Two decades on from the alt-ac discussions in Digital Humanities which were particularly prevalent in North America, in which a rationale and justification was developed for academics not on a tenure track, a very different discussion about the nature and increasing centrality for the research process of these roles in Europe has emerged. As opposed to being considered second tier academic jobs, positions in research infrastructures are emerging as sites in which some of the most cutting-edge research is taking place. Supported and promoted by EU funding instruments, including the Horizon framework, those working in research infrastructures are finding themselves at the nexus of an ever-widening constellation of collaborators across a variety of organisations, from universities to research institutes, from the GLAM sector to the hard sciences.

This panel will explore the role of the perhaps not so invisible labour and infrastructures in the digital humanities at a range of institutions (European, national, and third level), and how this labour and infrastructure becomes (or does not become ) visible, useful, and relevant to colleagues in more traditional academic roles. Notwithstanding the increasing centrality of these roles, and the recognition that many individuals receive in disciplinary or pan-disciplinary settings, the organisational recognition and rewards structures are not as embedded as in the university sector. In part this may be because of the sector’s relative immaturity (particularly in the humanities), the still-precarious nature of supporting these positions financially, coupled with a relatively flat organisational structure. Thus this panel will also discuss how recognition within infrastructural settings both maps and diverges from more traditional academic roles.