This project fosters international collaboration and understanding of the different Buddhist manuscript finds worldwide by regularly hosting workshops and conferences. One of the project's first goals was to publish a state-of-the-field survey of recent research on Buddhist manuscripts; to this end, the HCBSS held a major conference at Stanford in June of 2009. 

Papers from this conference are published in Paul Harrison and Jens-Uwe Hartmann, eds., From Birch Bark to Digital Data: Recent Advances in Buddhist Manuscript Research; Papers Presented at the Conference Indic Buddhist Manuscripts: The State of the Field, Stanford, June 15–19 2009; Beiträge zur Kultur-und Geistesgeschichte Asiens, 80; Denkschriften der philosophisch-historischen Klasse, 460. Vienna: Österreichische Academie der Wissenschaften, 2014. 

Buddhist Manuscripts in the Schøyen Collection 

Project Leads: Jens Erland Braarvig (University of Oslo), Paul Harrison (Stanford University), Jens-Uwe Hartmann (University of Munich), Kazunobu Matsuda (Bukkyo University), Gudrun Melzer (University of Munich)

Ongoing activities include continuing HCBSS support for the Buddhist Manuscripts in the Schøyen Collection project, and occasionally hosting editorial meetings and working sessions. 

For more, see Lekha 2023, p. 20.

The Gāndhāri Manuscript Project

Project Leads: Mark Allon (University of Sydney, Australia) and Richard Salomon (University of Washington). Stanford Lead: Paul Harrison

More recently, the HCBSS has begun to support an international project devoted to a new collection of Gāndhārī manuscripts which are believed to date from the first century BCE to the second century CE, putting them amongst the oldest known Indian manuscripts. The project is led by Mark Allon of the University of Sydney, Australia, and Richard Salomon of the University of Washington, Seattle. The collection contains various types of texts, including early discourses of the Buddha, among them a Gāndhārī version of the work known in Pāli as the Aṭṭhakavagga, considered to be one of the oldest Buddhist texts in existence. The collection also contains previously unknown Gāndhārī versions of Mahāyāna sūtras, such as the Samādhirājasūtra and the Pratyutpannabuddhasaṃmukhāvasthitasamādhisūtra, both currently being studied by international teams of scholars, including HCBSS Co-Director Paul Harrison. Part of the research involves radiocarbon dating of the birch bark on which the texts are written in order to more securely date this material. The HCBSS provides funding to assist this scientific testing. 

For more, see Lekha 2025, p. 4-5.