Professor Meggen Gondek, Head of RICHeS, offers insight into how RICHeS, as a distributed research infrastructure, is fostering collaboration, innovation and accessibility to heritage science and conservation efforts across the UK
Since the launch of the RICHeS programme in October, RICHeS have been fully devoted to building and enabling this ambitious project, a research infrastructure designed to advance conservation and heritage science. But what exactly is a research infrastructure? How can it benefit those who are interested or actively engaged in heritage science?
What is RICHeS?
RICHeS is the UK’s Research Infrastructure for Conservation and Heritage Science and it is best described as a distributed research infrastructure. Unlike a single, centralised mega-lab, RICHeS operates as a networked organisation, connecting researchers to heritage science facilities, resources and services that are geographical scattered across the UK. Through RICHeS, you do not have to rely on one central facility. Instead, you can access expertise, collections and facilities from institutions across the four nations of the UK.
Beyond its physical network, RICHeS will also include a virtual infrastructure the Heritage Science Data Service. This platform will provide a digital foundation for sharing and accessing data, ensuring that the benefits of heritage science research are far-reaching.
Why a distributed research infrastructure?
A research infrastructure was chosen because it offers several benefits:
- It fosters collaboration: strengthening partnerships between facilities and collections across the UK, and internationally.
- It drives innovation: Promoting economic and scientific benefits across more regions of the UK.
- It shares knowledge: Encouraging resource sharing and cross-disciplinary learning.
- It increases access: Ensuring broader access to the UK’s world-leading heritage research and conservation facilities.
Through the first round of RICHeS funding, Tranche 1, RICHeS has successfully funded 31 projects distributed across the UK including which include13 host collections, 17 host facilities and the HSDS.
What can RICHeS do for you?
RICHeS is dedicated to empowering the heritage sector and aims to offer invaluable support tailored to your needs. Here’s how:
- Connecting you with the right partners: RICHeS will help identify appropriate collaborators and facilities with the equipment and expertise suited to your project.
- Optimising research methods: RICHeS will provide insight into the most relevant and efficient techniques for your projects.
- Enhancing access to resources: RICHeS will ensure that heritage science reference collections and data are openly available, enabling evidence-based research, new meta-analyses, replication studies and the reduction of unnecessary duplication.
Learning from others
Though RICHeS is at the start of its journey, it builds on the experience and knowledge of other research infrastructure projects like E-RIHS in Europe and in other sectors of the UK such as CoSTAR. These projects have shown how well-designed research infrastructures can transform fields of study and foster innovation.
Connecting the past, present and future
At its heart, RICHeS is about creating connections between researchers, facilities, collections and data. By building a more connected and innovative community for conservation and heritage science, RICHeS will nurture and enable more innovative ways to connect our past to our present and deliver lasting benefits for the future.
Stay tuned as RICHeS continue this transformative journey and how this innovative programme is making an impact.