How can we adapt our estate, practice and standards, to safeguard our collections in the most environmentally responsible way?

Background

As well as the record itself, we must also protect the environment and the institutions that sustain it. Archives are organisations with a long-term view: we must look forward to a changing climate in a ‘demonstrably sustainable’ way and inspire positive action by engaging with our planetary history.

This research theme captures our ambition to measure and reduce the environmental impact of our practice and of our physical and digital estate; and to use the untold wealth of geographical, environmental, ecological and geospatial information within our collection to inform the future through understanding the past.

We also must develop our physical infrastructure, in a responsible way – creating laboratories, repositories and public spaces fit for the future – and continue to invest in people, through our staff, students and partnerships.

Next steps

Get in touch with [email protected]

Source

This question was published as part of the set of ARIs in this document:

The national archives research vision 2024 27

Topics

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Research fields

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Related UKRI funded projects


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    Funded by: Infrastructure Fund

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    Why might this be relevant?

    The project focuses on developing sustainable practices for archives and libraries, aligning with the question's goal.

  • Empowering Action for Climate through Collections-based Institutions in LMICs

    Climate action continues to be insufficient in most countries and sectors, coinciding with worsening climate impacts. Culture, heritage and public participation relate to the all-of-society aspect of the Framework Conven...

    Funded by: AHRC

    Lead research organisation: UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON

    Why might this be relevant?

    The project aims to empower climate action through collections-based institutions, which partially aligns with the question's focus on environmental responsibility.

  • EGOR: Environmental Guidelines: Opportunities and Risks

    This research cluster will bring together a team of key professionals, academic researchers representing AHRC/EPSRC disciplines as well as heritage practitioners to appraise the costs and risks of current environmental g...

    Funded by: AHRC

    Lead research organisation: National Archives

    Why might this be relevant?

    The project focuses on appraising the costs and risks of current environmental guidelines for cultural heritage in response to a changing climate, which is related to the question but does not provide a direct solution.

  • Historic Environment Scotland submission for AHRC Capability for Collections Fund (CapCo) stream B - equipment

    These equipment upgrades will improve and enhance Historic Environment Scotland's (HES) core functions in investigating, caring for and promoting Scotland's historic environment, both in terms of managing our in-house co...

    Funded by: Infrastructure Fund

    Lead research organisation: Historic Environment Scotland

    Why might this be relevant?

    The project aims to enhance Historic Environment Scotland's core functions in investigating, caring for, and promoting Scotland's historic environment, which indirectly relates to safeguarding collections in an environmentally responsible way.

  • Building networks for creative and cultural responses to historic pollution and climate change research

    The proposed project would transform the research capability of the Department of Classics and Archaeology at the University of Nottingham (UoN), supporting engagement with our cultural and creative partners to translate...

    Funded by: Infrastructure Fund

    Lead research organisation: University of Nottingham

  • Real Versus Digital: Sustainability optimization for cultural heritage preservation in national libraries

    According to the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions "National libraries are the guardians of a country's national cultural heritage. They collect, preserve and make available a country...

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  • 'Collections Demography' On Dynamic Evolution of Populations of Objects

    Collections of heritage objects have a specifically dynamic evolution: they constantly grow and constantly degrade depending on use, environment and material properties. Understanding of this dynamics is currently lackin...

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  • Transformation and resilience of our landscapes, archaeology and built heritage: defining responses to societal and environmental pressures

    Cultural Heritage will, in the near future, be subject to substantial transformation in response to changing climate. Mitigation and adaptation measures will affect economic governance, and introduce sustainability press...

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    Lead research organisation: University of the West of Scotland

  • Linked Conservation Data - phase 2

    Phase 2 of the Linked Conservation Data (LCD) project builds on an existing collaboration between University of the Arts London and Stanford Libraries and a number of other high profile US and UK partners as part of a Re...

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  • Linked Conservation Data

    This project focuses on improving access to knowledge about collections in memory institutions (e.g. museums, galleries, libraries). Much of this knowledge is held in documentation about conservation: this includes recor...

    Funded by: FIC

    Lead research organisation: University of the Arts London