The annual eArchiving Initiative conference titled Preserving Digital Foundations with eArchiving was held in the European Commission’s Albert Borschette Conference Centre in Brussels on 14 May 2025. The hybrid event drew over 200 attendees, both in-person and online, and focused on the preservation of databases and the development of the EUDI regulation.
The event was opened by Rehana Schwinninger-Ladak, Head of the Unit for Interactive Technologies, Digital Culture, and Education at the European Commission's DG CNECT. In her speech, she emphasised the importance of eArchiving in developing European solutions, as highlighted in the Draghi report. This report identifies key aspects necessary for boosting competitiveness and positioning the EU as a global leader in innovation, sustainability, and digital transformation. Following her introduction, Árpád Welker, the Policy Officer at DG CNECT responsible for eArchiving, outlined the Commission's priorities for the next five years.
The opening speeches where followed by the keynote address delivered by Kuldar Aas, Data Governance Programme lead at the AI and Data Unit of the Estonian Government’s CIO office, titled Time to make space for eArchiving in Data Spaces, where he addressed the long-term repercussions of the European Data Spaces and the need to raise awareness of the life-cycle considerations, as it will be related to the trust and sustainability of the Data Spaces and the long term availability of shared data.
First session
The keynote was followed by the first session centered on database preservation and oriented into different organisations sharing their experiences.
The first part of the session addressed several transnational approaches to database preservation.
Anders Bo Nielsen, Senior Advisor in digital preservation at the Danish National Archives presented on The SIARD-Format – past, present and future, where he explored the history of the Software Independent Archival of Relational Databases, an open format for large database preservation since its inception in 2008 and its planned evolution with the expected release of SIARD 2.3 in 2026.
Isabel Taylor, Head of the Archival Core Functions Unit of the University of Hamburg presented on the Outcomes from the International Database-Archiving Working Group. Her presentation addressed the challenges and burning issues found by this working group that gathers experts from eight countries and the EU institutions.
The second part of the session centered on the different practical experiences of database preservation by archival institutions.
Koit Saarevet of the National Archives of Estonia presented on the Method of Access to a series of Archived Database Snapshots where he explained the research done to simplify the multi-snapshot access of archived relational databases.
The second presentation was conducted by Jan Dalsten of the National Archives of Denmark titled The Access System for Archived Databases at the DNA and considered the need for a new access system to archived databases when no market solutions are available, and the process followed by the DNA develop a solution.
Boris Domajnko of the International Database-Archiving Working Group followed with a presentation on Meeting End-User Expectations with dbDIPview exploring the recent development of user experiences with this access tools.
The final presentation of the session, Beyond Relational Databases: Challenges of Archiving NoSQL or Graphs was delivered by Sven Schlarb, of the Austrian Institute of Technology (AIT), where he addressed the challenges of preserving non-relational databases—such as NoSQL and graph-based systems—highlighting the difficulties of maintaining database elements that do not conform to traditional relational data preservation schemas.
The session ended with a round table with all the presenters titled What are the lessons learned and the future challenges of database preservation. One of the conclusions highlighted during the round-table was the importance of international cooperation with practical and informal interchange between archives, as well as the importance of cooperate with each other and with the outside world, breaking traditional silos.
Second session
The second session titled EUDI Electronic archiving trust service was centered on the recently passed EUDI regulation for digital identity and how it relates to archival services.
The first presentation came from Carlota Bustelo, of Gabinete UMBUS SL in Spain, titled General presentation on EUDI/eIDAS and electronic archiving service where she gave a general overview of how electronic archiving, digital signatures, and their related trust services will affect digital archiving.
The second presentation titled eIDAS/EUDI Regulation electronic archiving service from the point of view of a Qualified Trust Service Provider given by Marta Gaia Castellan of Tinexta Infocert in Italy, examined how companies that provide other qualified trust services are approaching digital archiving.
The final presentation of the session was delivered by István Alföldi of Poliphon in Hungary, titled eIDAS/EUDI related views in the eArchiving Reference Architecture: integrating ETSI 119 512 protocols for the preservation of electronic signatures, in which he explored the different scenarios where the eArchiving Reference Architecture can be used to preserve the evidence of digital signatures.
A common theme on the session was the importance of the archival community to share its experiences and expertise to find a Pan-European common understanding and best practices in the wake of the approval of the implementing acts.
The even was closed by Janet Anderson, Coordinator of the eArchiving Initiative, who spoke on the importance that stakeholders and their feedback plays in the eArchiving Initiative, without which the eArchiving Initiative cannot function.
The full recording of the event and slides of the presentations are now available.