Fort Jaffanapatman, Sri Lanka, (c) TANAP

HGIS funds for cooperative project VOC archives

The Verenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie (VOC or East Indian Company) traded with the peoples of Asia and Africa from 1602 until 1796. Documents from that period contain vital information about early-modern societies in those parts of the world. In order to optimise research of the period, the VOC archives in various countries needed to cooperate. In the late 1980s, parties including the National Archives of the Netherlands (ARA), the Indonesian National Archive and the Leiden Research School for Asian, African and Amerindian Studies joined forces. They launched the TANAP programme (Towards a New Age of Partnership) with the intention of making all VOC archives in the Netherlands, Sri Lanka, India, Indonesia and South Africa both orderly and accessible. The Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research will receive more than € 238,000.00 from the HGIS Culture budget for the conclusion and consolidation of this project.

The HGIS (Homogenous Group for International Cooperation) Culture budget supports culture projects that are related to the Netherlands' foreign policy and international culture policy.

Annemiek Leclaire