Projects to boost UK heritage science and conservation capability – UKRI

The projects will unlock the potential of existing heritage collections and provide access to untapped cultural assets to safeguard and grow the UK’s £29 billion heritage sector and kickstart economic growth.

Additionally, new state-of-the-art facilities will drive innovations in other areas including sustainable building practices, bio-imaging, carbon-dating and materials analysis.

Conserving world-renowned artwork at the Tate and harnessing cutting-edge equipment to protect UK film and video collections are amongst the first tranche of 31 projects to share £37 million from the Research Infrastructure for Conservation and Heritage Science (RICHeS) programme.

A world-leading network of heritage expertise

The National Trust, Historic Environment Scotland and the National Gallery are amongst the 100 partners from across all four nations of the UK and overseas that will create a genuinely world-leading network of heritage expertise.

Together they will ensure the UK maintains its international reputation as a cultural heritage superpower.

The RICHeS programme is funded by an £80 million investment from the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) Infrastructure Fund and delivered by AHRC.

Kickstarting economic growth

Minister of State, Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, Sir Chris Bryant, said:

A phenomenal heritage has been handed down to us in the UK, including stunning artworks, artefacts and architecture. They attract visitors from around the world and they bring billions of pounds and thousands of jobs into our economy.

What this does is bring cutting edge science to bear on our cultural heritage and thereby kickstart economic growth. This £37 million from the Arts and Humanities Research Council will amongst other things equip researchers with detailed information on famous artworks, ensure some of our centuries-old buildings are fit for a net zero future, and protect our famous film collections.

Unleashing new understanding about our cultural heritage

AHRC Executive Chair, Professor Christopher Smith said:

The UK has a rich and unparalleled cultural heritage and is a global leader in the science of heritage conservation. By investing in heritage science, we are not only unleashing new understanding about our cultural assets but boosting a world-leading heritage economy that will benefit us all.

Using the latest technology and scientific equipment, this programme will support access to heritage collections, grow the UK’s heritage economy and drive technological innovation in areas such as material science. Placing this work in Daresbury increases the chance of the spillover effects we have already demonstrated.

Take medicine, where bacteria in infant feeding tubes is detected faster using imaging technology developed for the conservation of old master paintings, or engineering, where pylon maintenance is made safer through AI algorithms first developed for cave painting images.

With 31 sites across all 4 devolved administrations and a network of 117 partners in three continents, RICHeS is UKRI’s largest distributed infrastructure and an undisputed world-first. It is an example of how AHRC works at the heart of UKRI to drive interdisciplinary science which benefits citizens, society and the economy.

The launch of the programme

The programme is being launched at an event held today, 1 October 2024, at the RICHeS headquarters at the Science and Technology Facilities Council’s Daresbury Laboratory, one of the UK’s most vibrant scientific hubs.

Heritage science is uniquely interdisciplinary and crosses over with art history, engineering, analytical chemistry and material science.

By embedding RICHeS at Daresbury, it will ensure that the benefits of heritage science become a critical driver of research and innovation in science and technology.

Head of RICHeS IHQ Professor Meggen Gondek said:

The launch of the RICHeS programme is raising the bar for heritage science globally. It signals a new era where art, culture and science unite to stimulate skills, growth and opportunity.

It will secure the UK’s position of excellence in the field and help foster world-class collaborations at both national and international levels.

Preserving Andy Warhol’s Marilyn Diptych at the Tate

Two projects announced today will strengthen the conservation of the Tate’s extensive Modern and Contemporary Arts collection, which includes famous works such as Marilyn Diptych by Andy Warhol.

Dr Bronwyn Ormsby’s project will use new scientific equipment for material research, including volatiles analysis and infrared imaging. It will:

• develop new approaches to collection care that will influence conservation practices beyond the Tate’s walls
• contribute to a digital research service to protect art collections in the face of the climate emergency

Meanwhile, Louise Lawson will create a single accessible archive of the Tate’s rich physical collection of pigments, paints, artwork samples and over 40 years’ worth of imaging and scientific analysis data of the collection.

The tool will enable researchers to find, visualise and share heritage science increasing opportunity for new research and collaborations.

Protecting culture from climate change

Professor Fraser Sturt from the University of Southampton will establish a facility to investigate vulnerable traces of our shared past found in rivers, lakes, coastlines and seas such as shipwrecks and submerged prehistorical sites.

The facility will enhance access to advanced uncrewed surface vessels, remotely operated vehicles and laser scanning technology.

The data gathered will provide valuable insights into climate change impacts on heritage and contribute to research on:

• oceanography
• earth science
• engineering
• geography
• renewable energy

Adapting traditional buildings to help net zero

Another project led by Dr David Mitchell from Historic Environment Scotland (HES) will establish a new national retrofit centre to enhance the energy efficiency of traditional buildings constructed before 1919 to help achieve net zero targets.

The facility will expand HES’ technical research capability and experiment with low-carbon materials to set new standards for healthier and sustainable building practices in the UK.

Preserving UK film and video collections at the BFI

Kieron Webb from the BFI National Archive will establish a Moving Image Conservation Research Laboratory to safeguard UK moving image collections from the BFI and archive partners across the UK.

This unique facility will be equipped with state-of-the-art instrumentation dedicated to the scientific analysis of film materials, to improve understanding of material composition and deterioration processes of film, video and paper-based collections.

As film materials age and older production techniques become obsolete, the need for advanced preservation techniques becomes more pressing.

The laboratory’s pioneering approach will ensure historical film colours are reproduced more accurately so that future audiences can enjoy British films and videos in their original form.

Newly developed research and results will also enable national and international collaborative research.

Safeguarding biocultural collections for future research

Dr Catriona McKenzie and Professor Naomi Sykes from the University of Exeter will establish a facility to store the physical remains of ancient humans, animals and plants. This will help ease pressure on museum archives that are running out of space.

The project will:

• increase physical storage capacity
• provide laboratory space for researchers
• establish a new database for the collation of digital 3D files and associated analytical data

It will lead to new discoveries about human interactions with the natural world from otherwise lost biocultural assets.