Over the last decade, French research institutions and universities have made massive efforts to consolidate and valorise the social sciences and humanities within the academic landscape. The production of scientific and (at least partially) publicly accessible digital archives has become the cornerstone of these efforts. The remarkable multiplicity of databases, repositories and tools developed, as well as the diversity of attitudes and philosophies underpinning digital activities in over 300 research units concerned were among the hurdles that had to be overcome. This paper will recall the development of these efforts and discuss the political and scientific problems that had (have) to be resolved. It will illustrate the rationale that lay behind the emergence of a cross-institutional unit in the digital humanities and critically discuss the choices that were made in terms of standards of interoperability.