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For Universities

Turn historical documents into research data — with AI you can train yourself.

Train custom AI models on your specific sources, measure accuracy with Character Error Rate, and publish reproducible results. Used at over 3,000 institutions for research, teaching, and library digitization. EU-hosted, GDPR-compliant, and built by a European cooperative with academic roots.

Used at Cambridge, Edinburgh, Helsinki, Radboud, Innsbruck, and 3,000+ higher education institutions worldwide.

3,000+Higher education institutions
95%+Accuracy on trained models
100+Languages & scripts supported
FreeScholarship for students & teachers

Co-owned by over 40 university members

What's your starting point?

Whether you're running a research project, teaching a course, or managing a library — here's how Transkribus fits into your work.

Build datasets from primary sources — at a scale that wasn't possible before.

Train a custom AI model on your specific sources, measure its accuracy with Character Error Rate, and document every step for your methodology section. Your models are versioned, your results are reproducible, and your training data is yours. Proven in ERC, FWF, DFG, and AHRC-funded projects.

  • Train custom models on your scripts: Secretary hand, Kurrent, Ancient Greek, colonial Spanish, Latin …
  • Measurable accuracy: CER as your standard metric for peer review
  • Versioned models — share publicly with the community or keep private to your group
  • EU-hosted, GDPR-compliant — meets the strictest institutional data requirements
How to choose the right model for your sources

Build datasets from primary sources — at a scale that wasn't possible before.

Train a custom AI model on your specific sources, measure its accuracy with Character Error Rate, and document every step for your methodology section. Your models are versioned, your results are reproducible, and your training data is yours. Proven in ERC, FWF, DFG, and AHRC-funded projects.

  • Train custom models on your scripts: Secretary hand, Kurrent, Ancient Greek, colonial Spanish, Latin …
  • Measurable accuracy: CER as your standard metric for peer review
  • Versioned models — share publicly with the community or keep private to your group
  • EU-hosted, GDPR-compliant — meets the strictest institutional data requirements
How to choose the right model for your sources

Radboud University: Transkribus as an institutional service

Radboud University in the Netherlands transitioned Transkribus from a pilot to a permanent institutional service — providing free access to all staff and students via an Organisation plan. The university's Historical Document Studies Centre (HDSC) now runs Transkribus across departments, with Dr. Coen van Galen's historical data science projects as a flagship use case.
Free Transkribus access for all staff and students
Organisation plan with centralised management
Model for institutional adoption at other universities
Radboud University — Institutional Transkribus Service

Deciphering a secret diary in Ancient Greek — with a START Grant

William Barton at the University of Innsbruck used a START Grant to decode the secret diary of Karl Benedikt Hase — nine volumes of personal confessions written in Ancient Greek in 19th-century Paris. The team trained custom AI models on Hase's unique handwriting and published the complete transcription as a searchable Transkribus Site, making a source that was virtually unreadable available to scholars worldwide.
Austrian Science Fund (FWF) START Grant-funded project
Custom AI model trained on Ancient Greek handwriting
Published as a searchable Transkribus Site (LAGOOS)
Karl Benedikt Hase diary — LAGOOS project, University of Innsbruck

For researchers

Train your own AI — reproducible, publishable, yours.

In academic research, methodology matters. Transkribus lets you train custom AI models on your specific sources — document the training data, measure the error rate, share the model with your community or keep it private. Your models are versioned, your results are reproducible, and your methodology section writes itself. All processing happens on EU-hosted infrastructure, fully GDPR-compliant.
Train and version custom models on your sources
Measurable accuracy: Character Error Rate (CER) as standard metric
Share models publicly or restrict to your research group
EU-hosted, GDPR-compliant — meets institutional data requirements
Proven in ERC, FWF, DFG, and AHRC grant projects
Custom AI model training

Research projects powered by Transkribus

From English wills to Spanish colonial fleets — see how university researchers use AI to tackle ambitious digitization projects.

25,000 English Wills Transcribed

University of Exeter and The National Archives — Material Culture of Wills project with 2,500+ Zooniverse volunteers.

Case Study

Unlocking the New Spain Fleets

Lancaster University — millions of colonial Spanish maritime trade documents from Mexico and Seville archives.

Case Study

The Egerton Model for Secretary Hand

Northwestern University — 3% error rate on 750,000 words of 16th-17th century English equity court material.

Case Study

Transcribing Ancient Greek

Cornell, Cambridge, and Innsbruck — three projects pushing AI text recognition into classical and ancient scripts.

Case Study
Digital scholarly editions

Published university research collections

University research projects that publish their transcribed collections as searchable Transkribus Sites — open access, citable, and permanent.

For decision-makers

Bring Transkribus to your entire university

Over 40 universities are already cooperative members of READ-COOP — co-owning the platform and shaping its future. Organisation plans give your departments and libraries centralised credit management, shared model access, and dedicated support. With 3,000+ higher education institutions already using Transkribus, adoption is straightforward — your researchers probably already know the tool.
Organisation plans: centralised billing, shared credits, team management
Cooperative membership: voting rights, discounts, advisory role
Scholarship programme: free credits for students and teachers
Edu Licences: discounted access for teaching contexts
Proven at 3,000+ higher education institutions worldwide
Institutional integration
3,000+ institutions40+ university membersCooperative ownedGDPR compliantEU sovereign infra

Built by researchers, for researchers.

Transkribus grew out of an EU-funded research cooperation between multiple universities and is built by a European cooperative — not a tech company. Your research data stays on our own servers in Austria.

EU-hosted & GDPR-compliant

All data processed and stored in Austria. Full compliance with European data protection regulations. Research data never leaves Europe — meets the strictest institutional data requirements.

Cooperative, not corporate

READ-COOP is a European cooperative owned by 180+ member institutions — including 40+ universities. Join as a member and shape the platform alongside your peers.

Academic roots

Transkribus originated from EU-funded research cooperations between multiple universities. Prof. Melissa Terras (Edinburgh) serves as Scholarly Director. The platform is built by the academic community, for the academic community.

Already using Transkribus? Help your university join.

Many university adoptions start with a single researcher. If Transkribus is already part of your workflow, we can help you make the case for institutional integration — Organisation plans, cooperative membership, and campus-wide access.

3,000+institutions
40+university members
FreeScholarship programme