The social sciences and humanities (SSH) bring together researchers from a wide range of disciplines and methodological backgrounds, spanning from those studying cultural heritage using 3D digital technologies to interdisciplinary scholars exploring innovative approaches to analyse existing data. In today’s digital age, advancing research in these fields increasingly depends on the development of specialised tools and environments that facilitate cutting-edge work both within and across disciplines.
The SSH Open Cluster builds upon the foundation of the SSHOC project, which has forged collaborations between 20 partner organisations across six research infrastructures (RIs): CESSDA, ESS Survey, DARIAH, CLARIN, SHARE, and E-RIHS.
Software tools play a crucial role in enabling the use of data in the social sciences and humanities. These tools are often distributed in a manner similar to research data, as data packages with attached metadata descriptions.
Additionally, several nodes within the European SSH research infrastructure networks (DARIAH, CLARIN, EHRI, CESSDA, SHARE) provide continuous services, offering both programmatic access via APIs and user-friendly interfaces for interactive data processing by SSH researchers. This is particularly relevant for language-related technologies (such as speech, multimodal, image processing, etc.). Many of these tools and services leverage AI-driven technologies, which rely on large SSH datasets for machine learning and deep learning. Both the software and services are typically custom-built or based on established industry standards.
Services
Social Sciences & Humanities Open Marketplace
The Social Sciences and Humanities Open Marketplace, built as part of the Social Sciences and Humanities Open Cloud project (SSHOC), is a discovery portal which pools and contextualises resources for Social Sciences and Humanities research communities: tools, services, training materials, datasets, publications and workflows.