Consortium and Work Organization

The consortium developing the ROADS project consists of several academic and research institutions, each with specific expertise and clearly defined roles. These institutions collaborate to ensure the success of the ROADS project, bringing multidisciplinary expertise and extensive experience in the fields of language resources, oral history, and the preservation and accessibility of oral sources.

Each institution has a specific role within the project, with specialized skills and knowledge that will contribute to its success. The consortium will work collaboratively to ensure the achievement of the project's goals through five Work Packages.

Members of the project

UNISI: Università degli Studi di Siena

The University of Siena (UNISI) is the coordinating institution of the ROADS project. It provides specific knowledge and experience in the field of oral history, archival sciences and humanities, thanks to the know-how acquired in the Gra.fo, Archivio Vi.Vo LISTEN, STOA projects (STOA project available here: https://sites.google.com/unisi.it/stoaproject/home). UNISI guarantees links with CLARIN's Oral history and Technology research group (Speech and tech, https://speechandtech.eu/) and the CLARIN Ethical and Legal Issues committee (CLIC, https://www.clarin.eu/governance/legal-issues-committee).

As project coordinator, UNISI will ensure the harmonization of work among partners and the timely achievement of objectives and deliverables, providing the technological infrastructure and services available at the Italian node of CLARIN-IT at ILC-CNR.

Members: S. Calamai (Full professor, Sociolinguistics and Linguistics), R. Nodari (researcher, Educational Linguistics), L. Cirillo (Associate professor, English Linguistics), L.J. Anderson (Full professor, English Linguistics), V. Niri (Post-Doc researcher, Oral History)

CNR-ILC: Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche - Istituto di Linguistica Computazionale "Antonio Zampolli"

CNR-ILC is one of the leading research centers in Computational Linguistics, and it contributes to the scientific and technological development of strategic areas in the field. The CNR-ILC coordinates the Italian node of the of CLARIN ERIC infrastructure and hosts the ILC4CLARIN data center, which provides the Italian community with a reliable repository for linguistic resources and a set of linguistic tools and services.

In the context of the ROADS project, the CNR-ILC will be responsible for the development of the ROADS infrastructure for managing and accessing digitalized oral archives, ensuring the project's adherence to FAIR principles and best practices defined in the context of H2IOSC.

Members: M. Monachini (Research Director, CLARIN-IT National Coordinator), R. Del Gratta (researcher), A.M. Del Grosso (researcher), C. Soria (researcher).

CSC (UNIPD): Centro di Sonologia Computazionale dell'Università degli Studi di Padova

CSC (Centro di Sonologia Computazionale) is a research laboratory within the Department of Information Engineering (DEI) at the University of Padua (UNIPD).

CSC will bring to the ROADS project, the expertise developed in conducting evaluations on reliable protocols for digitalization and data preservation, developing new techniques for information retrieval in large, unconventional databases, and creating algorithms for restoring audio and music documents.

Members: S. Canazza (Associated Professor at the Department of Information Engineering, Head of CSC), G. Zuccolo (Research Fellow at CSC)

UNINA: Università degli Studi di Napoli "Federico II"

The University of Naples "Federico II" (UNINA) will participate in the ROADS project leveraging its extensive experience in archiving, enhancing, and disseminating oral sources (e.g., the ADiCa archive, Archivio dei Dialetti Campani).

Specifically, UNINA will contribute to the census of oral archives produced over the past decades in Italian universities, and to the digitalization and cataloging of Gabriella Gribaudi's pilot archive.

Members: G. Abete (Associate Professor, Linguistics and Phonetics), E. Milano (Researcher, Sociolinguistics and Minority Languages), C. Vecchia (Post-Doctoral Researcher, Dialectology and Linguistics).

UNIVE: Università Ca' Foscari di Venezia

Ca' Foscari, University of Venice (UNIVE), will play a significant role within the ROADS project, carrying fundamental knowledge and experience in the fields of oral history, archival science, and the humanities.

For the ROADS project, UNIVE will map oral archives produced over the past seventy years, particularly in the areas of linguistics and oral history, and focus on the preservation, archiving and digitization practices of oral archives.

Members: A. Casellato (Coordinator - Oral history), D. Raines (Archival science), G. Zitelli Conti (Researcher, Oral History)

The ROADS project will also involve the following associations:

  • AISO (Associazione Italiana di Storia Orale)
  • AISV (Associazione Italiana di Scienze della Voce)
  • AFAS (Association française des détenteurs de documents sonores et audiovisuels)
  • AILC (Ass. Italiana Linguistica Computazionale)

These associations will help in sensitizing and engaging the academic and professional community about the preservation of oral archives.

Work Packages

The consortium will work collaboratively to ensure the achievement of the project's goals, which include the preservation and accessibility of oral sources, the training of new generations of researchers, and the dissemination of results.
In order to organize the workflow and cooperation among the institutions involved as best as possible, Work Packages (WPs) have been established, each of them including specific objectives and responsibilities assigned to specific research units within the consortium. The WPs are interconnected and structured to address challenges related to the preservation, accessibility and reuse of oral sources, as well as to ensure the training of new generations of researchers and the dissemination of their findings.

  • WP1 - DISCLOSURE
    Census of oral archives produced by academics, with the aim of mapping oral archives created over the past seven decades, particularly in the areas of linguistics and oral history.
    This work involves three research units of the consortium: UNISI, UNINA and UNIVE.

  • WP2 - ROADS INFRASTRUCTURE
    Development of an infrastructure for the preservation, cataloging and accessibility of digitalized or born-digital oral sources in accordance with FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) principles.
    This WP involves CNR and CSC, which will contribute to the creation of a reliable national repository and the integration of the ROADS infrastructure into the CLARIN research ecosystem and the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC).

  • WP3 - ROADS PILOT ARCHIVE
    Digitalization, catalogouing and preservation of the oral archive created by oral history scholar Gabriella Gribaudi.
    This WP involves UNISI, UNINA and CSC, who will be responsible for digitalizing, describing the audio recordings and preserving the pilot archive.

  • WP4 - EDUCATION AND TRAINING
    Training professionals and a new generation of researchers in the area of preservation and accessibility of oral sources.
    This WP involves UNISI, which will be in charge of training and education.

  • WP5 - DISSEMINATION AND MANAGEMENT
    Project coordination and administration, as well as dissemination of the results obtained.
    This WP mainly involves UNISI, CNR and CSC, which are responsible for the technical management of the project, coordination of ROADS infrastructure development and management of the project website.

Contatti

Per informazioni o contributi al progetto ROADS, contattare prin2022-progettoroads@unisi.it