It would take 30 researchers 20 years to sift through eight million newspaper pages. ‘Digital Humanities Infrastructure Austria’ (DHinfra.at) can do this in five days. The joint high-performance computing cluster, supported by nine Austrian universities and research institutions, is designed around graphics processing units (GPUs), which are required for AI processes. “This enables extensive source material to be automatically indexed and analysed using text recognition, image and text analysis, or language models,” says Professor Georg Vogeler, Head of the Department of Digital Humanities at the University of Graz.
Comparable solutions from commercial providers are hardly an option for universities due to their high costs. DHinfra.at, on the other hand, can be used cheaply and easily via a browser login. No special hardware or specific technical knowledge is required. “Another advantage is that the language models are accessed via a dedicated interface and operated directly at the university. This ensures that no data, texts or images leave the academic network,” emphasises Florian Atzenhofer-Baumgartner, who led the implementation of the project. In this respect, “Digital Humanities Infrastructure Austria” is unique to date.
DHinfra.at is available to scholars in the humanities, cultural studies and the arts from across Austria, as well as their partners involved in international research projects. In this way, “Digital Humanities Infrastructure Austria” also supports the acquisition of third-party funding for projects at European level.
Launch of “Digital Humanities Infrastructure Austria”
DHinfra.at will be presented during an online event on 12 October 2026 from 10.00 am to 11.30 am.
Invitation to attend at https://uni-graz.zoom.us/j/63796915567
Project website
https://www.dhinfra.at
The Master’s programme in Digital Humanities bridges the gap with computer science and equips students with the skills to develop modern tools for research, museology and archiving.
