RICHeS Regional Workshop: Enriching Collections at the National Museum of Scotland

I recently attended a RICHeS Regional Workshop at the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh. The event was a great opportunity to hear about the latest updates from other RICHeS facilities, and from the AHRC team on the progress of the overall programme. They have been holding these meetings around the UK as a way for different facilities to meet with the user base, and it was a great opportunity to showcase our plans for the North East Material Culture Analytical Suite (NEMCAS). 

One of the highlights for me was catching up with some familiar faces, especially Dr Paddy Gleeson, now Director of the Institute for Heritage and Environmental Science (IHES), the Northern Ireland RICHeS facility at Queen’s University Belfast. Paddy and I were both early career lecturers together at Newcastle many years ago, so it was wonderful to see how his career and the QUB facility have developed, and that we have both moved towards heritage science. The scale of the QUB RICHeS facility is truly impressive, integrating the 14Chrono Centre Radiocarbon laboratory and soon to offer micro-CT capabilities as well. Micro-CT is very clearly a technology with significant potential for archaeology and heritage science, and I am really excited to be part of the RICHeS facilities that will be developing this methodology across the UK.

Reflecting on the discussions throughout the day, it’s clear that we’re just at the beginning of working out how best to balance the RICHeS goal of enabling wide access to collections, whilst ensuring that access and analysis is conducted ethically (and how that is defined for different materials), and also ensuring that the economic benefits of the programme go hand in hand with public benefit. One particularly thought-provoking point raised was whether it is ethical to view collections as a resource, especially in the context of human remains and contested collections. Some attendees were very clear that they didn't think that collections should be seen as a resource. This was interesting, as a resource to me is not necessarily a negative thing, and it got me thinking about the issue of balance. While I recognise the sensitivities here, I also think there’s a need for more strategic thinking in the sector, especially as we look to maximise the impact of heritage science, a necessary concern given the scale of investment and the need to demonstrate the value of the investment (economic value, as well as social, cultural and research).

This was reinforced for me by a meeting I had attended the previous day with the EPSRC infrastructure team during their visit to Durham University. Their perspective was very clear, that we need to support both discovery research and the government’s objectives around UKRI delivering economic benefits for the UK. Navigating these different priorities will be a key challenge for RICHeS and the wider heritage science community in the years ahead. Early in my career I never thought that I would care much about the economic benefits of academic research, but I have become aware that, as the EPSRC made clear, if we want to support blue skies fundamental research, we also need to show that government funding is leading to positive benefits to the UK. The emphasis on regional distribution of RICHeS also means I have an opportunity through NEMCAS to contribute the north-east, and as someone who grew up in this region, I like the idea of being able to offer something back. Some of this is simply making sure that we are able to express the benefits of archaeology and heritage in a language that others, including the government, understand. Sometimes these benefits are more indirect, but they are very clear, as this Historic England report, The Economic Value of the Heritage Sector demonstrates.

If you’re interested in learning more about RICHeS or future events, I’d highly recommend visiting their website. For more on Durham’s North East Material Culture Analytical Suite (NEMCAS) and its facilities, see the NEMCAS website.