The central aim of Mind the Gap: Rigour and Relevance in Heritage Science Research is to optimise the impact of practice-focused research by examining a fundamental question emerging from AHRC/EPSRC Science and Heritage Programme (SHP) Research Clusters (2008). Specifically, this project will consider the impediments to effective collaborative research across the boundaries between academic research and practitioner communities, sometimes referred to as the 'rigour and relevance gap', and will consider the offer of arts and humanities disciplines to inform the question. The project will be developed through the case study of the key outcome of the cluster EGOR, PAS: 198 Specification for Environmental Conditions for Cultural Collections, as this published work attempts to bridge the boundary between academics and practitioners. Aims The purpose of this project is to: - Understand the dynamics and the boundaries of collaborative research so that a more effective and richer heritage science research can be achieved. - Engage and challenge arts and humanities disciplines in dealing with communication and cultural barriers in collaborative research. - Develop a framework that sets out the practices and protocols necessary for effective collaborative research and the uptake of research evidence that will sustain cultural heritage in the future. - Foster engagement with academic researchers, practitioners, and end users in the cultural heritage domain. To achieve these aims, Mind the Gap will: - Identify the barriers to communication between academic disciplines, practitioner and specialist communities as evidenced in SHP Research Clusters. - Improve research practice so that cross-disciplinary working can be effective and innovative, by exploring the contribution of arts and humanities disciplines such as linguistics, anthropology, history, education. - Undertake an attitude study of participants in the heritage science domain in the UK, to ascertain their experience of, and attitudes to, collaborative research and practices. - Publish a White Paper setting out a framework for collaborative research in heritage science. - Disseminate the findings of this project to policy makers including research councils, practitioners, professional and academic bodies, to ensure wide ranging and lasting impact. It is anticipated that the findings of this project will help to better understand how the economic and societal impacts of heritage science research are achieved and what organisational culture and practices' are in place to ensure the right research-based evidence, in addition to the culture necessary to achieve it. Using the 'lens' of arts and humanities disciplines, Mind the Gap will tease out the issues that define a 'working culture' and the distinct features of cultural heritage organisations, and heritage science cultures as reflected in language differences, working practices, and the take up of evidence in problem solving. One of the major outcomes of this will be the publication of a White Paper which will set out recommendations for overcoming the rigour-relevance gap in heritage science research and a framework for effective collaborations between academic and practitioner communities.

This application seeks support for two expert meetings and other participatory events for MoHoA partners and affiliates from the Global South to coincide with and enable their attendance at the MoHoA conference titled 'Modern Heritage and the Anthropocene', organised by The Bartlett School of Architecture (UCL), The School of Architecture at Liverpool University, and the University of Cape Town. The two expert meetings will be held immediately before and after the conference to capitalise on and maximise the opportunities afforded by such an ambitious one-off event. Combined with associated UK site visits and meetings, the expert meetings will provide a unique and timely opportunity to bring together academics, practitioners, and other related professionals and stakeholders from different disciplines to strengthen global research networks engaged with decolonising, decentring, and reframing modern heritage and contribute to the completion of the Cape Town Document on Modern Heritage. This seminal document will be formally presentation to UNESCO after the conference at the second expert meeting on 29 October 2022. Research networking activities will take place during two one-day expert meetings addressing specific topics related to MoHoA's agenda including the finalisation of the Cape Town Document on Modern Heritage, as well as specific site visits / tours of partner institutions in the UK. This application will allow up to 12 international partners from the Global South to engage meaningfully with a wide range of UK participants, professionals, and organisations, including universities, museums, galleries, National Trust, and Historic England, Scotland and Wales. This process will be documented in an edited open-access book and, together with MoHoA's wider activities, compiled into a series of freely available teaching materials on MoHoA's website. MoHoA's conception coincided with the 20th anniversary of the Modern Heritage Programme, jointly initiated by UNESCO, ICOMOS, and DOCOMOMO in 2001, presenting a timely and important opportunity to reflect on the transformative cultural experiences and global consequences of the recent past that heralded the dawn of the Anthropocene and its impacts on society, culture, climate, and the planet. Since its inception, MoHoA has successfully attracted funding for discrete activities and developed a strong research network that engaged hundreds of participants across four thematic workshops with key partners including the Africa World Heritage Fund (AWHF), UNESCO, ICOMOS, ICCROM, IUCN, the Swahilipot East Africa Heritage Hub and the Getty Conservation Institute. It also hosted an international (online) conference at the University of Cape Town in Sept 2021 with over 50 papers presented. The initial phase of MoHoA was conceived within an African frame for two reasons. Firstly, the continent has been uniquely marginalised by current conceptualisations of 'modern' within heritage discourses. (Africa has just 89 cultural UNESCO World Heritage sites (less than Italy and Spain combined), compared with Europe's 439, and only one of these is exclusively categorised as 'modern heritage' - Asmara: A Modernist African City, the former Italian colonial city and capital of Eritrea). Secondly, Africa will experience the highest rates of urbanisation over the next 30 years. The heritage of our recent past therefore possesses the paradox of being of modernity and yet existentially threatened by its consequences. The diverse issues associated with this paradox, from ecological crisis to structural racism, and their lessons for researching, defining, protecting, and ascribing value to 'the modern', will be the focus of the MoHoA conference at UCL in Oct 2022 and the activities outlined in this application. If successful, this collaboration will make one of the most significant contributions to decentring heritage theory and practice in more than a generation.

The EPSRC Collaborative Doctoral Training Centre in Science and Engineering in Arts, Heritage and Archaeology (CDT SEAHA) will create a sustainable world-leading training hub producing leaders in the cutting-edge domains of measurement and sensing, materials characterisation, interaction technologies, digital technologies and new ventures. The graduates from the programs will not only create new scientific and engineering knowledge and fill skills gaps in these domains but have a deep understanding of the ethical, practical, economic and social imperatives of the deployment of this knowledge in the arts, Heritage and Archaeological sectors. University College London, University of Oxford and University of Brighton will work as a team bringing together highly complementary supervisory capacities in order to fill the skills gap in the cycle of data creation, data to knowledge and knowledge to enterprise by pushing the state-of-the-art in metrology, sensing, spectroscopy, materials characterisation, modelling, big data mining, crowd engagement, new interaction technologies, digital technology and business skills. Partnering with globally renowned (national and international) heritage organisations representing a world class, broad range of forms of heritage and the arts, the student cohorts will be trained and developed in fully engaged cross-disciplinary environments, challenged by research questions addressing complex materials and environments. The most advanced scientific tools and approaches, some to be developed in collaboration with the Diamond Light Source and the National Physical Laboratory, will be deployed to answer questions on its origin, date, creation, conservation and composition of objects and materials. In addition to the fundamental physical science approach, the students will, in an innovative cohort approach to training and development, explore ways of engaging with presentation and visualisation methods, using pervasive mobile, digital and creative technologies, and with qualitative and participatory methods. This approach will engage the sensors and instrumentation industrial domain, as well as creative industries, both high added value industries and major contributors to the UK economy. The CDT will have a transformative effect on public institutions concerned with heritage interpretation, conservation and management, generating substantial tourism income. Without the CDT, some of the most dynamic UK sectors will lose their competitive edge in the global arts and heritage market. The CDT was created with the close involvement of a number of stakeholders crucially contributing to the development of the training programme based on the cohort teaching approach. The added value of this approach is in that creativity is unleashed through the promotion of excellence in a series of cohort activities, in which the Partner institutions intensively collaborate in teaching, placements, supervision, networking and organisation of public engagement events. The particular added value of this CDT is the high potential for engagement of the general public with science and engineering, while promoting responsible innovation conscious of ethical and social dimensions of arts, heritage and archaeology. The CDT SEAHA builds on the highly successful AHRC/EPSRC Science and Heritage Programme at UCL which mobilised the UK heritage science sector and repositioned it at the forefront of global development. The CDT will represent a step-change in capacity building; it will propel a young generation of cross-disciplinary scientists and engineers into highly challenging but hugely interesting and rewarding careers in the heritage sector, in SMEs, and public institutions and equip them with translational and transferrable skills that will enable them to thrive in the most complex research and entrepreneurial environments.