On 29 June 2015, the second phase of the EHRI project officially started with a kick-off meeting in Brussels. Belgian EHRI partner Cegesoma hosted the event.

EHRI Presentation

On 26 March, the first phase of the project resulted in the Presentation in Berlin, where the EHRI portal, that gives online access to dispersed Holocaust sources, was launched. On this day, Robert-Jan Smits, Director-General of DG Research and Innovation of the European Commission, also officially announced the great news that EHRI was selected for further funding under Horizon2020, the current research and innovation funding programme of the EU. The second phase will take four years.

Sustain and expand

In this second phase EHRI will first sustain and expand its current work. More Holocaust institutions will be invited to participate and connect their collections to the portal. New research tools will be implemented.

23 partners

EHRI is led by a consortium of 23 partners. Some of them have remained from the first phase, but 10 are new. Focus is on Eastern and South-Eastern Europe.

Training activities

EHRI will continue its training activities with more workshops, conferences, and online courses and tutorials. The new EHRI fellowship programme allows for more flexibility in several aspects: the duration of a fellowship, bigger choice in institutions, an open call, and also candidates who are not affiliated to a university, e.g. archivists, curators, can now apply.

Work

The EHRI kick-off meeting in Brussels heralded the second phase of the project with a speech by EU project officer Maria Theofilatou, and presentations from project director, Conny Kristel of the NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies, and of all work package leaders. Like in every EU funded project and the first EHRI project, the work is divided in work packages. On 30 June work started immediately with several work package meetings held at the BIP house of the capital region in Brussels.