DiSSCo Prepare Deliverable D4.5 - Models for government funding

Abstract

This intermediary deliverable establishes possible models for government funding of the future DiSSCo European Research Infrastructure Consortium (ERIC). The key argument behind this deliverable is that, in order to ensure economic sustainability, reach the full potential and explore the maturity of the Research Infrastructure (RI), DiSSCo ERIC will need to find new, national and European funds, to cover both essential DiSSCo activity, as well as helping DiSSCo further its ambition and demonstrate added value (through mass digitisation programmes and centres of excellence, for example). DiSSCo essential activity means ensuring funding for only the fixed costs of the DiSSCo Central Hub, whereas it is possible to imagine mass digitisation programmes and centres of excellence being funded by a combination of variable and fixed funding from national and European funders. This deliverable will address how funding will enter the RI, and circulate between the different bodies, in order to better understand the relationships between these entities. Following a series of workshops in consultation with DiSSCo Prepare Project partners and National Nodes, WP4 has used the feedback from these meetings to put forward the following models for government funding, as well as considerations of their suitability for the future Research Infrastructure.