Context The National Trust (NT) looks after coastline, countryside, historic sites, and is one of the world's largest holders of historic properties. An active program of conservation and research on paintings and decorative finishes is centred at our Royal Oak Foundation Conservation Studio (ROFCS) at Knole in Kent. In our art historical and conservation research, we use paint samples and paint scrapes to inform conservation treatments, provenance and history of decorative schemes. We care for and research the UK's largest collection of paintings, wall paintings and painted interiors in 200 buildings dating from the 4th century Roman to the 20th century vernacular. Approximately 30% of NT paint collections have been sampled representing an unparalleled opportunity/baseline for heritage science research. Our collections number over a million wide-ranging objects including paint samples numbering in the low thousands. Challenge Our Material History paint samples are mostly unpublished and external and internal researchers cannot access them. Past sampling and analysis have been carried out by small businesses, universities, or museum departments for NT. They are: Inconsistent reports, e.g. reporting styles and data sharing methods. Dispersed physical archives across NT - centrally, regionally or at property, or with external freelance/institutional conservation science departments. Inconsistently labelled, packaged, and documented. Project conservation researchers typically supplement research of decorative interiors such as the Robert Adam rooms at Kedleston and their paint schemes by carrying out paint scrapes [small windows of scraping back layers of decorative schemes]. Estimating the numbers of existing paint scrapes and identifying their locations/documentation is a huge challenge. The new paint archive would showcase the value of interconnected research across and beyond our properties, transforming opportunities for knowledge sharing and innovative research. It is conceived as an active collection, rather than a pigment/reference collection. Aims and objectives Position NT as a proactive partner in delivering creative and cultural research. Support UKRI infrastructure ambitions. Enhance and upgrade existing science facilities. Develop NT research capacity through defining and gathering our paint samples/related documentation as an important collection. Recruit a conservation scientist to facilitate access. Enable physical and intellectual access with support for users on key themes like interpretation, dating, authentication, authorship. Innovate the research of 'paint in context' and site-specific collections. Lead in the sector by creating access to the collection and conservation scientist. Base the collection and conservation scientist at ROFCS, with appropriate facilities and a refreshed public facing engagement display. Applications and benefits

Context: The proposed research focuses upon the dramatic phase of monument construction that characterises the later Neolithic of the British Isles. This is a period that saw the creation of a wide and varied range of megalithic, timber and earth structures, alongside the development of extensive landscapes of linked and interwoven monuments. Nowhere is this more apparent than Avebury, north Wiltshire. A key component of the UNESCO Stonehenge and Avebury World Heritage Site, the Avebury henge is one of the pre-eminent megalithic monuments of the European Neolithic, sitting alongside Stonehenge, the Boyne Valley passage graves and Carnac alignments. Its 420m diameter earthwork encloses the world's largest stone circle, which in turn encloses two smaller (yet still colossal) megalithic circles of c.100m diameter - the northern and southern inner circles. Within each of the latter are further complex stone settings. From two of its four entrances lead avenues of paired standing stones that together extend for c.3.5km linking with other monumental constructions. It sits at the heart of a landscape rich in later Neolithic monuments, among them Silbury Hill and the West Kennet palisade enclosures. Avebury has stood at the heart of developing narratives of the Neolithic period in the British Isles - a period of remarkable transformation in the ways in which people understood and engaged with the world. Avebury's history has a resonance that extends far beyond the British Isles, informing research on a range of fundamental questions concerning the European Neolithic such as: what sparked this remarkable period of monument construction? What was the inspiration for the monumental forms we observe? Why were specific locations chosen to monumentalise? Aims & Objectives: Despite its international importance, detailed knowledge of Avebury is sorely lacking. The only large-scale excavations to take place at Avebury were carried out in the first half of the 20th Century, with an ambitious programme of open area excavation brought to an abrupt end by the outbreak of WWII. As a result, we have only a partial understanding of the range, character and relationships between the features present at Avebury. This lack of understanding is due to a failure to synthesise, integrate and make available the full detail encoded in the archives resulting from this extensive early 20th century work - much of which was methodologically exemplary - as well as much smaller ad-hoc investigations that took place after. This has lead to only partial understandings of this pivotal site, circular arguments, repeated rediscoveries and a serial forgetting of the results of previous work. To rectify this we will complete the work that ended so abruptly in 1939: carrying out unfinished programmes of detailed post-excavation analysis and synthesising the mass of unpublished detail that survives only in archive form. Most critically, we will make the full set of data available and accessible through the design and implementation of an ambitious, open access digital archive, that will provide a baseline from which all future engagements with Avebury can proceed. This will not only support future archaeological and Heritage studies, but is expressly designed to stimulate, foster and nurture innovative public and creative engagement. Applications & Benefits: The results will have enormous significance for the general public, creative industries and all academic students of prehistory, revealing in detail the origins and subsequent life-history of one of Europe's most important prehistoric sites. They will also allow for effective heritage management (through a fuller understanding of the WHS and its history) as well as enhanced education and tourism potential. Avebury has always been an object of fascination, and as international media interest in recent discoveries has demonstrated, public interest in Avebury is global.

This research project brings together digital technology and art historical analysis for the study and dissemination of the plaster ceiling in the Long Gallery at Lanhydrock House (National Trust). It offers a new model for the interpretation of this key monument which has the potential to transform the public role of several similar sites in the Southwest. Plasterwork represents a significant part of the West Country's artistic heritage in the 17th century. Elaborate ceilings and mantelpieces were key in communicating complex views on religion, society, family, gender, and the environment. Made from readily available materials, they represent a genuinely local practice of image-making in post-Reformation Britain. The Genesis cycle in the Long Gallery at Lanhydrock House with its 36 large narrative scenes on a 116 feet long and 20 feet wide barrel vault has always been recognized as the centerpiece of this tradition. Despite its potential global significance, the ceiling is little-known beyond specialist circles and our knowledge of its commission, design, and making remains limited. This is a time-sensitive project: the National Trust is embarking on the restoration of the ceiling in 2024 and it has partnered up with the University of Plymouth to conduct full 3D digital and laser scans of the barrel vault (before, during, and after the restoration). Adapting methodologies from the field of art history and digital heritage, the Genesis in Plaster interdisciplinary project will transform the understanding and public perception of the ceiling. In terms of the design, the project focuses on the new identification of a set of visual sources that inspired the rich depictions of the Book of Genesis. These art historical findings are brought together with digital heritage surveys. The project will use cutting-edge 3D laser scanning to reveal the plasterwork in unprecedented detail. This will offer new insights into the material creation of the scenes and the design of their iconography, establishing the ceiling's international import. The reinterpretation of Genesis cycle at Lanhydrock House will galvanize the study of 17th century plasterwork in the Southwest since it will offer a new and solid starting point for the analysis of their materiality and iconography. The process of digital scanning to investigate the ceiling will also be the foundation for a series of impact activities at Lanydrock, directly informing the new visitor route and experience from March 2025. The 3D model will be integrated into c. 20 min long film about the Long Gallery in flat screen and dome formats. The flat screen version will be displayed on the National Trust website and at Lanhydrock. The dome version will be shown at immersive venues in the UK and overseas (first screening at Market Hall, Plymouth). Both settings will include 1:1 scale tangible 3D prints. All digital outputs and 3D scans (photogrammetry, lidar scans and render versions) are to be deposited open access at University of Plymouth.

There is a global biodiversity crisis driven by mounting pressures including land degradation and climate change. Within the UK, responses include the Government's 25 Year Environment Plan, which sets out a vision to secure a more biodiverse, connected and resilient landscape. The Natural Capital Committee has argued for the need to secure Net Environmental Gains, and this is a provision of the upcoming Environment Bill. A recent report from the UK Parliamentary Office for Science and Technology highlights the needs to secure our natural capital, not just to support biodiversity, but also ensure the provision of wider ecosystem services. Questions remain, however, as to how we achieve net environmental gain; what should go where? What does success look like? How long may it take to reassemble resilient communities that can reliably deliver ecosystem services? One widely adopted approach to securing net environmental gain is that of "ecological restoration". However, using specific natural and semi-natural ecosystems to define endpoints is increasingly contested, as target "pristine" states are hard to define, climate change is leading to a shifting baseline, and there is a need to restore ecosystems that are resilient to future pressures. We need a new paradigm for goal-seeking in ecological restoration which goes beyond reference systems, is agnostic as to prior assumptions of intactness, integrity and system "health", based on diagnostics of characteristics of functionally intact systems. There is an aspiration across the devolved administrations to deliver net environmental gain in biodiversity across all land uses. However, the restoration of ecological communities has been led by practitioners, with relatively little evidence gathered as to how individual restoration projects link together spatially to enhance the resilience of communities. This consortium brings together leading academic ecologists with a public sector organisation and a charity at the forefront of practical restoration activities, to extract the evidence from past activities through a natural experiment, and test resilience through manipulations. We intend to measure biodiversity, architecture and multifunctionality in ecosystems in different stages of transition from a degraded state, identify determinants and measures of complexity, and seek signals of emergent properties - especially resilience to perturbation. We have chosen grasslands and woodlands, being two major habitat types targeted for restoration programmes. Further to this we shall explore how approaches to accelerating re-integration of systems may affect emergent properties. In summary, we propose to move restoration science forward, but considering complexity and resilience as fundamental aims for restoration projects, rather than attempting to re-create specific target ecosystems.

We will exploit the potential of scientific equipment, portable tools of analysis, and digital data capture technology to significantly enhance the Trust's core functions to understand, look after, and promote our historic collections and sites. It will provide new pathways to innovative cultural and creative research and will provide rich data to better inform the management of material change of heritage assets now and in the future. The development of a mutual learning environment among universities, cultural institutions, and creative enterprises, will encourage a future generation of heritage scientists and practice-led specialists to address the contemporary challenges of managing material change of moveable and immoveable heritage. The NT is home to a remarkable portfolio of heritage assets across the UK from historic buildings, monuments, landscapes, gardens, archaeological sites, as well as over a million objects in our care. The proposed upgrades and enhancements of scientific facilities, and historic digital data capture will significantly increase existing creative research capability and extend the breadth and geographic reach of our current provision to other organisations and networks. It will build on our reputation for conservation excellence and innovative cross-disciplinary partnerships, significantly increasing our support for others by providing a national-scale resource for collaboration, education, and shared training. By exploiting the potential of portable tools of analysis we will undertake research to deepen understanding of how objects in our collections were made and used, and the cultural contexts in which they are situated. Crucially, scientific analysis will also help us to document change over time to inform choices of how change is managed now and in the future. Building on the exceptional public engagement programme established at Knole Conservation Studio, we will use augmented reality tools (AR) to enable novel approaches to develop and trial immersive content. This presents a unique opportunity to connect with the public and to share with other heritage organisations the challenges and choices of collection conservation presentation and management. Enhanced heritage digital data capture tools, for example, geophysical survey equipment, photographometry, and handheld laser scanners will provide digital twin outputs to monitor change and enable research to make better informed choices of how we manage heritage now and in the future. These digital tools will provide new quality, multi-purpose datasets, which will support us and other historic asset managers to devise more effective interventions to maintain and adapt the historic environment to maximise benefits whilst retaining cultural value. This is particularly timely, as climate change is resulting in unprecedented impacts on historic sites. We will develop relationships with new heritage research partners and stakeholders, especially those in under-served regions of the UK. Given the Trust's geographical reach, uniquely we will provide 'in the wild' state of the art evaluation of heritage assets by taking the tools to the assets, along with management and conservation protocols. This will enable a diverse range of researchers (including Early Career Researchers (ECRs), secondees, interns) to develop interdisciplinary capability, practice-led skills, and carry out knowledge exchange, to catalyse new creative research opportunities. As an incremental step towards our ambitions to grow our research capacity and capability across the Trust, this project will provide the platform for creating a culture for mutual sharing of equipment and knowledge. This will be achieved through training, workshops, placements, and hosting through existing and new networks. The project will provide new economic opportunities, inform regulatory frameworks, and develop skills to meet heritage challenges now and in the future.