to the technical development of the project and in the making of the services.
SELECTION AND ELIGIBLE CRITERIA
To benefit from the support of funded ITSERR TNA, applicants are requested to submit proposals that will be evaluated by the Peer Review Committee based on the following selection criteria:
- Quality of the research conducted by the applicant
- Scientific merit of the proposed project
- Feasibility of the proposed project
- Personal statement
Proposals for accessing our programme are eligible if they meet the following criteria:
- Transnationality: to promote transnational research the TNA fellows have to be affiliated to Institutions from countries other than that of the TNA site
- All TNA fellows must ensure open access to publications arising from their stay during TNA
- Balance of the heterogeneity of the applicants according to age, gender, provenance, research/professional status.
- Team applications: the interdisciplinarity and heterogeneity of the composition of the team members will be encouraged
To apply for funded ITSERR TNA is necessary to follow the procedure described at the bottom of this web page.
Please note that: You will need an ORCID number. If you don’t already have one, please go to orcid.org to obtain your own in a few clicks.
PUBLICATIONS
ITSERR TNA fellows should aim to publish the results of their researches within a clear timeline and preferably in open access ISI or SCOPUS refereed journals that have substantial academic impact. Moreover, the support of the EU and of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNNR) as well the use of ITSERR services must be clearly acknowledged in the academic publications.
WHO CAN APPLY?
European and non-European scholars and PhD students whose research is leaded within the fieldwork of Religious Studies or within the IT fieldwork, especially for the development of softwares and tools for Digital Humanities, can apply for a fellowship regardless of their academic status.
APPLICATIONS
The application process of the second call for proposals will be closed the next January 25th 2025.
Please note all applications will be processed after January 27th 2025.
SAVE THE DATE: ITSERR TNA program foresees to launch a call for proposals during 2025, opening on June 10th, 2025!
HOW TO APPLY
All the documents (application form and 2 pages CV – European pass template – all 1 PDF file) to be submitted to tna@itserr.it
To apply for our calls proposals, please download the application form:
QUESTIONS
For general questions about the application procedure and Transnational Access (TNA), please contact the ITSERR TNA team tna@itserr.it