The question

How could a unified national digital collection of culture and heritage further national strategic interests? How could we build on work done across the digital humanities over the last decade to lay the groundwork for major research infrastructure investment?

What we did

For years we have worked closely with the Arts and Humanities Research Council’s Towards a National Collections (TaNC) programme directorate (based at Historic Environment Scotland), creating the analysis and evidence-base to understand the potential of a unified, interoperable, inclusive national digital collection. 

Beginning with an analysis of how their research aligned with government policy, we subsequently provided an audit of how TaNC’s technology research aligned with the open standards technology that’s widely used in the digital humanities. Building on this knowledge, we developed a methodology for appraising the Total Economic Value of the potential infrastructure, before leading the writing of a landmark policy recommendations publication, which described in everyday terms how a unified national digital collection could be created, drawing on consultation with 50 major organisations. 

What happened

Our work helped set the stage for a major investment in national research infrastructure. Our evidence-based, consultative approach showed the transformative effect of thinking big about the role of cultural heritage and its data in the twenty-first century. Chris from our team is now acting as Senior Technology Advisor to TaNC (now called NRICH) to help develop and deliver a prototype of the major project to come.