The Hero Project (THP) aims to initiate a national conversation about the figure of the hero. Using a widely disseminated web-mounted survey to take the temperature of the nation, we will ask the British public: who are our heroes today? Who were our heroes? Our intentions are four-fold. First, to establish the features or achievements of a person that contribute to their status as 'hero.' Second, to examine whether or not hero status is historically contingent. Third, to explore the way in which the historical selection of heroes can be seen to have assisted in the formation of ideas of national and community identity. And finally, to pose the further question: are heroes found or made, the latter leading to the fascinating issues: (how) can we build a hero? And how might hero-creation help to shape our futures? Working with two prestigious partner organisations, in the form of the Royal Geographical Society (London) and the Scottish National Portrait Gallery (Edinburgh), our cross-disciplinary team based at Newcastle, Aberdeen and Birmingham universities will undertake an integrated programme of research and dissemination activities to explore and analyse the hero figure past, present and future. The Hero Conference - a major international, cross-sector conference, to be held at the RGS in Summer 2015 - will bring together academic, public sector, charity, military and commercial participants to debate the hero figure, and its relevance to today's organisations and audiences. The accompanying 'Heroes of Exploration' exhibition will draw attention to the RGS's holdings, and the role of that organisation in shaping and archiving exploration heroics across the decades. At the SNPG, we will complete archival research and provide a new path through the collections via 'The Hero Trail' - a leaflet aimed at engaging the strategically important 16-24 age group. The research team will also complete journal articles on hero topics in our own areas of research, and mentor a Research Associate in doing likewise. Gathering further collaborators and interested parties across the year of the award, we aim to consolidate 'hero studies' as an important and engaging new field of research, with enormous potential for follow-on and spin-off projects.