Blinken OSA Contributed to CIVICA Research Survey on Archives

CIVICA – The European University of Social Sciences is an alliance of leading European higher education institutions in the social sciences, humanities, business management, and public policy. As an effort to enhance transnational institutional cooperation, CIVICA strives to create a pan-European community providing, among many other things, university exchange opportunities, joint courses and research projects, and a more open dissemination of research to the wider public.

Besides Education, Civic engagement, and Student initiatives, Research is one of the four pillars of CIVICA. Within the framework of CIVICA Research, the Historical Archives of the European Union (HAEU) at the European University Institute (EUI) approached the Bocconi University, the Central European University (CEU), the Sciences Po, the National University of Political Studies and Public Administration (SNSPA), and the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), each an archives-hosting academic institution, with a survey exploring their archival collections and policies. As an organizational unit and also the historical archives of CEU, Blinken OSA answered the open-ended questions concerning its activities, workflows, and services.

With the survey now processed, HAEU concluded its report Exploring Synergies in Archival Policies, stating, “the findings of this study should help to develop new innovative services for our public and private partners and the scientific community. It can contribute to the creation of support for students in their research training or professional development, while also providing ideas to make archival resources available to civil society.” As follow-ups, CIVICA Research plans to develop strategies to increase the visibility of member institutions’ archival holdings, to integrate university archives in academic curricula, and to share knowledge on digitization practices, within the alliance.