Europe has a long and rich tradition as a centre for the arts and humanities. However, the digital transformation poses challenges to the arts and humanities research landscape all over the world. Responding to these challenges the Digital Research Infrastructure for Arts and Humanities (DARIAH) was launched as a pan-European network and research infrastructure. After expansion and consolidation, which involved DARIAH’s inscription on the ESFRI roadmap, DARIAH became a European Research Infrastructure Consortium (ERIC) in August 2014. The DESIR project sets out to strengthen the sustainability of DARIAH and firmly establish it as a long-term leader and partner within arts and humanities communities. By DESIR’s definition, sustainability is an evolving 6-dimensional process, divided into the following challenges: Dissemination: DESIR will organise a series dissemination events, including workshops in the US and Australia, to promote DARIAH tools and services and initiative collaborations. Growth: DESIR sets out to prepare the ground for establishing DARIAH membership in six new countries: the UK, Finland, Spain, Switzerland, Czech Republic and Israel. Technology: DESIR will widen the DARIAH research infrastructure in three areas, vital for DARIAH’s long-term sustainability: entity-based search, scholarly content management, visualization and text analytic services. Robustness: DESIR will make DARIAH’s organizational structure and governance fit for the future and develop a detailed business plan and marketing strategy. Trust: DESIR will measure the acceptance of DARIAH, especially in new communities, and define mechanisms to support trust and confidence in DARIAH. Education: Through training and teaching DESIR will promote the use of DARIAH tools and services. The DESIR consortium is composed of core DARIAH members, representatives from potential new DARIAH members and external technical experts. It is balanced between the different European regions.