About Us

The Digital Repository of Ireland (DRI) is a research performing organisation and national Trusted Digital Repository (TDR) for Ireland’s humanities, cultural heritage, and social sciences data.

DRI provides reliable, long-term, sustained digital preservation and access to social and cultural digital data. We make this data openly available in line with the FAIR data principles of findability, accessibility, interoperability, and reusability. Our aim is to safeguard Ireland’s social, cultural, and historical record through active management of digital content over time to ensure that this content remains accessible to researchers, cultural heritage enthusiasts, and members of the public into the future. We support best practice in digital archiving, digital preservation, Open Access, Open Research, and FAIR data sharing. Please see our statements on FAIR Principles and TRUST Principles for more information.

In addition to our core DRI programme, we are engaged in a rich range of collaborative partner projects. Find out more about these research projects on our Projects page. You can explore our research resources on our Training and Education page. News and Events will point you to current initiatives and offerings.

DRI operates on a Membership Model. We provide stewardship of digital data from a range of member organisations including higher education institutions, cultural heritage institutions (the GLAM sector of galleries, libraries, archives, and museums), government agencies, and county councils. DRI values a diversity of datasets and also offers some free DRI Memberships and related benefits to organisations that operate on a non-funded basis as part of the DRI Community Archive Scheme. When you explore or search the Repository, you are entering a world of rich content that reflects and shapes a broad portrait of Ireland.

DRI has been certified by the CoreTrustSeal since 2018, building on our established role as a TDR. The CoreTrustSeal supersedes the Data Seal of Approval, which DRI attained just after launching to the public in 2015. DRI’s CoreTrustSeal certification is valid until 2024.

DRI is funded by the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (DFHERIS) via the Higher Education Authority (HEA) and the Irish Research Council (IRC).

Mission and Vision

Mission

The DRI is a trusted national infrastructure for the preservation, curation, and dissemination of Ireland’s humanities, social sciences, and cultural heritage data.

Vision

The DRI is a national service for the long-term digital preservation of Ireland’s humanities, social sciences, and cultural heritage resources.

DRI is a Trusted Digital Repository (TDR), providing online access to a wealth of digital resources across multiple domains for students, scholars, and the public.

DRI actively engages in the development of policy, is a significant contributor to European policy on Open Science, and is an internationally recognised leader in digital archiving and repository infrastructure.

Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion Policy

As a national repository, the DRI’s collections, membership, partnerships and staff should reflect Ireland’s society and culture in all of its breadth and variety. You can find a short version of our Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion policy, which contains the core EDI values that we work to, in the Repository. You can also find a long version with our actions and implementation for 2023-2025.

DRI Management and Governance

DRI Board 

The DRI Board fosters the long-term success of the DRI through encouraging the highest standard of corporate governance and accountability, providing guidance to the DRI Director on the strategic direction of the Repository with a view to the DRI’s long-term sustainability, and monitoring progress towards strategic goals and key performance indicators. The DRI Board Terms of Reference (June 2018) can be found here.

DRI Management Team

DRI’s Management Team (MT) is the day-to-day management mechanism for DRI, providing technical advice to the Director on key operational decisions, and operating as a second stage of review for key new policies and initiatives developed by DRI Team members or recommended by DRI Task Forces. Management Team is composed of senior representatives from DRI’s three partner institutions (RIA, TCD, MU) and meets monthly or more frequently as necessary.

Task Forces

DRI operates a number of standing task forces that are constituted by DRI staff members, and members of the wider community in order to focus work in particular areas, track the evolution of best practice and organise operational tasks. Standing task forces are: Business Records, Membership, Metadata, Publications, Requirements, Sustainability, Trusted Digital Repository, and UI/UX. Shorter term working groups are also set up for work on particular projects.

Expert Advisory Group

The Expert Advisory Group (EAG) is a forum for DRI staff to draw in a formal way on national and international expertise in a range of disciplines and sectors including the repositories and archives, cultural heritage, research and education, humanities and social sciences, legal, technical and creative domains. The EAG convenes as a group yearly or provides ad-hoc advice on key topics.

Members’ Forum

DRI is strongly connected to its designated community and regularly incorporates feedback into planning and features development. The Members’ Forum provides a regular venue for DRI members to discuss requirements, provide feedback, and network with peers on topics of relevance to digital archiving and preservation. Previously held twice annually in person, from 2020 DRI has hosted a monthly online format as part of our DRI Virtual Coffee Morning series. The DRI Virtual Coffee Mornings are a place for DRI’s staff and members to come together and discuss digital preservation topics, challenges, or projects in a relaxed environment.

DRI was originally funded through a PRTLI (Programme for Research in Third-Level Institutions) Cycle 5 funding grant. In this phase (2011-2015), DRI was built through extensive research into archival and repository best practice, and through continuous  consultations with stakeholders across Ireland. The PRTLI 5 grant brought together a research consortium of six academic partners and over 40 staff to deliver the repository design and architecture, policies, guidelines, and training programmes. Throughout this period, DRI offered an active programme of outreach which included organising conferences, delivering academic papers, and participating widely in national and international networks of expertise.  The founding  consortium partners are: Royal Irish Academy (RIA, lead institute), Maynooth University (MU), Trinity College Dublin (TCD), Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT), National University of Ireland, Galway (NUIG), and National College of Art and Design (NCAD).

DRI was officially launched in June 2015 and continues to be managed by three core academic institutions – RIA, TCD, and MU. DRI team members are based at each of these institutions. The DRI team combines academic and professional expertise across a range of disciplines and profiles, including software engineers, systems architects, archivists, humanities and social sciences scholars, educators, and information professionals.