Dr Órla Murphy and Catherine Bourne attend ACERR launch

ACERR, the Arts and Culture in Education Research Repository, was launched this week in Dublin. Dr Órla Murphy, Head of Digital Humanities, and Catherine Bourne, a PhD candidate in the department, were in attendance for the event, having contributed to the project's development. ACERR is an association of institutions committed to upholding the principles of the Arts in Education Charter and the Creative Ireland Programme, promoting Arts and Cultural Education and Arts in Education Research. ACERR has joined the Digital Repository of Ireland as a member in order to securely deposit materials relating to arts and culture in education in a trusted digital repository. Chaired by a Steering Group representing over 10 National Cultural and Educational institutions, ACERR intends to facilitate long-term preservation of arts and culture in education content from a broad range of backgrounds.

ACERR, the Arts and Culture in Education Research Repository, was launched in Dublin this week. Dr Órla Murphy, Head of Digital Humanities, and Catherine Bourne, a PhD candidate in the department, were in attendance for the event, having contributed to the project's development. ACERR is an association of institutions committed to upholding the principles of the Arts in Education Charter and the Creative Ireland Programme, promoting Arts and Cultural Education and Arts in Education Research. ACERR has joined the Digital Repository of Ireland as a member in order to securely deposit materials relating to arts and culture in education in a trusted digital repository. Chaired by a Steering Group representing over 10 National Cultural and Educational institutions, ACERR intends to facilitate long-term preservation of arts and culture in education content from a broad range of backgrounds.

This repository will act as a seed bed for innovation for the knowledge society and the knowledge economy.  Through an Open-Access repository citizens throughout Ireland and beyond will have access to that creative activity from researchers, practitioners and pedagogues throughout the country. Harnessing the power of the digital for digital transformation, the institutions will showcase exemplary best practice across the disciplines from music through drama, from painting to poetry and in doing so leverage Ireland’s shared creative potential for the next generation.

Speaking at the launch today, Secretary General of the Department of Education and Skills Mr Seán Ó Foghlú outlined: "In ACERR the focus is on excellent, innovative knowledge making and creative work. Building on the success of the Arts in Education Charter and the Creative Ireland Programme, ACERR, through the affordances of the digital, collapses the boundaries of space and time, to grant global access to Irish research of many dimensions. Beyond the page, this is heterogeneous research data, of significant artistic value - and with Digital Repository of Ireland - this expands the conception of what research is and how it is impactful. Teachers, students, community workers, citizens throughout Ireland will now be able to access this resource freely. More than a website, researchers, evaluators and potential partners across the EU will also be able to find, and access Irish work that is published under the recent EU FAIR declaration in Vienna."

He went on to say: "This is more than just an infrastructure – it is about a transformation of academic cultures in this field – aligning with international sustainable open access best practice, which include research data management planning (RDM). The uploading of research on and into the repository enables universities, cultural institutions and researchers to comply with the international best practice open access policy. It is an Integrated Platform that will enable data enrichment, FAIR, OPEN, aggregation, and it will be integrated into an EU aggregator for funding purposes.  Importantly it will facilitate video and audio to augment the standard text publication of research - all wrapped in Dublin Core metadata to aid discovery. The aim of ACERR is to provide an exemplar for other Arts and Humanities researchers. What has been developed is a reciprocal research bridge throughout all our participating institutions - to openly share knowledge for the public good."

The Repository will result in the empowerment of Irish Arts and Cultural Researchers to publish work of many dimensions including video, music, dance, drama and art. It will overcome traditional barriers to publication for Arts and Creative practitioners.