Our past research projects

Towards a National Collection

Funder

Arts and Humanities Research Council.

Timeframe

2021-2025.

In collaboration with

UK Research and Innovation (UKRI).

Towards a National Collection (TaNC) is a major five-year £18.9 million investment in the UK’s world-renowned museums, archives, libraries and galleries. Funding is provided through UK Research and Innovation’s Strategic Priorities Fund and delivered by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC). The programme will took the first steps towards creating a unified virtual ‘national collection’ by dissolving barriers between different collections.

The Northern Way

Funder

Arts and Humanities Research Council.

Timeframe

2019-2022.

In collaboration with

The University of York, with the support of the Chapter of York Minster.

This project investigated the political role of the Archbishops of York, 1304-1405. The principal aim was to make the key records of spiritual and temporal governance more digitally accessible and searchable for free. The project website now features high-quality digital images of the registers of the archbishops held at the Borthwick Institute for Archives, the University of York, alongside searchable, indexed summaries of all entries from each fourteenth-century register and  from the many records of government that relate to ecclesiastical affairs held at The National Archives. The website also contains background information to archiepiscopal registration and the mechanics of government, project blog and features that have emerged from the research.

Deep Discoveries

Funderr

Arts and Humanities Research Council under Towards a National Collection.

Timeframe

2020-2021.

In collaboration with

University of Surrey and Victoria and Albert Museum.

Deep Discoveries was a project exploring the application of computer vision (CV) and explainable artificial intelligence (XAI) methods for enhancing the ability of general audiences and specialist researchers to discover visual collections in new and/or more effective ways. The team developed and user-tested a CV-based search platform that allowed users to visually articulate their search task, understand how the CV algorithm found similarity between their input image and the returned image results, and to carry out a ‘visual dialogue’ with the AI to refine their search further

Safeguarding the nation's digital memory

Funder

The National Lottery Heritage Fund and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSPRC) Impact Acceleration Account.

Timeframe

2019-2020.

Partners

The University of Warwick, Dorset History Centre, Gloucestershire Archives, Transport for London Archives, University of Brighton Design Archives, University of Leeds Brotherton Library, and the Digital Preservation Coalition.

This project proposed a collaborative approach to managing digital preservation risk, bringing established statistical risk management methods into the digital heritage sphere. Project participants created a structured evidence base, pooling collective experience to map and explain an interconnected network of risk events, actions and impact on heritage.

Traces through Time

Funder

Arts and Humanities Research Council and The National Archives.

Timeframe

2014-2017 (including 15 months of external funding).

Partners

Institute for Historical Research, University of Brighton, University of Leiden.

The first, research phase of the project developed new probabilistic models and tools that allow researchers to trace and connect individuals, with confidence, across historical ‘big data’.

In the second, implementation phase we exploited this research to create a new navigation feature in our catalogue, Discovery, which provides researchers with suggested links between records that may relate to the same people, with associated confidence measures.

Big Data for Law

Funder

Arts and Humanities Research Council.

Timeframe

2013-2015.

Partners

Incorporated Council of Law Reporting; LexisNexis; Office of the Parliamentary Counsel; Office for Official Publications of the European Communities; Thomson Reuters.

This project aimed to create new legislation data research infrastructure, support downloadable data and online tools, and investigate the idea of a pattern language for mapping the statute book of UK legislation.

Researchers typically lack the raw data, tools and methods to undertake research across the whole statute book. This project provided data, tools and trusted methods to enable big data research across legislation.

Knowledge Transfer Partnership

Funder

Technology Strategy Board (now Innovate UK), plus additional funding from the industry partner.

TImeframe

2013-2015.

Partners

This project aimed to develop specialised software for risk-based assessment of environmental conditions in storage of cultural heritage collections.

The project created graphical representations that correlate environmental monitoring data and indicators of preservation in order to develop reporting tools that can inform management decisions for improving preservation environments and meeting sustainability targets.

The National Archives is now using the software developed through the project, called Ensight, for its annual environmental assessment. We are also leading in the development of new specifications for managing environmental conditions in cultural collections.

New connections: The BT e-archive

Funder

Jisc

Timeframe

2011-2013.

Partners

Coventry University; BT Heritage.

This project aimed to digitise BT’s physical archive, making almost half a million photographs, documents and correspondence available online.

Images and documents detail how Britain laid the foundations for global communications, including the first telephone exchange in 1879 and the Queen making the first automatic long-distance telephone call in the 1950s.

The team produced case studies which show how digitised archival material can be used to explore new avenues both in teaching and research in a wide range of subjects, from design to linguistic and cultural studies.

Research network: Born-digital methods and data for the humanities

Funder

Arts and Humanities Research Council.

Timeframe

2016-2017.

Partners

School of Advanced Study, University of London; King’s College London; University of Cambridge; University of Sussex; University of Waterloo; British Library.

This project aimed to bring together a network that would deliver an understanding of the potential of born-digital big data for humanities research.

How are humanities researchers engaging with this source, which includes the live and archived web, aggregated tweets and emails? What kinds of questions would this data allow us to ask and answer? What insights can scholars in the humanities learn from the computer and social sciences, and from the archives and libraries who are concerned with securing all of this information?

An exchange of knowledge and experience took place through a series of workshops across the network, and was distilled into a white paper.