Capability for Collections

The Cambridge Heritage Science Hub (CHERISH), a project seed-funded through the Programme's Materiality Research Growth Network, was awarded £3m from the AHRC’s Capability for Collections (CapCo) Fund in December 2020.

This new funding stream supported targeted, capital investments to renew and upgrade research facilities within UK galleries, libraries, archives and museums, focusing on conservation and heritage science facilities, digital capture equipment and specialist study spaces and reading rooms.

Led by Dr Paola Ricciardi (formerly Senior Research Scientist at the Fitzwilliam Museum, now Royal Society, London) with Professor Marcos Martinón-Torres, Pitt-Rivers Professor of Archaeological Science at the Department of Archaeology, CHERISH built on existing departmental collaborations to create a distributed research infrastructure across the University’s world-leading collections.

They worked with a cross-departmental, interdisciplinary team, including Dr Suzanne Paul, Keeper of Manuscripts and University Archives at Cambridge University Library; Professor Nicholas Thomas, Director and Curator at the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology; and Dr Lucy Wrapson, Senior Conservator at the Hamilton Kerr Institute.