Research Infrastructure for Conservation and Heritage Science (RICHeS)

What is RICHeS?

The Research Infrastructure for Conservation and Heritage Science (RICHeS) programme is a major UK-wide investment in the heritage sector, funded by the UKRI Arts and Humanities Research Council.

RICHeS has enabled the development of a distributed heritage science infrastructure across the UK, supporting innovative investment in scientific equipment and expertise.

The programme provides access to heritage science facilities at 17 host institutions, enabling organisations across the heritage sector to carry out scientific analysis of their collections. The National Archives is proud to be one of these host institutions.

A full list of institutions and services available across the RICHeS network is available via the catalogue of services.

RICHeS at The National Archives

As part of RICHeS, The National Archives was awarded funding across two strands:

• Facilities: providing external access to our physical scientific infrastructure and analytical capabilities
• Data: developing a catalogue of heritage science and conservation data to contribute to a national repository

Through RICHeS, the Written Heritage Science Lab provides access to specialist expertise and equipment for the study of written heritage materials.

Our scientific instruments and infastructure

To support RICHeS access and deliver state-of-the-art heritage science, we have:

• Upgraded laboratories
• Dedicated strong-room facilities to accommodate incoming collection material for analysis
• A large suite of spectroscopic and imaging equipment to complement our existing research and engagement capability

Explore the full list of our scientific instruments and analytical capabilities.

Heritage Science Data Service

We create and maintain detailed records relating to the condition, conservation treatment, and scientific analysis of documents in our care.

Our long-term vision is to share this conservation and heritage science knowledge with the wider archive and heritage sector. As part of RICHeS, we are developing our data to feed into a national Heritage Science Data Service (HSDS), contributing to a coordinated effort to make heritage science data:

• Findable
• Accessible
• Interoperable
• Reusable

Search the catalogue below and learn more about the contributing partner organisations.

How to get involved

To access funding for scientific analysis of your collections through RICHeS, applications should be made via the RICHeS website. Applications are assessed against programme criteria and delivered by one of the RICHeS host institutions.