Student placements in Conservation and Heritage Science
Student placement projects
- Project supervisors
- Department
Collection Care
- Maximum number of student placements available on the project per academic year
Usually 2 to 4 across the academic year
- Level of study
Open to PhD and MA/MSc students
- Specific knowledge and/or skills required for the placement
Conservation knowledge; Heritage Science knowledge/interest; Scientific techniques understanding
- Deadline for Expressions of Interest from students
Open call, closing once filled
Project description
Projects will be tailored to the student’s background, interests, and the live priorities of the Collection Care teams. Placements may focus on practical conservation, heritage science, technical research, or the analysis and interpretation of heritage data.
Projects will explore how conservation treatments, preventive strategies, and scientific investigation can be used to support the long-term preservation, understanding, and accessibility of archival and library collections.
Activities may include:
- Interventive treatments
- Development and evaluation of treatment approaches
- Condition assessment
- Documentation
- Rehousing
- Support for digitisation or exhibition preparation
- Technical analysis, imaging, or the processing and interpretation of scientific and collection-based datasets
Students may contribute to ongoing research projects investigating materials, deterioration processes, environmental monitoring, collection condition, or the application of analytical and computational methods to heritage collections.
Work will be integrated into active studio and research projects, with supervision from conservators and heritage scientists. Outputs may include treatment reports, condition assessments, treatment trials or mock-ups, analytical datasets, visualisations, research summaries, digital resources, or a short reflective or public-facing piece communicating the project's outcomes.
These placements are suitable for those enrolled in conservation programmes as well as scientists who would like to move into the heritage science space. For more information of specific topics, please contact Marc Vermeulen and Giorgia Genco.