Agiatis Benardou, the President of the Board of Directors of DARIAH, delivered a keynote speech at the 2nd IEEE International Conference on Cyber Humanities (IEEE CH 2026). The conference was held in Venice, Italy, from the 7th-9th September 2026 and brought together researchers, practitioners and representatives of Research Infrastructures working across the intersection of digital technologies, the Social Sciences and Humanities, and cultural heritage.
In her speech, entitled “From User Needs to Knowledge Ecosystems: Designing Human-Centred Infrastructures for Digital Cultural Heritage”, she described how the digital humanities are moving from individual digital tools and platforms towards interconnected knowledge ecosystems. DARIAH and ECHOES provided two important points of reference. DARIAH is an example of how Research Infrastructures create durable structures for cooperation, bringing together people, expertise, standards, training, governance and services beyond the lifespan of individual projects. She also drew on current work within ECHOES to show how infrastructure design can move beyond providing access to data and tools towards enabling collaboration between diverse cultural heritage communities.
In addition, Agiatis received the IEEE TCCH Education and Training Award, an international distinction recognising her contribution to education, training and skills development within European Research Infrastructures for the Social Sciences and Humanities.
Read the full article on the DARIAH website.
