Heritage@Exeter Scoping Event - Streatham Campus

Heritage assets everywhere are confronting existential challenges from the combined effects of the post-pandemic recovery, a global economic downturn, and the increasingly acute dangers of climate change and environmental vulnerability. Both the present operations and the future strategy for heritage in all forms – cultural, natural, intangible – now appear open to question. Heritage@Exeter, the working-title for a community of researchers at the University, is aiming to become established as an Exeter Research Network (ERN). ERNs are a key component of the Research and Innovation theme within the University Strategy 2030. They offer a framework for extending and enhancing research capacity in areas of current need, providing the support to connect researchers across the University and outwardly with partners in public policy, industry, business and the arts, cultural and social spheres. 

In the past decade the University of Exeter has established a critical mass of research and professional service staff engaged in developing and leading a wide variety of knowledge exchange, public engagement, and policy-informing projects in the heritage sector. This activity extends across the south-west region, the UK, Europe and globally, involving cultural and creative organisations - public, charitable and commercial - as collaborative partners. Their work builds on the knowledge and methods of the Humanities, Social Science and STEMM disciplines and benefits from significant, state-of-the-art infrastructure at the University’s Exeter and Cornwall campuses. Projects devised within this group have attracted funding awards from UKRI, Innovate UK, European Research Council, Leverhulme and the Wellcome Trust, positioning Exeter in the front rank of the UK Russell Group for responsive and impactful heritage research.

There is a growing recognition among policy-makers that positive action on social and cultural wellbeing calls for a breadth and depth of resilient heritage provisions. The Exeter research group aims now to focus their activity to assist the sector in addressing these concerns: to extend the contexts of heritage practice, to expand and diversify participation and to build viable and sustainable business models. A Research Network will be formed, to ensure expertise and facilities can be harnessed by the sector, opportunities for funding supported can be realised, and collaborative projects can be coordinated through to completion. A sequence of scoping discussions are planned for April (academic) and May (external partners) to help form the network.

Please sign-up to this event on Eventbrite. Everyone is welcome to attend either event, and transport can be covered from Penryn Campus to Streatham Campus.

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