Step 1 Application to Become an ERIC Approved

On 27 February 2024, the European Holocaust Research Infrastructure (EHRI) started its Implementation Phase (IP) project, which will lead EHRI to  become a permanent organisation for the support of Holocaust research in Europe.

Fourteen partners from all over Europe, Israel and the US gathered in Amsterdam to kick off this last round. Amsterdam is also the home town of coordinating partner NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies and the future central hub of the EHRI-ERIC (European Research Infrastructure Consortium). NIOD Director Martijn Eickhoff welcomed the meeting stressing the importance of EHRI for the Netherlands, for NIOD and for Europe, especially at this time of conflict and crisis.

EHRI-IP Project Director Reto Speck, welcomed all the EHRI-IP partner institutions which act as representatives of the countries that will be part of the EHRI-ERIC from the start: Israel, Croatia, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Austria, Germany, Belgium, Romania, the UK, Poland and the Netherlands with additional partners  from Ukraine and the US.

Around forty people that had gathered in the stately Amsterdam City Archives building “De Bazel” listened to presentations of the seven Work Packages that are going to make sure the implementation of EHRI as a permanent infrastructure will become a fact.

Apart from establishing the ERIC in terms of governance, finance, central hub, national nodes and communication, this phase is also concerned with growing EHRI. As part of the Kick-Off meeting a “newcomers workshop” was organised. Representatives from  Sweden, Bulgaria, Luxembourg, Italy, Lithuania, Hungary and Greece were introduced to EHRI-ERIC. Some of these countries are close to joining, others still need to do a lot of work, but enthusiasm was great all around.

Step 1 Application

Just after the final drinks and everyone leaving to go home, the news arrived that the European Commission had just approved of the Step 1 Application for EHRI to become an ERIC. This means the door is now open for Step 2 in the application process, and that EHRI is still on course toward its preferred launch date of the ERIC in January 2025, 80 years after the liberation of Auschwitz.