Strategic Framework

A new strategic framework for heritage science in the UK has been developed for the period 2024-2027.

Building on the 2018-2023 framework, and as the result of community consultation, the framework for 2024-2027 has three interconnected strands:

  • Public value: measurable positive change for society resulting from heritage science.
  • Research: excellent research leading to new knowledge, understanding and innovation.
  • Community: an inclusive, confident, diverse and outward-looking heritage science community.

The vision for the Strategic Framework for Heritage Science in the UK is that the UK's rich and varied heritage will be enhanced by better use of science and technology for the benefit of society.

Read the Strategic Framework for Heritage Science in the UK, 2024-2027 (pdf)

Heritage science is the scientific study of cultural and natural heritage. It is an interdisciplinary field that draws on diverse humanities, science and engineering disciplines. It focuses on enhancing the understanding, care and sustainable use of heritage so that it can enrich people's lives, both today and in the future.

As a field of research, it is carried out in many different type of organisations and the results of that research are widely applicable. Research is helping to improve energy efficiency in historic buildings; it is protecting heritage collections, buildings and archaeology from decay; it is increasing our understanding of the risks and impact of climate change as well as strategies for mitigation and adaptation; it is helping us to understand where we have come from and can also inform where we are going.

The breadth of the field is a strength, but it requires coordination to bring together the strands of activity, maximise opportunities for collaboration and demonstrate benefits. The strategic framework is a tool to help achieve this.

Proposed areas of action to deliver the framework goals:

Public value: measurable positive change for society resulting from heritage science.

  • Thoroughly understand the multiple stakeholders for heritage science research.
  • Develop consensus on what to measure and how to measure it.
  • Increase opportunities for public engagement with heritage science, including through participatory research.
  • Improve the mechanisms for sharing, and making visible, examples of how research addresses societal challenges and delivers public value.
  • Develop connections with industry to increase knowledge-exchange.
  • Build stronger links between heritage science and public policy.

Research: excellent research leading to new knowledge, understanding and innovation.

  • Increase the variety of funding streams that enable individuals and organisations from across the arts and sciences to work together.
  • Connect, and enable access to, research capability (expertise, facilities and FAIR data) across the UK, with links to international infrastructures including E-RIHS (European Research Infrastructure for Heritage Science).
  • Provide mechanisms for collaboration on heritage science research priorities.
  • Increase the translation of research into practice, building on existing good practice and developing links with organisations outside of academia.
  • Generate support for innovation and cutting-edge research which pushes boundaries and generates new collaborations, for example with science centres.

Community: an inclusive, confident, diverse and outward-looking heritage science community.

  • Research who makes up the heritage science community, capacity of the current workforce, and levels of demand.
  • Research skills strengths, gaps and needs.
  • Develop varied entry routes, forms of training and opportunities for career progression, including opportunities to move in and out of the field of heritage science.
  • Address barriers to recruitment, retention and career progression.
  • Build an identity for heritage science that celebrates common interests and maximises interdisciplinary collaboration.
  • Increase the visibility of heritage science as a potential career, for example through opportunities for school-age children to learn about heritage through science.

NHSF will launch the full framework through a series of engagement events and will seek input from the community to its delivery. Sign-up to the NHSF newsletter to receive further information.