Our past research projects

Big Data for Law

Funder

Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC)

Timeframe

2013–2015

In partnership with

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. It will also 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.

Deep Discoveries

Funder

Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) under Towards a National Collection

Timeframe

2020–2021

In partnership 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. We will investigate if these methods can enhance 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. It also allowed users to understand how the CV algorithm found similarity between their input image and the returned image results. Finally, it carried out a ‘visual dialogue’ with the AI to refine their search further.

Knowledge Transfer Partnership

Funder

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

TImeframe

2013–2015

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. This helped 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

In partnership with

Coventry University and 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.

Project Odyssey

Funder

Innovate UK

Timeframe

2024–2026

In partnership with

Tabled Technologies Limited, Keele University, Northumbria University and Swansea University

The National Archives Legal datasets are the primary source of legislation and case law in the UK jurisdiction, available free of charge for computational analysis. However, the datasets had not been annotated or enhanced to optimise them for machine learning. This is an increasing problem in the era of pre-trained public LLMs that often fail to provide accurate legal interpretation to uniformed users.

The project addressed Sir Geoffrey Vos, Master of the Rolls and President of the Civil Courts’ statements:

The project comprised of:

1. Enriching The National Archives XML files with additional metadata specifically designed to improve interoperability and accuracy of LLMs. An automated GPT-based annotation system will be developed to ensure the ever-expanding NA datasets remain annotated for all users.
2. Fine-tuning & evaluation of GPT-based LLMs on the corpus. State of the art LLMs (GPT, Llama2, Claude2) will be assessed, to hone the accuracy, ethics, and legal suitability for use.
3. Plain-English, standardised LLM prompts for legal subject matter information summarisation will be created for consistent input into LLMs.
4. For ESG purposes, the LegalPath A2J app for litigants in person and SMEs will be enhanced using the outputs of (i), (ii) and (iii). The app will enable members of the public to construct standardised prompts to access the fine-tuned LLMs, trained on the NA datasets, to achieve desired results.
5. SME consortium members will develop adjacent legal access products, while the academic institutions will disseminate findings. Recommendations on the use of LLMs in dispute resolution will be circulated to the Ministry of Justice, Regulators, and the Online Procedure Rules Committee.

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

Funder

Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC)

Timeframe

2016–2017

In partnership with

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.

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

In partnership with

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.

The Northern Way

Funder

Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC)

Timeframe

2019–2022

In partnership 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. These are held alongside searchable, indexed summaries of all entries from each 14th 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.

Towards a National Collection

Funder

Arts and Humanities Research Council.

Timeframe

2021–2025.

In partnership with

UK Research and Innovation (UKRI)

Towards a National Collection (TaNC) was a major five-year £18.9 million investment in the UK’s world-renowned museums, archives, libraries and galleries. Funding was provided through UK Research and Innovation’s Strategic Priorities Fund and delivered by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC).

The programme took the first steps towards creating a unified virtual ‘national collection’ by dissolving barriers between different collections.

Traces through Time

Funder

Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and The National Archives

Timeframe

2014–2017 (including 15 months of external funding)

In partnership with

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

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

Virtual Records Treasury of Ireland

Funder

Government of Ireland

Timeframe

2023–2025

In partnership with

Trinity College Dublin, The National Archives Ireland, Public Record Office of Northern Ireland, Irish Manuscripts Commission and Trinity College Dublin Library

The Virtual Record Treasury of Ireland is an all-island and international collaboration aiming to re-imagine and reconstruct through digital technologies the Public Record Office of Ireland. This housed seven centuries of Ireland’s archival heritage and was destroyed on June 30th, 1922, in the opening engagement of Ireland’s Civil War.

The Treasury is an open-access resource, freely and permanently available online to all those interested in Ireland’s deep history at home and abroad. It brings together images, transcripts, translations and other data from surviving originals, official and antiquarian transcripts and other replacement records for those lost in the blaze. The National Archives supports the Medieval Exchequer ‘Gold Seam’. This is a digital edition of over 150 years of financial records deposited for audit at Westminster. We also support INSPIRE, which provides digital access and enhanced metadata to the papers of the secretaries of state in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. Together with the partners across Ireland and around the world, the project is democratizing access to invaluable records and illuminating seven centuries of Irish history.

Focus on

Revealing the (corrupt) record in 14th-century Ireland

In 1325, officials found suspicious mistakes in the account of the former treasurer of Ireland and hauled him through the courts. What did they uncover?