The Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) has awarded grants to a total of twelve projects focused on digitization. These projects are part of the so-called “Thematic Digital Competence Centers,” or TDCCs. These TDCCs were established in 2022 with funding from NWO. There are three TDCCs in the Netherlands: one for Life Science & Health (LSH), one for Natural and Engineering Sciences (NES), and one for Social Sciences & Humanities (SSH).
The LSH projects are collectively receiving 840,173 euros today, the NES projects are receiving 1,082,775 euros, and the SSH projects (which include Quanjer’s project) are collectively receiving 1,170,468 euros. The projects cover a variety of topics, such as developing a national digital ecosystem for FAIR fungal research, or identifying the top 10 best solutions for the secure sharing of health data collected by patients. A complete overview of all grants can be found on the NWO website.
About HANDS-RX²
'Handwritten Archival Data Structuring with Recognition Extra squared' explores how small communities in the global south can make large-scale automatic transcription and data enrichment both feasible and affordable. Building on previous projects, the project will digitize and transcribe Sint Maarten’s civil records, extracting entities such as names, dates, and occupations to create an open database.
The project tests open-source alternatives to costly commercial tools, aiming to maintain high quality while reducing expenses. By providing clear documentation and involving local citizen scientists, HANDS-RX² supports sustainable, independent transcription efforts in small island settings of the Dutch Caribbean.