The UK's cultural heritage is looking a lot more secure today with the announcement of an investment of over £8m to better understand and conserve historic artefacts, buildings and places by two of the UK's research councils.

The Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) have announced a total budget of just over £8m to be invested in their joint five year Science and Heritage strategic research programme.

The figure of £8.1m, split almost equally between the AHRC and EPSRC, covers existing and future commitments over the five year span of the programme.

The Science and Heritage research programme will provide a locus for those wishing to engage with science and heritage, in order to build capacity and to disseminate knowledge widely so that our cultural heritage is in better shape to confront the challenges of the 21st century.

The two main tasks to be undertaken by the programme are:

• To increase our understanding and improve the resilience of cultural heritage by funding high quality research
• To develop the heritage science community - by funding networks and other awareness-raising and capacity-building activities

Programme Director Professor May Cassar said “This substantial investment of research funds will begin to make right the chronic shortage of investment in research and capacity building in cultural heritage which in so many forms –museums, galleries, archives, libraries and historic buildings contributes so much to the education, leisure and wellbeing of communities and visitors alike. The programme will allow UK academics and heritage managers to work together to better understand and protect the vast array of artefacts, buildings and places that make up the UK’s cultural heritage.

"This funding provides the best opportunity yet to develop further the pool of expertise across research disciplines with deeper understanding and new knowledge to future proof the UK’s cultural heritage."

The programme specification is expected to be finalised by May 2008.

The first call, for PhD studentships has already taken place and the second call under the programme will be for networks or clusters in late 2008, to be then followed by other competitions.

Details will be published on the programmes website , the AHRC website, and the EPSRC website.

Media enquiries to:

Jake Gilmore, AHRC Communications Manager. Tel: 0117 987 6773 or e-mail: j.gilmore@ahrc.ac.uk.

Editors Notes:

Arts & Humanities Research Council: Each year the AHRC provides approximately £90 million from the Government 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 by this investment of public funds 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. More at www.epsrc.ac.uk.

UK Science & Heritage Research Programme The Arts and Humanities Research Council and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council are managing this research programme that will run, initially, for five years. The programme is led by Programme Director, Professor May Cassar. Professor Cassar leads on the programmes 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 is also establishing the base line level of funding across all the research councils and developing a comprehensive map of recent and current research and training activity in heritage science. www.heritagescience.ac.uk/.