The project MORESS (« Mapping of Research in European Social Sciences and Humanities ») is an important contribution to the endeavour to establish a European Research Area in the social sciences and humanities. It has been conceived, organized and coordinated by the European University Association EUA with the aim to improve access to information on research in social sciences and humanities. Through bringing together multiple sources of information in Europe into an integrated structure, MORESS aims to provide useful tools for interested researchers and decision-makers, and to enhance the future quality of European research. (full text Homepage).
European Databases; Partners;
Addresses: MORESS, c/o EUA-European University Association, Rue d’Egmont 13, 1000 Brussels, Belgium;
or: MORESS, c/o Social Science Information Centre (IZ), Lennestr. 30, 53113 Bonn, Germany;
Contacts.
MORESS the project: The project MORESS (« Mapping of Research in European Social Sciences and Humanities ») is an important contribution to the endeavour to establish a European Research Area in the social sciences and humanities.
It has been conceived, organized and coordinated by the European University Association (EUA)1 with the aim to improve access to information on research in social sciences and humanities. Through bringing together multiple sources of information in Europe into an integrated structure, MORESS aims to provide useful tools for interested researchers and decision-makers, and to enhance the future quality of European research.
The project is constructing a web-based cataloguing system for the collection, storage and linking of information about existing social science and humanities research databases. The meta-level tool describes existing sources of information on social science and humanities research across Europe. In addition, the project aims to pursue the concept of « thematic mapping », with the objective of developing the utility of catalogued data to respond to the needs of European public policies.
Through tackling the challenge of improving access to comparable information and databases, MORESS will:
- 1.Improve the visibility of research efforts and other knowledge resources in the social sciences and humanities (SSH);
- 2.Promote better cooperation and networking among the social science and humanities research communities;
- 3.Assist the development and Europeanisation of social sciences and humanities research in the New Member States and the candidate countries.
Institutions from 25 European countries are involved in this project, which began in April 2003 and has been planned to take 2 years for its completion. The MORESS web-based catalogue in which the information on SSH databases from the 25 partner countries is inputted, has been developed by the Informationszentrum Sozialwissenschaften in Bonn. The defining of the concepts and descriptors, the collection and analysis of information and the development of the catalogue required a good understanding of the national systems and took much of the first year’s work. Whilst the partners continue to input databases information to the catalogue, the project has now turned to the evaluation of the utility of the tool.
MORESS will serve to identify the strengths and gaps in terms of access to information from databases in the different participating countries and constitute an important step towards establishing a European SSH information base.
1 The European University Association EUA, as the representative organisation of both the European universities and the national rectors’ conferences, is the main voice of the higher education community in Europe.