The Arts and Humanities Research Council warmly welcomes the recent publication of the House of Lords Science and Technology Committee report on Science and Heritage and looks forward to playing a valuable role in implementing their recommendations.

This House of Lords report was produced in response to a sector that was perceived as being both under-valued and fragmented. The reports intention was to find a way to ensure that science and technology made a substantial contribution to not only preserving the UK's cultural heritage but to also promote new and exciting forms of public engagement with cultural heritage and science.

The key recommendation of the 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 UK research councils have a key role to play in developing this strategy and the AHRC was singled out as being the research council that was best placed to have overall responsibility for heritage science research.

In addition, the Committee also recommended that the AHRC become the champion for heritage research with a key role to work to deliver an increase in research council funding for heritage science.

Tony McEnery, AHRC Director of Research said "The AHRC warmly welcomes the House of Lords recommendations on preserving the UK's cultural heritage. With our existing links with the leaders in this area of research the AHRC is in an ideal position to offer strategic research opportunities to the UK academic community to better conserve and promote our cultural heritage".

Further details on the House of Lords report can be found at:

http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld200506/ldselect/ldsctech/256/25602.htm

Contact:

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

Notes to Editors

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.