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Towards a National Collection Programme Directorate

Lead Research Organisation: Historic Environment Scotland
Department Name: Education and Outreach

Abstract

'Towards a National Collection: Opening UK Heritage to the World' is a five-year research programme funded under the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) Strategic Priorities Fund. Led by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), the programme aims to benefit researchers and audiences of all kinds by making the UK's unparalleled museum, library and heritage collections increasingly discoverable as a unified 'virtual collection'.

The programme will support two grant stages - eight small-scale 'Foundation' projects led by the AHRC's Independent Research Organisations (IRO) and delivered in partnership with UK Higher Education Institutions (HEI); and up to five large-scale 'Discovery' projects led and delivered by partnerships between the AHRC IROs and UK HEIs, with further collaboration with local and regional cultural, third sector or community organisations.

The programme directorate will lead and co-ordinate the programme, ensuring that the range of funded projects work together in a complementary way to demonstrate the value of unifying collections across types and geographies, and creating public-facing outputs that can be displayed to, and tested with, large-scale audiences across the UK. In addition, the directorate will undertake and commission additional research that underpins or connects the portfolio of grant-funded projects. The directorate will lead on communicating the ambitions and achievements of the programme to both stakeholders and the public, and on making recommendations as part of ensuring a legacy for the work.

The directorate will be based in Historic Environment Scotland and will comprise a Director, a Senior Digital Research Analyst and a Communications & Events Coordinator.
 
Description The findings of the Towards a National Collection programme fall into three categories - those made by the grant-funded research projects, those made through directly commissioned research, and those that resulted in the ten recommendations in the policy document 'Unlocking the potential of Digital Collections - a call to action'. The latter are listed below. All reports published by Towards a National Collection from the grant-funded and directly commissioned research are in the Towards a National Collection community on Zenodo. Each of the grant-funded projects report separately through Researchfish on their detailed publications, outputs and findings.

Towards a National Collection makes ten recommendations to build a UK digital collection.

1. Selection - how to select materials from which to build digital collections
Broaden our approach to what we include in our digital collections and expand who participates in the process of creating them.

2. Production - how to make the data for a UK digital collection
Accelerate how data is produced and allow new technologies to automate its enrichment.

3. Skills - the skills we have and the skills we need for a UK digital collection
Build upon the skills in data creation already within digital collections organisations through a scalable, sustainable approach to accessing advanced technology skills.

4. Reuse and rights management - how to create sharable collections data
Adopt a coherent, consistent approach to data and rights management.

5. Access and engagement - how to make data accessible to everyone
Make the platforms and infrastructure through which digital collections are used accessible and meaningful to everyone.

6. Security - how to protect our collections from harm
Ensure our data and technology infrastructure, and the way they are used, are protected by common standards and legislation, as governed by good practice.

7. Preservation - how to ensure digital collections survive change
Take a long-term view on the preservation of data to ensure we we can access it despite forces of change.

8. Impact - how to understand the usage of digital collections
Understand how our digital collections are used so we can fully harness their cultural, social and economic value.

9. Models and frameworks - how to help digital collections evolve
Treat digital collections as first-class research objects that allow us to transform our understanding of collections and the world.

10. Experimentation - research, development and innovation for digital collections
Continuously expose these collections to new technologies and new ways of thinking, while prioritising research into their environmental impact.
Exploitation Route The research outcomes of the Towards a National Collection are being taken forward in three main areas - Higher Education Institutions, the GLAM sector, and within funding bodies.

Within HEIs, those involved in TaNC grant-funded projects have developed their skills in interdisciplinary working, and will apply what they have learned in future projects. In addition, a new kind of researcher has emerged - one who can work successfully across the human/machine divide - which will positively benefit future research that involves curators, archivists, historians, digital humanities specialists and computer scientists. Specific outcomes of grant-funded research projects are recorded separately for each project in Researchfish.

For the GLAM sector - Galleries, Libraries, Archives and Museums - the research outcomes have directly and positively impacted how they are managing and developing their digital collections, as well as how they approach interdisciplinary work with the academic sector. The policy recommendations with the TaNC publication 'Unlocking the potential for digital collections - a call to action' were developed in consultation with the GLAM sector and provide a framework to follow for cultural heritage collections, with training support provided through 'Towards Digital Collections'.

Within funding bodies, and particularly within UKRI, the research outcomes of TaNC are directly influencing the shape, scope and focus of future funding for cultural heritage collections, including as they relate to emerging ideas for the delivery the AI Opportunities Action Plan, recently endorsed by the UK Government.
Sectors Creative Economy

Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software)

Culture

Heritage

Museums and Collections
URL https://zenodo.org/communities/tanc/records?q=&l=list&p=1&s=10&sort=newest
 
Description In March 2025, after five (and a bit) years, the Towards a National Collection programme comes to the end of its UKRI/AHRC Strategic Priorities Funding. Here we look back at the original vision for programme and comment on what it has achieved. • We will form a strong collaborative research community, bringing together researchers and practitioners from across the cultural heritage sector, with academic researchers, including those at the forefront of digital humanities and the disciplines they intersect with Beyond the individual findings and outputs, the building of a collaborative digital research community has been one of the key and lasting achievements of the programme. Bringing different disciplines together with different technical expertise to work towards common goals has not always been easy, but the knowledge and experience of how to do this well has built throughout the programme. Our community has encompassed not only those we have funded, but those who have participated in our events, followed us through newsletters and social media, read our reports and attended our conferences. • A step change will be made in the capacity, capability and ambition of cultural heritage organisations to connect their collections It has been invigorating to see how the programme has supported the development of new skills in a new generation of researchers and practitioners who can cross the technical/humanities divide, and now contribute to the delivery of enhanced levels of ambition across the collection sector and its funders. • From this new position of strength, knowledge and confidence, senior leaders and funders will be able to make informed decisions on future digital investment [effective from year 3] This new knowledge and confidence was clearly evident in the highly constructive engagement from 50 organisations in the development of our policy recommendations. As a result, AHRC has funded the programme directorate to continue its work, with a keen eye on working with partners and stakeholders to secure future investment in digital collections. • Researchers will have new forms of access to collection resources that cut across boundaries, allowing new research questions to be formed and new knowledge and understanding to be generated Our Foundation Projects started the process of enabling core and new forms of access, and their research and recommendations underpinned the development and delivery of our five large-scale Discovery Projects. Those Discovery Projects used digital innovations to bring diverse types of collections together and to establish the workflows for the generation of new knowledge and understanding, which they shared through their reports, academic papers, and multiple conference presentations. • The UK public and international visitors will enjoy improved access and experiences, both online and on-site Our Discovery Projects enhanced online access to collections as wide ranging as Community Generated Digital Content, and those that document, in historical, scientific and human terms, the industrial and maritime heritage, through a wide range of digital forms, including digital observatories, rich interfaces and aggregators. In addition, co-curated exhibitions have taken the collections of Sir Hans Sloane to Wales and Northern Ireland, and artist residencies have developed new work seen by thousands at Tate Modern. • A diverse range of audiences will directly participate in and enjoy the programme and its outputs Levels of participation in both the research and the public programmes of our Discovery Projects has been significant, ranging from artists of colour creating new artworks responding to both collection histories and the training of machine learning models, through communities making their data searchable alongside that held by The National Archives, to detailed co-creation of VR with visually impaired people. • The benefits of the programme will be felt across the UK Of the Independent Research Organisations, Higher Education Institutions and further partner and collaborating organisations across our funded research projects, 76% were based in England, 14% in Scotland, 5% in Northern Ireland, and 4% in Wales. Through our commissioned research, our further investments benefitted public and private organisations in England, Scotland and Wales. Our training materials are freely available for anyone, anywhere to develop their digital collection knowledge and skills. • The programme will be recognised as making a key contribution to UKRI (and more generally UK) infrastructure investment planning and will provide clear evidence and exemplars that guide enhanced funding going forward At the time of writing, the Towards a National Collection programme is being cited as a key resource to draw on for elements of the delivery of the AI Opportunities Action Plan, commissioned and endorsed by the UK Government. Planning is also actively underway towards securing infrastructure investment for cultural heritage digital collections. • Everyone involved in delivering the programme will feel pride in what it has achieved, feel energised to develop and enhance its benefits and will reflect on it as a positive collaborative endeavour that made a real difference to how our collections are connected and understood Our independently executed Impact Evaluation tells us that GLAM sector organisations are most positive about how we helped develop collaborations, improved working across disciplines, encouraged innovation, enhanced engagement with public audiences, and facilitated partnerships with the higher education sector. Learnings from our programme, the evaluators report, are seen as useful in informing a shared vision for a national collection and in decisions on future priorities and practical next steps. As one Discovery Project participant said, "people are now buzzing with ideas".
First Year Of Impact 2020
Sector Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software),Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections
Impact Types Cultural

Policy & public services
 
Description Towards Digital Collections training materials
Geographic Reach National 
Policy Influence Type Influenced training of practitioners or researchers
URL https://www.nationalcollection.org.uk/events/news/towards-digital-collections
 
Description Unlocking the Potential of Digital Collections: A call to action
Geographic Reach National 
Policy Influence Type Contribution to new or improved professional practice
URL https://www.nationalcollection.org.uk/tanc-policy-recommendations
 
Title A survey of access to the digital collections of 195 UK GLAMs across internal and external platforms - Appendix 1 for A Culture of Copyright: A scoping study on open access to digital cultural heritage collections in the UK 
Description Created for the 'A Culture of Copyright: A scoping study on open access to digital cultural heritage collections in the UK' report, this sample replicates and expands the Open galleries, libraries, archives and museums (GLAMs) Survey data extraction and methodology to include a range of GLAMs across the UK and new data points. The initial sample of 350 organisations included Independent Research Organisations (IROs) and Research Centre Institutes (RCIs), GLAMs associated with Towards a National Collection Foundation and Discovery projects, UK GLAMs in the Open GLAM Survey, and other UK GLAMs and related organisations. An initial review was performed to identify and remove organisations outside the scope of inquiry (e.g., no permanent collections). The final sample included 195 organisations. From the final sample, 24 are IROs (all RCIs were removed). Another 32 are Universities (including GLAMs within universities). This brings the total number of organisations eligible for AHRC funding to 56 (or 28.6%). The remaining 140 include public and private GLAMs at national, regional and local levels (e.g., councils, historic buildings) and research initiatives or data aggregators (e.g., Portable Antiquities Scheme, Culture Grid, Archaeology Data Service). Organisations are distributed across the UK as follows: Channel Islands (1 total); England (154 total); Isle of Man (1 total); Northern Ireland (5 total); Scotland (28 total); Wales (6 total). A survey of the copyright and open access policies of 63 GLAMs from the UK GLAM Sample is available on Zenodo at: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6242559 
Type Of Material Database/Collection of data 
Year Produced 2022 
Provided To Others? Yes  
URL https://zenodo.org/record/6242178
 
Title After the Crowds Disperse 
Description Over the past decade, cultural heritage organisations have increasingly turned to volunteers through citizen research (or crowdsourcing) platforms to help make their holdings digitally accessible for discovery and research. These platforms have proved to be highly successful, both in attracting and retaining the interest of volunteers, and in the rate and quality of data collected. They have provided a new and deeper level of engagement and attracted more diverse audiences to national collections. However, there are still significant hurdles to overcome to achieve seamless sharing and movement of data between institutional Collection Management Systems (CMS) and crowdsourcing platforms, and back again. If crowdsourcing is to fulfil the potential of its generous volunteers this break in the data cycle must be closed. 
Type Of Material Database/Collection of data 
Year Produced 2022 
Provided To Others? Yes  
URL https://zenodo.org/record/7081408
 
Title Born Digital, Born Slippery - Data Modelling for Born Digital/Hybrid objects (March 2022) 
Description The report Preserving and sharing born-digital and hybrid objects from and across the National Collection discusses the challenges for cultural heritage institutions in cataloguing, preserving, and providing access to four born digital and hybrid objects/projects. This response looks at the issues brought up by those discussions, in particular for the purpose of cataloguing, and the extent, within existing cataloguing standards, they can be supported. Where there does not appear to be support within current standards, model development activity is proposed to allow the expansion of the current `born physical` focused cataloguing standards to also handle born digital and hybrid object cataloguing. 
Type Of Material Database/Collection of data 
Year Produced 2022 
Provided To Others? Yes  
URL https://zenodo.org/record/7100631
 
Title Citizen research landscape documentation 
Description This report reflects on existing citizen research activity in the UK heritage sector by summarising both published research and current citizen research activity at Independent Research Organisations (IROs) and other heritage organisations, addressing the following questions: How do institutions and volunteers experience online citizen research; what are the motivations and rewards? Were projects successful in what they set out to do? What challenges have projects faced? What recommendations can be made based on the experiences of these projects? In December 2020, we circulated a call for information from cultural heritage practitioners in the UK running citizen research projects online. This report draws on the responses generously sent in answer to our call, focusing primarily on online projects based in the UK. A full list of the featured projects can be found in the Appendix. In July 2021, members of the Engaging Crowds project team coordinated a workshop at the Discovering Collections, Discovering Communities (DCDC) conference to gather insights from practitioners and researchers with experience of enabling and supporting online volunteering. The discussions from this workshop are also summarised in this report. A broad range of experience of citizen research in the UK is included in this report, from small-scale short-term projects, such as those set up to move pre-established volunteering projects online in response to the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, to large-scale long-term citizen research projects. What is evident from all responses received to the call for information is that online citizen research projects bring many benefits to both volunteers and organisations, and also present a number of challenges. Successes relate to volunteer recruitment and engagement, as well as opportunities for increased data production and data quality. Data quality, however, was also reported by a number of respondents as an area of challenge, together with issues relating to chosen citizen research platforms and open access. In synthesising the experiences reported by responding projects and workshop participants, this report has identified a number of recommendations for future citizen research projects. 
Type Of Material Database/Collection of data 
Year Produced 2022 
Provided To Others? Yes  
URL https://zenodo.org/record/7079082
 
Title People and machines: co creating with heritage collections 
Description Machine-learning technologies such as Handwritten Text Recognition (HTR) are beginning to be used to open and transform cultural heritage material, enabling search, discovery and the creation of linked data. Whereas in 2014, Ridge described cultural heritage crowdsourcing projects as asking the public to undertake tasks that cannot be done automatically,1 today, some projects are asking volunteers to undertake tasks which could be completed by a machine with a high level of speed and accuracy. A deeper exploration of the opportunities and challenges presented by increased incorporation of machine-learning technologies into crowdsourcing projects has yet to be undertaken. This workshop was designed to start these discussions. The 'People and Machines' interdisciplinary workshop explored the best routes to fuse digital innovations with the dedication and enthusiasm of volunteers through discussion of what makes an effective crowdsourcing task, how to maintain volunteer motivation, and methods of supporting volunteers to produce useful data, both as part of traditional crowdsourcing, and as part of workflows incorporating machine learning. This report uses the term 'machine learning' to refer to a range of technical approaches which use statistical models and algorithms to analyse and draw inferences from patterns in data. Machine learning models and algorithms 'learn' from the data they are given, and autonomously adapt and improve their accuracy in response. Machine learning, which includes supervised learning, unsupervised learning, and deep learning, is a subfield of Artificial Intelligence. 
Type Of Material Database/Collection of data 
Year Produced 2022 
Provided To Others? Yes  
URL https://zenodo.org/record/7079534
 
Title Preserving and sharing born-digital and hybrid objects from and across the National Collection (Decision-Making Model) 
Description When considering the complex challenges faced by cultural heritage organisations in collecting, preserving and sharing born digital and hybrid objects, it becomes clear that the process of defining solutions as a community of practice is in its early probing phase: characterised as tentative, exploratory, questioning, experimental. The workshops within this Preserving and sharing born-digital and hybrid objects from and across the National Collection project, which examined the case studies from multiple angles, yielded a richly discursive examination of the main considerations. This Decision Model represents an attempt to create a structured representation of those main considerations and the discourse from the workshops, to codify the main decision-making processes that an organisation may go through when assessing an acquisition of such an object, categorised into high level areas. It attempts to create a traversable system that could be used by collections professionals in their work - policy makers, managers, collections management or digital preservation practitioners, conservators. 
Type Of Material Database/Collection of data 
Year Produced 2022 
Provided To Others? Yes  
URL https://zenodo.org/record/7097489
 
Title Preserving and sharing born-digital and hybrid objects from and across the National Collection (January 2022) 
Description This report is one of a set of outputs from the Arts and Humanities Research Council funded project 'Preserving and sharing born-digital and hybrid objects from and across the National Collection'. It has been designed to provide an extensive account of the project research activities and findings, to be useful to museum, heritage, and preservation professionals, as well as to scholars interested in born-digital materials. 
Type Of Material Database/Collection of data 
Year Produced 2022 
Provided To Others? Yes  
URL https://zenodo.org/record/7097278
 
Title User engagement analysis report 
Description This study looks at classification (transcribed) data from the three citizen research projects in Engaging Crowds, which were set up on the Zooniverse platform: HMS NHS: The Nautical Health Service, Scarlets and Blues and The RBGE Herbarium: Exploring Gesneriaceae, the African violet family. Each project presents volunteers with a series of tasks (known as 'workflows' in Zooniverse terminology). The projects and their workflows are summarised in Tables 1, 2 and 3 below. From these we can see that HMS NHS is the largest and longest-running of the three projects and so gives us our best sample of volunteer behaviour. We can also see that the workflows in The RBGE Herbarium were completed most quickly by volunteers, possibly aided by the project's familiarity: it is perhaps most similar to the majority of Zooniverse projects, which deal with observational scientific data in simple workflows with short tasks. Volunteers tended to contribute to just one of the Engaging Crowds projects. Within the data analysed, only 13 volunteers contributed to all three projects. 
Type Of Material Database/Collection of data 
Year Produced 2022 
Provided To Others? Yes  
URL https://zenodo.org/record/7151973
 
Title Voice of the volunteers 
Description The 'Voice of the Volunteers' workshop was designed to hear directly from volunteers who had taken part in online cultural heritage citizen research projects. We wanted to hear about their motivations, experience and preferences. We also used the workshop as an opportunity to elicit feedback on the newly launched indexing tool, which allows volunteers taking part in Zooniverse projects to choose their own pathway through a set of records. This workshop was part of a series of workshops within the project Engaging Crowds: citizen research and heritage data at scale, a collaboration between The National Archives, the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, Royal Museums Greenwich and Zooniverse at the University of Oxford. Engaging Crowds is a Foundation Project within the Arts and Humanities Research Council-funded Towards a National Collection programme. 
Type Of Material Database/Collection of data 
Year Produced 2022 
Provided To Others? Yes  
URL https://zenodo.org/record/7151963
 
Title Volunteer survey report 
Description At the beginning of March 2022, we ran a survey to help us to understand more about the volunteers who have contributed to the three Engaging Crowds citizen research projects on the Zooniverse platform and to evaluate the indexing tool that was developed as part of the project. The survey link was circulated via a Zooniverse email newsletter to all registered volunteers who had taken part in these projects A total of 379 people took the survey, with 318 completing it and 61 partially completing it. The survey was divided into three sections, which asked volunteers to share reflections on their previous experience of citizen research, on the new Zooniverse indexing tool designed as part of Engaging Crowds, and on the wider impact of citizen research on their lives. This report includes responses to each quantitative question and a summary of qualitative responses. Respondents consented to their responses being analysed and the survey's anonymised results published. Responses to this survey provide extensive evidence that online cultural heritage citizen research has an overwhelmingly positive self-reported impact on participants. Respondents cited a range of benefits to participation in online cultural heritage citizen research projects. These were a mixture of altruistic benefits, such as helping with research, giving back, and increasing access to records, and benefits to the individual, including providing opportunities for learning and development, filling in time productively, and gaining a sense of community. Feedback on the Zooniverse indexing tool was broadly positive. Many respondents reported that they liked being able to choose the subject set they worked on. The survey also suggests that online cultural heritage citizen research encourages participants to engage in follow-up activities and extend their engagement into their personal networks and wider society, for example, by talking to others, encouraging others to contribute, and engaging with related projects. 
Type Of Material Database/Collection of data 
Year Produced 2022 
Provided To Others? Yes  
URL https://zenodo.org/record/7151993
 
Description AHRC Executive Chair and Directors Group with Programme Directors 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Presentation by Rebecca Bailey of thematic case study on data and digital
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2024
 
Description Commissioned Research Webinar: Value of Collections 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Commisioned Research workshop on User Research and Total Economic Value
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2024
 
Description Copyright and Open Access Roundtable 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Copyright and Open Access Roundtable
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2021
 
Description Cross-TaNC Ethics Workshop 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Workshop to discuss how ethics should be foregrounded in future projects and programmes
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2024
 
Description Data Documentation Focus Group Workshop 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Cross-TaNC project workshop on data documentation
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2024
 
Description Digital Practice in Heritage Collections during the COVID-19 pandemic - webinar 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Webinar to share results of three COVID-19 research projects
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
 
Description Digital Public Engagement Webinar 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Digital Public Engagement Webinar
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2021
 
Description Discovery Project Webinar: Heritage Data Practices and Decentralisation 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Webinar to share researcher contributions to Discovery Projects
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2024
 
Description Discovery Project Webinar: Language and Access. Machine Learning for Digital Collections 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Webinar to share researcher contributions to Discovery Projects
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2024
 
Description Discovery Project Webinar: Research methods and ethics; connecting UK heritage data 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Webinar to share researcher contributions to Discovery Projects
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2024
 
Description Discovery Projects Webinar: Designing and co-designing experiences for digital collections 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Webinar to share researcher contributions to Discovery Projects
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2024
 
Description Discovery Projects Webinar: Digital Infrastructure 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Webinar to share researcher contributions to Discovery Project
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2024
 
Description Discovery Projects pre call meeting - Edinburgh 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Information and consultation on Discovery Projects funding programme
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2020
 
Description Discovery Projects pre call meeting - London 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Information and consultation on Discovery Projects grant programme
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2020
 
Description Discovery Projects webinar series 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Information on Discovery Projects Call - 27 May, 1, 2 & 3 June, 11, 12, 18 & 19 August 2020
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2020
URL https://www.nationalcollection.org.uk/funding-calls
 
Description External event - Archivos Magazine 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Presentation in 'Archivos Symposium'
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2021
 
Description External event - Boundary Objects Project 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Presentation in 'Boundary Objects'
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2021
 
Description External event - British Library 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Presentation in 'Open and Engaged'
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2021
 
Description External event - DCDC 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Digital interactive presentation in DCDC conference
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2021
 
Description External event - Data to Power 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Presentation in 'GLAM and Digital Soft Power'
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2021
 
Description External event - Museum Computer Group 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Keynote presentation in 'Museums and Tech'
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2021
 
Description External event - School of Advanced Study, University of London 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Postgraduate students
Results and Impact Presentation in 'Unlocking Collections'
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2021
 
Description External event - The National Archives/Independent Research Organisation Consortium 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Presentation in 'TNA Open Collections'
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2021
 
Description External presentation - Council on Library and Information Resources 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Presentation at 'New Shapes of Sharing'
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2021
 
Description External presentation - Max Planck Institute for Art History 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Presentation at 'Digital Reflections seminar'
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2021
 
Description First International Seminar 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact First in series highlighting international exemplar projects of relevance to Towards a National Collection. Featured DigitalNZ and JapanSearch.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2020
 
Description Foundation Projects Webinar 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Sharing results of Locating a National Collection, Engaging Crowds, and Heritage PIDs projects
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
 
Description Foundation Projects Webinar 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Sharing results of Practical Applications of IIIF, Born Digital and Deep Discoveries projects
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
 
Description Foundations Projects Webinar 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Webinar to share results of Heritage Connector and Provisional Semantics projects
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
 
Description International Webinar: African and Indigenous Futures; Harnessing AI for Global South Languages 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact International Webinar
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2024
 
Description International Webinar: Linking digital collections globally 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact International Webinar
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2024
 
Description Museum Leadership in 21st Century ICOM conference in Zambia 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Presentation by Rebecca Bailey on 'Towards a Digital Collections Infrastructure'
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2024
 
Description Open Access in UK Heritage Collections Webinar 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Sharing Andrea Wallace's research into copyright and open access
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
 
Description Presentation at Art Fund/Museum Association Workshop 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Presentation as part of event on Digital Impact Research
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
 
Description Presentation at Australian workshop 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Presentation on Towards a National Collection at workshop on future of museum collections held in Melbourne, Australia
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
 
Description Presentation at British Library workshop 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Presentation on digital collection infrastructures at Open and Engaged: Community over Commercialisation at British Library, London
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
 
Description Presentation at Creative Commons Global Summit in Mexico City 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Presentation drawing on Towards a National Collection, at Creative Commons Global Summit in Mexico City
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
 
Description Presentation at Culture and Museums International Tech Forum in Malaga, Spain 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Presentation at international conference
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
 
Description Presentation at international workshop organised by Sloane Lab in Darmstadt, Germany 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Other audiences
Results and Impact Presentation on Towards a National Collection at European Knowledge Exchange event
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
 
Description Presentation to All Party Parliamentary Group on Archives and History 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact Presentation of the work of Towards a National Collection to inform and involve politicians
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
 
Description Presentation to Collaborative Doctoral Partnership students 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Postgraduate students
Results and Impact Presentation on Towards a National Collection to UK cohort of Collaborative Doctoral Partnership students
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
 
Description Presentation to Digital Skills Summit 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Introduction to Towards a National Collection, and contribution to debate on digital skills
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2020
 
Description Presentation to IROC workshop 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Presentation on policy recommendations and infrastructure ambitions of Towards a National Collection, at Independent Research Organisations Consortium Digital Scholarship Workshop
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
 
Description Presentation to Independent Research Organisation Consortium 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Update on Towards a National Collection for heads of research
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
 
Description Presentation to Swedish National Heritage Board, Stockholm, Sweden 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Presentation on Towards a National Collection as part of digital session at Swedish National Heritage Board biennial conference
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
 
Description Presentation to Warburg Institute 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Other audiences
Results and Impact Presentation on Towards a National Collection to academic audience discussing digital decision-making
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
 
Description Second International Seminar 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact First in series highlighting international exemplar projects of relevance to Towards a National Collection. Featured Cultura Italia and Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2021
 
Description Towards Digital Collections: In person training in Cardiff 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Regional
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Training in managing and developing digital collections
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2025
 
Description Towards a National Collection Conference 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact First conference of Towards a National Collection programme, held at the British Museum, London
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
 
Description Towards a National Collection conference 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact End of programme conference in Manchester 20-21 November 2024. Held in-person with online access.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2024
URL https://www.nationalcollection.org.uk/events/conference/towards-national-collection-two-day-conferen...
 
Description University Museums Group Conference 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Presentation by Javier Pereda on 'Getting ready for a digital future'
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2024
 
Description Unpath'd Waters final conference 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Presentation by Rebecca Bailey on 'Unpath'd Waters from an AHRC perspective'
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2024
 
Description Who is the Audience for a Virtual National Collection? Webinar 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Sharing Digital Collections Audit (Collections Trust) and User Research (Audience Agency) reports
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
 
Description Workshop in Monterrey Mexico 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Presentation by Javier Pereda on 'Towards a National Collection Policy Recommendations'
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2024