The Arts and Humanities Research Council and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council are pleased to announce that Professor May Cassar of UCL (University College London) has been appointed as Programme Director for the new UK Science & Heritage Research Programme.

This appointment follows recent recommendations made in the House of Lords Science and Technology Committee report on Science and Heritage on the need for the UK to develop a research programme in this area. This appointment will run for five years from June 2007 to June 2012.

Announcing the appointment of the Programme Director the AHRC Chief Executive Philip Esler said "The recent destruction wreaked on the Cutty Sark, and the numerous outpourings of support, both in the UK and internationally, to restore it to its former glory as soon as possible, are eloquent testimony to how we treasure such rare and important historical artifacts.

The national sense of the value of these assets shows that adequate public resource should be devoted to their preservation and utilization."

The key recommendation of the House of Lords' report was a call to the UK heritage sector to come together to develop a broad based national strategy for heritage science that would conserve our cultural heritage for the benefit of all in the future. The report acknowledged the UK research councils' key role in developing this strategy and that the AHRC was best placed to have overall responsibility for heritage science research.

The role of Professor Cassar will be to provide intellectual leadership and academic coherence in the development of the Science and Heritage Programme. This will be a part-time (50%) position for a period of 5 years. Her key priorities in the first eighteen months of the Programme will be to lead on its development, external coordination and outreach as well as on extensive networking with the national and international research community including non-academic sectors. In addition she will establish the base line level of funding across all the research councils and develop a comprehensive map of recent and current research and training activity in heritage science.

Professor Cassar, who is the Professor of Sustainable Heritage at UCL said, "This is a wonderful opportunity for this interdisciplinary field to grow the capacity of the sector so that the best heritage science is undertaken at the best academic and heritage institutions.

More importantly, this Programme is about increasing the number of leading quality researchers involved in this work."

Speaking further on the appointment of Professor Cassar AHRC Chief Executive Philip Esler said "The AHRC and the EPSRC are very pleased to have secured the services of Professor Cassar to lead the Science and Heritage research programme. We are extremely gratified to be able to appoint someone whose expertise and eminence in this area are so high that she was Specialist Adviser to the House of Lords Select Committee on Science and Technology Inquiry on 'Science and Heritage'."

Media Contact

For further information please contact Jake Gilmore, AHRC Press and Public Affairs Officer, j.gilmore@ahrc.ac.uk; tel: 0117 987 6773.

Editors Notes

Arts and Humanities Research Council: Each year the AHRC provides approximately £90 million to support research and postgraduate study in the arts and humanities, from archaeology and English literature to design and dance. In any one year, the AHRC makes approximately 700 research awards and around 1,500 postgraduate awards. Awards are made after a rigorous peer review process, to ensure that only applications of the highest quality are funded. Arts and humanities researchers constitute nearly a quarter of all research-active staff in the higher education sector. The quality and range of research supported not only provides social and cultural benefits but also contributes to the economic success of the UK.

The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) is the UK's main agency for funding research in engineering and the physical sciences. The EPSRC invests around £740 million a year in research and postgraduate training, to help the nation handle the next generation of technological change. The areas covered range from information technology to structural engineering, and mathematics to materials science. This research forms the basis for future economic development in the UK and improvements for everyone's health, lifestyle and culture. EPSRC also actively promotes public awareness of science and engineering. EPSRC works alongside other Research Councils with responsibility for other areas of research.

The Research Councils work collectively on issues of common concern via Research Councils UK.