Historical Musicology and European Research Infrastructures and Initiatives: A Practical Guide and Strategic Integration Framework

This publication addresses a major structural challenge facing historical musicology: although the field has developed rich bodies of sources, methods, and scholarly traditions, it remains only partially integrated into the European research infrastructure ecosystem that increasingly shapes access to data, tools, funding, collaboration, and long-term preservation. Focusing on five key European infrastructures and initiatives—the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC), the European Collaborative Cloud for Cultural Heritage (ECCCH/ECHOES), the Common European Data Space for Cultural Heritage, DARIAH ERIC, and E-RIHS ERIC—the report examines how these frameworks can support historical musicology through digitisation, encoding, analysis, interoperability, data sharing, and sustainable reuse.

The publication maps these infrastructures against the concrete workflows and needs of musicological research, from source study and editorial practice to heritage science, digital annotation, and collaborative knowledge production. It combines a systematic presentation of the European infrastructural landscape with a series of use cases designed to test how different categories of users—researchers, librarians, curators, musicians, students, policymakers, and journalists—engage with existing tools and where significant gaps remain. On this basis, it proposes a strategic framework for integrating musicology more fully into European digital and heritage infrastructures without abandoning the disciplinary expertise that defines the field.

The report argues that such integration is not only possible but increasingly urgent. As European research becomes more strongly organized around openness, interoperability, shared standards, and collaborative environments, historical musicology risks marginalisation if it does not strengthen its presence within these infrastructures. By identifying practical entry points, institutional pathways, and methodological opportunities, this publication presents research infrastructures not as external technical systems, but as essential conditions for the future visibility, sustainability, and transformation of musicological scholarship in Europe and beyond.