National movements in Europe since the 18th century have played a transformative role in the history of modern Europe, and have inspired research for many decades. Unfortunately, much of that research stays secluded within geographic boundaries. Language and disciplinary barriers often deters a systematic empirical comparison between movements, and have obstructed a deeper understanding of how, why and when emancipatory demands emerge.

As a result, our knowledge of the emergence of national and regional movements in Europe and the differences, similarities and connections between movements is very fragmented. This is regrettable because nationalism and national movements did and do not stay isolated within regions, nations or states. Nationalists move(d) across borders, and their cultural and intellectual production and legacy spread(s) all over Europe.

With DIANE, the international platform NISE wants to provide a digital instrument that facilitates and promotes the comparative and transnational study of national and regional movements in Europe. DIANE is a digital work environment and online toolkit in which students and scholars can effectively collaboratively collect, connect, analyse and share data.

DIANE has 3 principal functions:

 
1.    Analytical instrument — DIANE will host individual and collaborative research projects that explore and visualise transnational connections between movements, persons and ideas.
    
 
2.    Heuristic instrument — It will help researchers identify publications, other researchers with similar interests, and relevant (often less well-known) archives and heritage institutions across Europe.
    
 
3.    Information database — DIANE will collect data on national and regional movements in Europe, connecting information on their functioning and protagonists.
    

The environment is provided by Nodegoat and is especially catered to the needs of historians and social scientists. Its digital toolkit include geographical visualisations on maps with timelines, social network graphs and chronological visualisations – all with one click on a button.