OPERAS statement on initiatives and measures to support Ukraine’s social sciences and humanities community

In the light of the recent Russian invasion of Ukraine, the OPERAS community highlights the importance of supporting the Ukrainian research and cultural infrastructures, as well as the Ukrainian humanities and social sciences (SSH) community by proposing practical actions. We recognise the pivotal role of SSH research in strengthening democracies by promoting fundamental human values and fostering equality, inclusion, and diversity.

The main objectives of the OPERAS community in this context are:

• to support preservation of the cultural and scientific heritage of Ukrainian society
• to sustain Ukrainian scholarly communication and scholarly publishing
• to strengthen collaboration between the SSH community of EU and Ukrainian researchers
• to facilitate the integration of research outputs in Ukrainian into the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC).

Firstly, the TRIPLE project intends to add Ukrainian scholarly content to the GoTriple platform, collecting numerous scientific resources in SSH. Through this activity we intend to explore different possibilities and opportunities of data collection and cooperation with Ukrainian scientific institutions, as well as with data and metadata providers.

Secondly, OPERAS will actively reach out to Ukrainian institutions, scholarly publishers and scholarly journals to find out how to best support them in preserving their data and scientific content in need of preserving their data or scientific content.

Thirdly, through its Research for Society Service OPERAS is exploring possibilities to help Ukrainian researchers to engage in resilience-building activities with their citizens, employing Public Humanities approaches.

Finally, the OPERAS community engages in and supports ongoing initiatives directed at the Ukrainian SSH community:

1. ScienceForUkraine  – a platform collecting support opportunities for Ukrainian scholars and students affected by war.

2. SUCHO – Saving Ukrainian Cultural Heritage Online – an initiative archiving important cultural heritage material available online.

We call on all OPERAS members to actively contribute to these efforts and to work on support programmes in their own institutions and communities. We believe that through the joint efforts of the European scholarly community the cooperation with Ukrainian colleagues will not only be sustained throughout the conflict but it will effectively become stronger.