Nottingham Heritage Science Gateway (NHSG)

Heritage science sits at the interface between humanities and science disciplines. It has the potential to inform contemporary societies of the impacts and implications of decision-making in the past, exploring the lives and deep time experiences of past human groups. It can also help us understand challenges of the future, such as legacy pollutants and climate change. As researchers in a naturally interdisciplinary field, Heritage Scientists are often dispersed, and opportunities can be limited. The Nottingham Heritage Science Gateway (NHSG) will be a centre of expertise in sample preparation and scientific analysis for a range of heritage materials, focussing on best practice workflows, new standards and innovative capabilities, and making these widely accessible.
The range and complexities of heritage materials, recovery conditions, methods of investigation and potential harms and contaminants mean that sampling and analysis for heritage science require specialist skills, expert knowledge, a variety of dedicated equipment and sometimes highly controlled environmental conditions. Sampling can be intricate, time consuming and require variable methodologies depending on materials and preservation conditions. The dispersed nature of current expertise and the costs associated with analysis means that access is often prohibitive for many organisations and groups, and outcomes may be disappointing or problematic if analyses are attempted without the correct procedures in place.

The NHSG will offer access to a range of facilities as part of an existing and developing interdisciplinary network of heritage science capabilities and capacities across the University of Nottingham, known as the N-MESH labs: the Nottingham Materials and Environment Science and Heritage Laboratories. As part of this development, the NHSG will allow the creation of a new clean lab facility, specifically designed to limit airborne contaminants and control environmental conditions and employ a Technician that is dedicated to developing and providing access to heritage science capabilities across the University of Nottingham.

The Nottingham Heritage Science Gateway (NHSG) will provide a national centre for sample preparation and analyses for a wide variety of heritage and archaeological materials. Designed to bridge disciplinary divides and provide a state-of-the-art workflow for material, molecular and environmental heritage science, our facility will:
1) Address an immediate gap in expertise and paucity in knowledge-sharing opportunities to build capacity and support innovation in heritage science techniques. We will consult senior heritage science practitioners in the development of the NHSG over the first 2 years to promote advances in analytical heritage science research and training opportunities for the next generation of researchers/technicians.
2) Enable a new generation of researchers/technologists. The facility will employ a specialist technician to assist in the development and delivery of accessible heritage science. They will be trained in a variety of methods, research how to tackle challenges as they arise and play a key role in the development of a peer-network of technical roles nationally (via Institute for Technical Skills and Strategy (ITSS) and the United Kingdon Technicians Network UKTN) to enable a supportive and resilient research environment for heritage science staff development.
3) Provide access to workflows for a variety of processes and provide rapid access to a wide range of disciplinary expertise. The facility will provide end users with an informed set of choices on how best to analyse artefacts/samples and the range of potential outcomes. By bringing collective expertise to bear, we aim to reduce risks and costs associated with destructive analysis by making sure that well-considered research questions, appropriate analysis and best practice are at the heart of all we do, thereby making the results more accessible and of greater value to a broad range of end users.