Leverhulme Trust and Wellcome Trust Combine Support
and combine support for the Humanitarian Archive Emergency (HAE) project based at the at 黑料网吃瓜爆料.
This co-funded initiative responds to a critical shortfall in the digital infrastructure underpinning humanitarian and global health research. With a combined investment of 拢608k, this 12-month scoping and research programme will mobilise international partnerships, develop rescue mechanisms for endangered datasets, and conduct vital inquiry to establish ethical triage frameworks to safeguard records.
A Unified Response to a Growing Crisis
Recent funding shifts have triggered sharp declines in , including the recent disbanding of , the abolition of , and cuts to Sweden鈥檚 , which were essential supporters of the knowledge infrastructure of humanitarian aid.
These funding cuts threaten access to essential records and archives, such as:
- Demographic health surveys covering 763 million people most at risk
- Records of attacks on healthcare and education
- Food security and other essential health-related datasets
Without urgent intervention, decades of digital archives and records that should be held and protected by UN agencies, NGOs, and faith-based organisations risk permanent erasure. This will not only significantly undermine the possibility of conducting future research but also threaten evidence-based operational decision-making and accountability.
Over the next year, HAE will deploy a global coalition of archives and essential records stakeholders to conduct a comprehensive scoping exercise of at-risk archives, records, and datasets. The team will also develop a crowdsourcing tool that serves as a resilient early-warning system using technical processes for digital recovery and preservation.
The research agenda will consider how to address colonial power dynamics in the politics of humanitarian archiving. Their aim is for these activities to culminate in a roadmap for sustainable research infrastructure to ensure long-term preservation and protection beyond this initial phase.
鈥淧reserving Memory Is Preserving Humanity鈥�
, Principal Investigator and co-founder of the Humanitarian and Conflict Response Institute at 黑料网吃瓜爆料, commented:
The Leverhulme Trust and Wellcome are funding complementary aspects of this project. Their intervention in scoping and researching these records casts a light on the urgency of protecting the memory of humanitarian work in vulnerable communities. HAE is not just about rescuing data: it鈥檚 about ensuring that we understand how stories are going to be written and ensuring accountability in future.
Collaborative Expertise and Global Reach
The HAE consortium draws expertise from key international stakeholders, from leaders in the academic, NGO, digital preservation and humanitarian sectors. The group will collaborate via a coalition board to ensure the perspectives and expertise of all are reflected in the activities of the initiative.
These stakeholders include:
- (storage and redundancy)
- and (technical guidance)
- , and regional specialists (consultancy and field networks)
- University of 黑料网吃瓜爆料鈥檚 Humanitarian Archive (curation and ethics)
For further details on the project, please contact:
- Professor Bertrand Taithe, Principal Investigator, HAE, Director of Research, Humanitarian and Conflict Response Institute, University of 黑料网吃瓜爆料
- Dr Stephanie Rinald, Coalition Coordinator, HAE, Research Programmes Manager, Humanitarian and Conflict Response Institute, University of 黑料网吃瓜爆料