Impact case study database

The coast of England is under constant threat from wind, waves and storms. These threats wreak havoc on England's varied coastal and intertidal heritage, not only exposing sites but often destroying them before they are identified or recorded. To date there has been no systematic standardised system in place in England to record these vulnerable sites in detail or to regularly monitor their fate over the longer term. In 2015, the 'Thames Discovery Programme' (TDP) model (set up and led by Milne in 2008) was rolled out into a national programme again led by Milne, CITiZAN (the Coastal and Intertidal Zone Archaeological Network), hosted by Museum of London Archaeology (MOLA), which monitors coastal erosion and records archaeological sites in the coastal zone and along the foreshore. CITiZAN has been awarded over GBP3,000,000 by the National Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) (GBP1,400,000 in 2015 and GBP1,760,000 in 2019), which has enabled the development of innovative interactive digital data collection methods, notably an app allowing members of the public to access the existing database of coastal archaeology and to update/edit sites and add monitoring photos [A]. CITiZAN extended the new model of community-engaged foreshore archaeology developed by the TDP, where volunteer members of the community whose own heritage is the subject of investigation were trained to use researcher-developed tools specifically adapted to the fieldwork conditions of the intertidal zone [B]. While CITiZAN cannot record all the threatened sites currently exposed on the 6,500+ miles of English coastline, it promotes a standardised survey and monitoring methodology that is applicable to all of them, enabling preservation by record of this resource. It has established an infrastructure and network of volunteers with the skills, commitment and support to record, monitor and promote fragile and threatened archaeological intertidal sites, adding over 2,000 new entries [C] to the existing record of archaeological features spanning prehistory to the present. CITiZAN has worked with over 40 community groups across over 30 local authorities to develop skills and knowledge, empowering individuals to recognise, research and record vanishing local heritage. The project’s broader impacts include extending archaeological knowledge and mitigating erosion damage through the data collected and raising wider public awareness of threats to coastal heritage through the popular Channel 4 series 'Britain at Low Tide' which attracted a total audience of [Text Redacted for Publication] viewers over the series’ first three weeks.

Training members of the public to recognise threats to, and preserve, coastal heritage

CITiZAN has raised public awareness of threats to coastal heritage, training members of the public to recognise those threats and empowering them to preserve local heritage. Citizen scientists can participate in CITiZAN in person at training and fieldwork sessions, or digitally via the website and CITiZAN Coastal Archaeology smartphone app (free to download on Android and Apple iOS devices) which enables users to record intertidal archaeology exposed or threatened by erosion. There were c.120,000 visitors to, and 497,174 page views of, the project website up to December 2020 [D]. The final project report for the first HLF grant period (2015-18) found that between 2015 and 2018, staff carried out 120 training events across the country with 1,337 people attending, many of these having returned for multiple fieldwork sessions [B]. During the ongoing second phase of the project 253 people attended a training session up to December 2020 [E] (a figure greatly reduced by the impact of COVID-19). These sessions provided training in fieldwork techniques to groups already armed with local knowledge to help them identify, monitor and record threatened heritage.

The smartphone app is especially important for engagement and participation by people living in remote areas, and for the creation of an extensive photographic record of our changing coastline. As of 16 December 2020, there were 3,640 registered CITiZAN online surveyors (app users). Of those users who have supplied demographic information (n=563), 32% are retired, 24% describe themselves as amateur archaeologists, 15% have no previous archaeological experience, and 15% are professional archaeologists (excluding CITiZAN and TDP staff) [B]. During Phase One, 470 app users were trained as full site surveyors (meaning they could update/edit sites and add monitoring photos), a status acquired having taken part in a CITiZAN training event. In Phase Two, updates to the app made surveying more accessible for a wider audience and the tiering system was revised, allowing all users to provide data for moderation. By December 2020 there were 204 active users (those who have submitted new features, edited existing features, or provided a condition survey update). The data gathered via the website and the app are moderated, archived with the Archaeology Data Service (ADS), and fed back to local Historic Environment Records (HER).

Phase One saw a focus on key sites in each of three regions (North, South East, South West) to highlight the varied nature of the threatened archaeological resource. Phase Two (from 2018) saw the creation of six new Discovery Programme areas within those regions as the focus for continuing local work: East Kent, Mersea Island, Liverpool Bay, Solent Harbours, Devon Rivers and Humberside. The areas were selected due the increased risk of coastal erosion to local archaeology and to build on the local successes of the first phase. In 2019, a series of Low Tide Trails (LTT) were developed to facilitate self-guided walks in each Discovery Programme area. By December 2020, 12 trails had been established inviting users to explore the rich history of their local foreshore [F]. Visualised via online platform Storymapper, the trails use mixed media to highlight foreshore archaeology and local history and are designed to be used on a mobile device, providing images and maps to explore en route. The trails are designed to work in conjunction with the CITiZAN app, providing context for new entries or updates to existing records and to encourage users to record features during their walks. The LTT hub on the CITiZAN website has had over 2,500 page views between April and December 2020 [D]. In one example in the South East region where there are four active LTT’s, 634 page views were via a mobile device during the same period (suggesting use of the information during walks). 11 features were updated with images along the Pegwell Bay LTT, early indications that the routes are successfully raising awareness of intertidal archaeology. People have also used the app as a tool for contextualising their self-guided visits to the coast, exploring the find-spots and sites themselves. The project’s social media channels have meanwhile drawn significant audiences, with 2,541 people following the project on Facebook, 3,492 on Twitter and 1,229 on Instagram [D]. Blogs, video content, interviews and site overviews have been delivered via these channels, with key posts on Facebook reaching over 15,000 people, showing that it is successful in reaching new audiences. During the 2020 national lockdown due to COVID-19, over 30 online seminars, interviews and panel discussions have been viewed by over 24,000 people around the world [E].

Volunteer citizen scientists have developed new skills and knowledge and become engaged with research for the first time: one volunteer described the project team as having “invaded our Island with their vibrant, bubbling enthusiasm and an incredible depth of knowledge and skills coupled with such zest for their work that we have been swept along on what has become for many a new pathway of interest, understanding and research hitherto totally alien to many of us” [B]. The project was key to two volunteers gaining employment as archaeologists, a result of their voluntary work with CITiZAN. One was employed by CITiZAN in a community archaeologist capacity, the second by MOLA as a field archaeologist. CITiZAN has informed volunteers’ awareness and values and empowered communities to take action [B]: “CITiZAN have galvanised the local community into what I can only describe as an awakening”; “We all find it a real pleasure to be able to be part of the process in trying to reveal a lost landscape of a small local society that had been swallowed by the tides”.

Collecting data to enhance knowledge of England’s coastal heritage and mitigate erosion damage

Since 2015 CITiZAN volunteers have added a total of 2,445 new archaeological features to its interactive coastal map and 3,486 monitoring updates have been submitted and published, supplying 5,901 new photos of at-risk heritage assets along England’s coastline and estuaries [C]. CITiZAN surveyors also created 61 3D-models of foreshore features using photogrammetric processing software, publishing 51 of these models on CITiZAN’s public Sketchfab account [G]. CITiZAN staff have written 23 grey literature reports based upon the data collected by volunteer surveys along the English coast, which has helped project partners to manage the archaeological resource. An example of CITiZAN’s influence is the Mersea Island Discovery Programme, Essex, where a prehistoric landscape to the south and east of the island is subject to rapid and extensive erosion. Fragile prehistoric remains on Mersea include a well-preserved Bronze Age trackway dated *c.*952BC (the form of which is thus far unique to the outer Thames estuary), a well-preserved circular timber structure and associated trackway [H], a submerged woodland dated to *c.*4,000BP, Iron Age human remains, evidence of Roman settlement, and three fish trap structures of likely Anglo-Saxon date. These features recorded by CITiZAN volunteers illustrate the story of a fluctuating sea level and changing island topography. The Mersea project has captured the minds of the local community and provided a vehicle for them to engage with their local heritage through the means that best suits them. To date over 650 residents (of an island population of c.10,000) have attended outreach events (talks, guided walks, etc.) with 78 volunteers attending fieldwork sessions on the foreshore. Over 30 high precision aerial surveys have been conducted and donated in kind (total commercial cost c.GBP3,000) and 60+ hours of oral histories recorded with members of the community. A new permanent exhibit, Bronze Age Mersea, is slated to open in August 2021 at the Mersea Island Museum, for which the local community raised more than GBP6,000 to house the Bronze Age trackway recovered in collaboration with Historic England. 87 new archaeological features have been added to the known record by volunteers on Mersea Island since 2016, along with detailed rapid surveys of eight defined archaeological sites along the Blackwater estuary [C].

The data collected are provided to, and used by, CITiZAN’s partners to mitigate erosion damage. In June 2019 the Mersea Island Discovery Programme and CITiZAN were awarded a GBP10,000 grant by the National Environment Research Council (NERC) to examine the impact of 100 years of coastal change, using personal photo archives (over 400 images) and oral histories (over 12 hours recorded) of island residents [A]. The resulting data set augmented historic maps of the island detailing crucial changes in estuarine morphology, with both data types providing a route for new audiences to participate in CITiZAN [I]. CITiZAN is sponsored financially by the Crown Estate (which owns the intertidal zone) and the National Trust [A], and works with professional partners, the Council for British Archaeology and the Society for Nautical Archaeology, to provide data, assisting them with the management of coastal and foreshore archaeology and the mitigation of erosion damage. CITIZAN’s work on Mersea Island to record and recover the Bronze Age trackway in partnership with Historic England raised the issue of how to protect heritage assets in relative proximity to coastal defence planning, dredging etc., particularly in estuaries; shortly after the recovery of the trackway, Historic England (HE) refused to grant permission to a large shingle recharge project on the Blackwater estuary until further archaeological survey had been undertaken [I]. In 2019 Historic England pledged GBP90,000 to fund collaborative fieldwork programmes across the six Discovery Programme areas. The funding is earmarked for sites submitted by CITiZAN and deemed by HE to be at highest risk and/or are actively eroding, for programmes of targeted excavation, high precision survey and extensive sampling for scientific dating and environmental analysis. Project work will be conducted with the support of local communities and volunteers.

Raising awareness of threats to Britain’s’ coastal heritage through a TV programme

CITiZAN has raised awareness of threats to Britain’s coastal heritage for a public audience through the co-creation of Britain at Low Tide, a TV mini-series commissioned by Channel 4, with producer TernTV. Series 1 was filmed over the summer events season of 2016 and aired in November-December 2016 and was re-run in August 2017. Each episode looked at CITiZAN’s work in a particular region and included scenes of CITiZAN archaeologists working with local volunteers. It retained its audience of over 1,300,000 viewers for each of the three programmes, well exceeding the expected 800,000 viewer target, and was the most-watched programme on Channel 4 those Saturday evenings [B: p.19-20]. [Text Redacted for Publication]. Channel 4 commissioned a second series, which aired in February–March 2017. It focussed on new areas of the British coast (with two episodes in Scotland highlighting work by SCAPE). [Text Redacted for Publication] [J] which was, according to producers Tern TV, ‘30% above the slot average’ [B: p. 20]. CITiZAN was joint winner of the 2018 British Archaeological Awards for Best Community Engagement Archaeology Project with SCAPE: “the judges liked the strong collaborative networks for research that CITiZAN and the SCAPE Trust have established in England and Scotland and collaboration with the TV programme Britain at Low Tide has made their discoveries even more accessible to the public” [K]. A third series was commissioned and aired in 2019. As a result of targeted social media campaigns connected to the broadcasts, CITiZAN saw a pronounced spike in related social media traffic, in visits to the website, and, particularly valuable, in new registered CITiZAN smartphone app users. In December of 2016, during broadcast of Series 1, the total number of registrations for the CITiZAN app almost doubled from the previous quarter up from 712 to 1,238. Similar spikes occur during the transmission of Series 2 and 3, demonstrating the programme’s success in inspiring viewers to seek out further information about the project and empowering them to preserve local heritage through active engagement with CITiZAN.

Taking a holistic, contextual and participatory approach to research and public engagement, the BigPicnic project investigated the global challenges of rising obesity rates, food security and sustainability through contributions to policy, culture and capacity building. It: (1) shaped policy debate related to food and food security in Scotland and Canada; (2) built skills and capacity and changed the practices of botanic garden professionals; and (3) informed and changed the relationship of European and Ugandan citizens to food and food choices.

1. Shaping policy around food and food security in Scotland and Canada and informing the methods used to collect evidence in Scottish Parliament

Moussouri’s research demonstrates the value of participatory engagement and was used on BigPicnic to co-create community-led food initiatives, which used participatory methods, such as video recording, to engage participants [R2/R4/R6]. Her findings were shared with project partners such as the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (RBGE), who used these participatory methodologies to collect peoples’ views about food. A representative of RGBE explains: “During our work on food insecurity we found digital storytelling to be an effective and user-friendly way of giving people the tools to share their own experiences of a potentially sensitive subject” [A]. Their co-creation team on the BigPicnic project used the digital storytelling technique to tell 19 stories which explored food security from different perspectives. As a result, in Scotland the project shaped understanding of participatory practices and community engagement at governmental level. On 16 January 2019 the BigPicnic project presented the stories at an event at the Scottish Parliament which was held as part of a consultation over Scotland’s ambition to become a Good Food Nation. Eight MSPs from four parties attended and a further two sent their representatives. Colin Smyth, MSP of Scottish Labour, sponsored the event. Smyth highlighted the key role of community involvement as epitomised by BigPicnic, and its role in advocating legislation about the right to food stating: “the communities, the work that you are doing, will be absolutely at the heart of it. The BigPicnic project, I think, is a fantastic example of the type of work that we should be seeing developed and we should be seeing supported in the months ahead. I think too often those of us that make policy don’t listen to the voices of people in communities that are actually there trying to deliver” [B].

The Committee Engagement Unit (CEU) at the Scottish Parliament visited the RBGE to learn about BigPicnic and its participatory approach and successes in data collection and analysis as well as their use of digital storytelling. Subsequently, as the RBGE explains, CEU “went on to train about 20 staff members from across teams at the Scottish Parliament [and] with these skills CEU worked with 13 women over 5 sessions to provide evidence for the Equalities and Human Rights Committee and inform their inquiry into a Protection Act for women affected by Female Genital Mutilation [FGM]” [A]. As SNP MSP, Ruth Maguire, explained in an article in The National (9 February 2020, circulation 9,746), to acknowledge the emotional impact of sharing these experiences, “Women affected by FGM spoke about their experiences in their own words, creating short films [digital stories] for the committee. This meant they could be anonymous but tell their story their way” [C]. Six of these stories are available on the Scottish Parliament website [C]. The FGM Bill, which aims to strengthen the law and protect women and girls, was introduced to the Scottish Parliament on 29 May 2019. The Committee published their report on 5 December 2019 and debated it on 23 January 2020.

Moreover, BigPicnic had a significant impact through its International Consolidation Group (ICG): The Executive Director at Food Secure Canada stated that: “my involvement in this project played a role in my securing my new position as Executive Director of Food Secure Canada where I’m also able to leverage what I learned through the Big Picnic on a very practical level. […] The grassroots nature of the Big Picnic project combined with an interest in influencing policy has informed my work for this new employer” [D, Canada].

2. Building skills and capacity in the European botanic garden sector

The UCL team and partners trained botanic garden practitioners in the use of participatory approaches to creating knowledge around food and food security issues with different publics. The impact on exhibition development practice was considerable: “Co-creation really gives you […] an understanding of what people expect and need. So making them part of the design process is definitely inspiring and enriching for my exhibition work.” [E1, Madrid]. The Head of Education at the Leiden BG now “integrate[s] the co creation method whenever possible” and they have gone onto hold science cafes twice a year [F1, Leiden]. Co-creation was a catalyst for organisational learning and development and for creating more inclusive organisations: “This allowed us to get to know each other better, and try to break through the staff hierarchy.” [G, Warsaw]. Participatory research training provided botanic garden practitioners with new knowledge and skills: “It has given me many tools for analysing qualitative data […]. Thanks to this, I have a wider point of view about food security issues and about people concerns about it.’ [E2, Madrid]. Furthermore, it led to the realisation that participatory modes of engagement can inform practice and collect knowledge about the collections: “what was for me really an eye-opener, is that we can- [learn from each other].” [H, Meise]. “Co-creation became for me a ‘lesson for life’” [F2, Meise]. Meise Botanic Gardens’ (MBG) decision to host the African Diaspora Agrofood Forum arose from this realisation. One member of MBG’s Education team was so inspired by the transformative potential of the participatory approaches developed by UCL team and partners that she “set up a project that helps 25 single mothers and their many children, that aims at fighting problems of food security and lack of income, with lack of acces[s] to education and health care as a result.’ [F2] Furthermore, Waag, a Dutch non-profit, used key elements of the BigPicnic co-creation training to create an open-access online training resource, the Co-Creation Navigator, used by 44 EU botanic gardens and adopted by the Erasmus Plus LearnToEngage project led by Botanic Gardens Conservation International (BGCI) and three Horizon 2020 projects. Waag’s Creative Director and Head of Programme noted that: the Navigator “has led to a quicker and more efficient process in preparing co-creation activities in these projects and gives partners more assurance on what they are doing” [I].

3. Changing public attitudes to food and food choices

Between 2016 and 2018, the BigPicnic project team enabled development of 15 co-created exhibitions on food security issues and 92 science cafés across 59 locations, attended by an audience of 180,000 visitors and 6,982 science café users respectively. Exhibition visitors noted the benefits of informal learning opportunities or opportunities to change food habits and develop skills and knowledge: in Bergamo, one visitor: “went back to visit the exhibition with my daughter to educate her about healthy diet and life style” [G]. BigPicnic enabled the botanic gardens to build strong relationships with local communities. In Leiden, the Botanic Garden is now “active outside our garden; that was not the case before BigPicnic. […] we are in a nature club in a more poor neighbourhood” [F1]. The African Diaspora, a target group for MBG in Belgium, have now ‘discovered' the Garden and botanic gardens in general as a hub for knowledge on agrofood and collaboration for projects in their country of origin: “previously members of my community have always viewed the Botanic Garden as a sort of an elitist institution that is out of bound for certain people but open to others, mainly for Belgians […] But the collaboration that we have has really opened the gate to our community” [J]. As a result, MBG hosted the African Diaspora Agrofood Forum 2018 and 2019, demonstrating the key role of botanic gardens for social cohesion. An Agrofood forum delegate said: “this would not have been possible without the BigPicnic project. During the last edition [forum], many of the African entrepreneurs present, were motivated by the innovative niches and economic potentials in the researches on coffee, mushrooms by the scientists of the Meise botanic garden” [J]. The participatory approaches spearheaded by Moussouri and partners empowered a range of people and stimulated engagement with food justice initiatives and food activism, stimulating political participation. In one notable example, a participant developed her circular economy-based social enterprise in Rwanda supporting over 170 small-holding coffee growers. Another participant at RBGE became involved in food activism: “I'm giving a speech at the Council's budget meeting on behalf of the Save our Services campaign and we are having a demo at 9am tomorrow.” Two digital storytellers became “involved in the campaign to save local community food initiatives that are under threat from Local Authority cuts” [A].

Botanic gardens and their partner organisations were empowered to take action on food security issues of local relevance. MBG surveyed Garden staff (n: 110) about their food preferences. The survey showed a clear preference for seasonal (56%) and locally grown vegetables (34%), and a trend towards avoiding foods that have a negative impact on biodiversity (e.g. fish, 61%) [G]. As a result, the MBG canteen changed its provision so that all meals now include at least one vegetable serving and they offer an additional vegetarian meal.

Overall, the use of a participatory approach as developed and applied by Moussouri and project partners demonstrated its potential not only to co-create sustainable food systems, but also to delve deeper into how food is embedded in every aspect of people’s lives. The application of a participatory approach had an impact on all stakeholders: it empowered citizens to view themselves as co-creators of sustainable food futures; it transformed the practice of botanic garden partners and enabled them to engage with different communities whose views of food should be reflected in future policy; and its adoption by CEU at the Scottish Parliament enabled them to introduce a major policy shift and deliver an ambitious new FGM legislation that strengthens the law and protects women and girls against violence. In addition, evidence of the important role that food heritage plays in citizens’ behaviour and choices around food collected by Moussouri and her team led to MSPs considering food heritage seriously when reviewing the Good Food Nation policy.

The MicroPasts project has engaged members of the public in archaeology and heritage in non-traditional ways, while also creating re-usable open data, software and expertise, and building a crowd-sourcing project that is sustainable in the long term. MicroPasts is an online crowdsourcing platform where members of the public and specialists alike collaborate to develop new archaeological and heritage research data. Contributors to the MicroPasts platform participate (anonymously or as registered users) to help wider data-gathering efforts by completing short tasks online. Examples include transcribing a museum catalogue card or an archaeologist’s diary page, adding metadata tags of people and places visible in old archaeological photographs, tracing the outline of an object in one of many photographs to support 3D photogrammetric modelling, searching a ‘grey literature’ report for structured information such as radiocarbon dates, or georeferencing an archaeological findspot. This collaboration has led to four strands of impact: enhanced public participation and learning; co-production of new cultural artefacts; enhanced heritage interpretation through collaboration with museum professionals; and improved digital professional standards and training in the heritage and cultural sector.

Enhanced Public Participation and Learning

Since April 2014, over 3,500 members of the public have contributed to data-gathering projects by completing tasks on the MicroPasts site. Nearly half of users were in the UK (26%) and US (20%) while the other 56% were located in over 20 other countries [A]. Contributors have completed 150,018 task runs for 252 different MicroPasts projects [A]. User surveys indicate that 72% of contributors do not work professionally in history or archaeology, implying a reach well beyond traditional academic data collection projects. For example, one volunteer is an administrative assistant living in Canada and nearing retirement, who started helping on MicroPasts in 2014 and has now completed 4,323 tasks. She notes [B] that: “my small part contributes to something much larger and [more] academically important than I ever could have imagined when I registered to participate […] I have expanded my knowledge and interest about archaeology and have developed my own set of reference information [...] I now also do volunteer transcription work for a number of other organizations including The British Library.” Other contributors describe a range of benefits including: the aesthetic pleasure of looking at old diaries or photos or artefact drawings; relaxing with something simple but useful; being able to help and give back to an institution they had visited in the past; contributing to scientific research, and reconnecting with people in archaeology, history or heritage [R2]. Contributing to MicroPasts has also had intellectual and professional benefits: at least three contributors have now moved into archaeological jobs or have taken up degrees in archaeology.

Co-production of new cultural artefacts

MicroPasts’ core deliverable is new archaeological information: co-produced in all cases, openly available online from the moment of its creation and freely re-usable as new digital cultural artefacts. For example, by crowdsourcing “photo-masks” to enable high quality photogrammetric reconstructions, it has created over 100 3D models of museum artefacts. These have been viewed online at https://sketchfab.com/micropasts over 53,600 times, downloaded over 3,000 times, 3D printed at public libraries multiple times, re-purposed in virtual museums and widely shared [C]. For example, a Mary Rose shipwreck tankard has been viewed 7,500 times online, converted to a low-poly version by an interested user that is well-suited to use in on or offline gaming environments, and 3D printed by the Mary Rose Trust for outreach packs. The co-production of 3D digital models has led to the creation of further cultural artefacts; for example a Bronze Age spearhead was digitally printed and accurately painted by a co-host of podcast ‘3D Printing Today’. The project featured in the 9 April 2015 episode in which the presenters praised the importance for makers of MicroPasts’ commitment to sharing data for re-use [C].

Enhanced heritage interpretation through collaboration with museum professionals

Founded upon collaboration with the British Museum (BM), two initial Micropasts initiatives were the crowd-sourcing of a Bronze Age metalwork card catalogue and 3D modelling of Bronze Age objects. MicroPasts contributors transcribed 100% of the uploaded material concerning this dataset which related to over 30,000 Bronze Age weapons, tools and ornaments. As the curator of these collections at the British Museum explains, this made these materials available to a much wider audience: “this internationally significant dataset had only been available to a small number of British based scholars” and its digitisation “brought some of the joys – and eccentricities – of Bronze Age metalwork to a much wider audience than hitherto reached by generations of museum curators” [D1]. They also produced 73 3D models of British Museum Bronze Age artefacts (of the 100+ mentioned above) that were made available to the public via Sketchfab. While such an approach to museum artefacts has now been popularized, at the time it was, as Wilkin puts it, “trailblazing” and “provided important opportunities for new forms of dissemination of the museum collection and for collaboration between public and museum staff, in line with the museum’s wider aims and objectives for sharing the collection online and making it studiable worldwide” [D1]. The 3D printed models produced by participants also led to enhanced heritage interpretation in outreach settings. Co-produced digital 3D artefact models were used to populate reconstructions of Bronze Age houses in the British Museum Samsung Digital Discovery Centre. These underpinned activities over a weekend (8-9 August 2015) whereby 1,200 family, teen, and school visitors explored a virtual reality Bronze Age site, which included 3D scans of objects placed in their original settings. Participants could access multiple interpretations of how these objects might have been used across three digital platforms. Wilkin described how the virtual reality environment “proved valuable in providing a range of different media with which to engage a public audience through objects that have otherwise been the preserve of the Bronze Age finds specialist”, enhancing engagement with heritage interpretation for visitors [D2]. Feedback from participants confirmed the positive impact virtual reality had on learning about the Museum’s collection: “it made me feel as if I was actually there and gave me a sense of how things actually were in the Bronze Age” [D2]. MicroPasts enhanced curatorial practice: for Wilkin, the project “left an indelible mark on my attitudes to digital technology and on my curatorial practice” [D1].

The success of this collaboration led to wider impact within the libraries, archives and museums sector. MicroPasts has enabled crowd-sourcing projects involving 27 other museums, archives, libraries, heritage groups and research projects internationally, from the Society of Antiquaries of London to the Minnesota Historical Society in the US and Museo Egizio in Italy [E]. Each project has led to knowledge transfer and opportunities for institutional public outreach, as well as considerable media coverage in 17 major international newspapers as well as archaeology and heritage and culture and technology magazines, and on social media [F]. This includes features in The Guardian (August 2014, shared 291 times), Italian daily la Repubblica (December 2015), and Greek daily To Vima (August 2014) (respective circulation at the time of publication 177,827; 331,446; 114,035). The Mary Rose Trust has printed co-produced 3D models of its artefacts for its outreach packs. Their Collections Manager notes, “We were hugely impressed by […] the high quality 3D models that were produced as part of this project. The models opened up […] the Mary Rose collection in terms of its accessibility to a wider (and digital) audience […and] have been used by the Trust in everything from outreach projects, to educational tools and even for research and reference [enabling] visitors to get closer to and inspired by these fascinating, but very fragile objects.” **[G]**). In 2015 contributors transcribed 500 object records for the Egypt Exploration Society (EES) in 10 days and, as the Director of the EES explains, this helped them in their project to “digitise and make available thousands of records […] relating to historical excavations” in Egypt and Sudan [H]. They explain that "[w]orking with MicroPasts was an exciting and transformative period for the Society’s archive. It allowed us to engage our supporters around the world with items ordinarily unavailable to them. The data gathered gave us new insights into our collections and allowed us to provide educational training to interns exploring pioneering research avenues.” Two interns undertook projects using the newly accessible data: one “completed an online exhibition about the colonial context of archaeological work in Sudan during the 1930s, and [the other] considered aspects of ‘Endangered Heritage’ in the wake of the Egyptian revolution” [H]. The collaboration has had a long-lasting impact on the EES: “The legacy of the MicroPasts project continues as our collections remain accessible online, and those wishing to search for more in-depth information can use our online catalogue to search more specifically”. It has led to knowledge exchange with other organisations: “Being invited to the MicroPasts conference in March 2015 allowed us to see how other organisations were working and develop various synergies to support our work further." As the Director concludes, “The support we received from the MicroPasts team meant that a small organisation like the EES was able to achieve so much more.” [H]. The New Forest Park Authority were likewise able to build capacity through the collaboration with MicroPasts. They were able to translate diaries from a German wartime POW camp in the forest, and an archaeologist on the project comments, "it soon became apparent that the German was, in places, technical, written in High German and contained German words that were ‘difficult’ to translate into English. […] We would not have been able to do these translations of WWII German documents if it was not for this platform’s involvement and that of its volunteers”. They explain that “The work of the MicroPasts volunteers to translate these sometimes technical and challenging documents has gone beyond expectation. […] allowing us and future researchers the opportunity to ‘hear their words’ from this important point in local, national and world history" [I].

Improving digital professional training and standards

MicroPasts has developed professional digital standards in a number of areas. For example, the project published 5 tutorials on 3D photogrammetry and crowd-sourcing, which have been re-used in several academic teaching settings (both internal and external to the founder institutions). As one person put it (whose professional life had moved away from archaeology but has since found permanent employment in digital applications at the Natural History Museum): “Public engagement is a key requirement for the type of Museum post I wanted to apply for [and] thanks to MicroPasts I was able to meet this [… A]ppreciation of the possibilities of crowdsourcing that I first experienced with MicroPasts has greatly influenced my own crowdsourcing transcription project [launched by the Natural History Museum in 2020... and] ensured that I understood good practice.” [B]. In 2014, the platform itself was the first in the UK to adopt and demonstrate the effectiveness of a crowdsourcing framework called Pybossa for cultural research and engagement [R4], that has since also been adopted by the British Library and the British Film Institute amongst others. The platform immediately shares its data publicly and is built on reusable open-source software: data, software and further learning resources or community expertise have all been re-used, for new academic research for museum engagement and to a wide range of people’s personal interests.

Those who provide professional training and shape policy in the cultural sector benefited from a 2016 MicroPasts knowledge exchange workshop, which provided guidance on co-producing knowledge online for the sector and the project has been cited in sector-shaping publications [J]. For example, the 2014 report of the Towards a Collaborative Strategy for sector information management (TACOS) project, an initiative of two networks for heritage professionals (the Forum on Information Standards in Heritage and the Historic Environment Information Resources Network), used MicroPasts as an example “of how crowdsourcing might be put to use in the enhancement of historic environment datasets”. It saw MicroPasts as a test case “in assessing the feasibility of partially resourcing historic environment information projects this way” [J]. This new model for community archaeology has enhanced heritage interpretation, improved digital professional standards and training in the heritage and cultural sector, and provided professional development opportunities for volunteers who co-produced archaeological research.

Current global crises and transformations (from climate change to mass migration to new social movements) highlight the need to develop more sustainable and resilient conservation practices which are sensitive to inevitable processes of future social, environmental and political change and to encourage practitioners from different areas of interest to identify and pursue common goals and learn from one another. However, there has been a trend towards increasing specialisation within the heritage sector (e.g. see IUCN/ICOMOS 2015). These global issues also highlight the need for better understanding amongst general publics of the role of natural and cultural heritage in resourcing the future, and the specific ways in which they do so. The activities of Harrison and his Heritage Futures (HF) and Priority Area Leadership Fellowship (PALF) teams have had an impact on natural and cultural heritage policy making and conservation and management practice, changing the ways in which heritage is understood by its users and publics, by bringing these fields into closer dialogue with the field of futures studies.

Deeping understanding and changing practice in international heritage organisations

Harrison and his HF team worked closely with an international advisory board and 25 international partner organisations, bringing together professionals from a wide range of sectors who are engaged with heritage preservation to think collectively about shared issues. The HF team facilitated a series of inter- and intra-thematic knowledge exchange events involving and co-designed by these partner organisations and other invited participants. These included: a 2016 workshop exploring issues of long term futures in heritage management at the site of the long term nuclear waste repository being constructed by partner organisation SKB (Swedish Nuclear Waste Management company); a 2017 workshop at Kew Gardens looking at different forms of collecting and categorization practices and their influence on the definition and management of different forms of heritage; and a 2018 workshop at Orford Ness, co-organised with the National Trust (NT) and Historic England (HE), exploring issues relating to natural and cultural heritage management in changing coastal environments [R4/R5], [i]. Each was attended by representatives of the partner organisations and other relevant practitioners (c.30-35 people for each workshop). Harrison and his team have also organised workshops on data and heritage in conjunction with the Alan Turing Institute and British Library (2017), and with UK-based museums and archives on contemporary collecting practices (2018). These workshops constituted important professional development opportunities for participants, which deepened understanding and changed organisational practice.

The Director of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Nature Culture Initiative described the Kew workshop as a “valuable opportunity” that “created the foundation for deeper understanding of perspectives, and mutual learning” with conservation professionals [A1]. The Curator of Kew’s Economic Botany collection, attested to the change of perspectives inaugurated by their involvement: “hosting the workshop was important in changing internal perceptions of Kew (previously described by senior staff as ‘not a museum’) and positioning it firmly in the museum sector”, developing “a greater awareness of the big questions and wider context of the future of our collections, looking well beyond our usual 5-year horizon”, and “building expertise and confidence in humanities engagement [at Kew], through new contacts, through giving time for thinking and discussing, and in enabling Kew staff to adapt to boundary-stretching work” [A2]. The NT’s Historic Environment Director, noted that the project was the “longest and best […] period of CPD for me” and has led to further engagement by NT regarding “the need to adapt to and mitigate accelerated environmental change” through [A1] the ‘Landscape Futures’ follow-on project [iv] on which she is a Co-I. The involvement of advisory board members at Director and Assistant Director level at the NT, UNESCO, IUCN and ICOMOS has ensured HF’s significant impacts within international heritage practice. The Director of IUCN observes that HF has provided international heritage organisations, such as IUCN, with “validation of the need to rethink fundamentals and not just re-present existing approaches” and demonstrated the value of “reframing nature-culture considerations in conservation practice” through engaging with “a project that thinks on timescales beyond the normal short-termism of conservation decision taking” [A1].

Changing the ways in which heritage is understood by its users and publics

An exhibition on Heritage Futures was developed around the four main themes of the project in collaboration with the Manchester Museum (MM) to communicate the more expansive view of heritage and its role in resourcing futures developed by Harrison and the HF team [R1/R4/R5],[i]. The museum decided to extend its originally planned 3-month run to at least 2 years (December 2018-end 2020) and to make the exhibition central to their major planned redevelopment (called “Manchester: Hello Future”) in recognition of its significance, not only to the museum’s visitors, but to the museum’s expanded understanding of its own role [B2]. This run was cut short by COVID when the museum closed in March 2020; however, at the time of writing a virtual version of the exhibition is in development. HF’s research programme themes formed the basis for a number of additional activities developed by the museum to engage with their own partner organisations and community. For example, ‘Heritage Futures Studio’ provided grants of up to GBP1,000 to support the development and delivery of creative projects and events by local groups [B2]. Under this initiative 6 projects were funded, creating 10 events and exhibitions which reached audiences of over 100,000 people [B2]. Importantly, many of these audiences were external to the museum. In its first year the exhibition itself was visited by over 360,000 people; based on the first year’s figures the total number of visitors over its 15-month run is estimated to have been c.420,000 people [B2/3]. A survey conducted at the beginning of 2020 showed that the exhibition had an impact on visitors’ intended personal recycling behaviours and their understanding of the importance of collective action in conserving the natural and cultural environment and preventing further climate change. In addition, the exhibition changed visitors’ understanding of heritage as a concept. Prior to visiting the exhibition, 85.7% of those surveyed said that heritage was more associated with the past; having visited the exhibition 90% agreed that heritage was more associated with shaping the future. It also generated an enhanced and expanded understanding of what heritage encompasses, with several of the visitors noting their surprise at the inclusion of language and contemporary objects/buildings in the context of heritage [B4].

The Director of MM noted that HF “themes encouraged the museum and its audiences to look at its collection differently (across subject specialist boundaries) and critically (in the context of wider questions around heritage). In particular, the theme of profusion has fed into our thinking for the development of the Museum’s Zero Waste Hub, an experimental space for ecological thinking and action” [B2]. The exhibition also influenced the choice of title by Director of the Museum for her linked ‘Professorship of Heritage Futures’ at University of Manchester. A curator on the exhibition, noted that “the four themes – profusion, diversity, transformation and uncertainty – were a powerful model for considering the work of the museum and the difference it was trying to make”. In this way, “Heritage Futures enabled the Museum to make more of its various exhibits, and to more clearly communicate its ambitions around a more future-focussed role and purpose.” The curator has subsequently left the museum to start a new consultancy connecting museums with the Sustainable Development Goals and climate change issues. He notes the significance of the project in this decision, indicating how “Heritage Futures made me reflect on my own future and what I am aiming to achieve through my own work, working with others” [B1]. Drawing on [R6], these themes are carried through in a subsequent collaboration between the curator, Harrison’s PALF team and the Glasgow Science Centre (GSC) on a high-profile international design competition, Reimagining Museums for Climate Action, which supports the development of an exhibition on museums, heritage and climate change that is being co-developed for the Glasgow Science Centre for COP26 in November 2021 [ii/iii]. The competition received 543 registrations and 264 final entries from architects, artists, designers, museum professionals, indigenous representatives, poets, and activists across 48 countries (185 from Global North, 75 from Global South or mixed (4 not stated territory)).

Inspiring, co-creating and supporting new forms of artistic expression

Through HF, Harrison and his team also worked closely with artists to commission artistic products related to each of its four themes (uncertainty [Martin Kunze, Karen Guthrie], transformation [Antony Lyons], diversity [Nancy Campbell] and profusion [Shelley Castle]; [R4] [i]). Testimonials from the artists show how their involvement in the project has had a significant impact on their practice and future projects. Lyons described working with HF as a valuable learning experience and his contribution to the project’s book provided “the opportunity to reflect on, and consolidate, some core strands of my artist practice and critically deepen some particular elements” [C1]. Lyons’ involvement led to two year-long artist residencies hosted by project partners (Wheal Martyn Museum and Orford Ness, NT) and his subsequent appointment as 2020 artist-in-residence at the Elan Valley in Wales. Through the HF residencies he has produced site-specific artworks that have reached a total audience of 12,000 people (with a further 25,000 having engaged with his work online) and led engagement workshops for 190 participants [C1]. Castle, Creative Associate at Encounters Art, worked with HF to co-create a project focusing on the values people invest in objects in their home environment. In May 2018 this culminated in creative community installation ‘ Human Bower’. Castle reflects that “the most striking aspect of the impact […] is how it has stimulated a conscious awakening in myself as an artist and deep reflection on my own practice” [C2]. The inclusion of these artworks in the exhibition at the MM has ensured their exposure to significant audiences which these artists would not have otherwise been able to reach (360,000 in first year, estimated 420,000 until COVID closure on 18^th March 2020) [B2/3]. For Kunze, founder of Memory of Mankind (MOM), a global time capsule project which aims to stores data on stable ceramic disks for a million years into the future, HF activities provided unique space for collaboration. Kunze remarks that he “had not previously found the time nor the right people with whom to discuss [his project]” and that participation in “the HF network has increased the profile of MOM […] with diverse experts, the media, and other engaged individuals” [C3].

Shaping heritage research policy in the UK and internationally to further influence heritage management policy and practice

Harrison’s work on HF and PALF has shaped how heritage is defined and researched through the take up of his findings by the AHRC. Harrison redrafted the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council’s Future Heritage Research Strategy with AHRC staff, defining 8 key priority research areas to guide decision making on strategic research funding [D1]. Drawing directly on his research, these included topics such as: ‘values and cultural heritage’ [R1]; ‘inclusion and diverse heritages’ [R1/R3]; sustainable management of heritage’ [R4/R5]; and ‘future heritages’ [R4/R5/R6], which asked ‘How can we identify, and conserve, the emergent heritages that will be of value to future generations?’. The strategy also places a strong emphasis on the relations between natural and cultural heritage [R2].

PALF has been cited as an example of ‘Innovation in Cultural Heritage Research’ in a report prepared for BEIS by the UK National Commission for UNESCO on the innovative capacity of the cultural heritage sector within the UK and how it can aid international development [D2]. HF has been used as a case study of research impact contributing to sustainable development in a joint report produced by the AHRC and Swedish National Research Council for the Joint Programming Initiative in Cultural Heritage and Global Change [D3]. AHRC’s Associate Director of Programmes notes Harrison’s PALF activities have “strengthen[ed] the narrative and evidence base for the economic, social and cultural value and impact of heritage research, as well as enhance[d] the research capability for heritage research as a cross-disciplinary and collaborative field of enquiry” [D4]. By informing heritage research priorities for the main UK funder of heritage and museums related research (AHRC fund over 75% of all academic research on heritage undertaken in the UK), Harrison’s work has led to significant changes in the kinds of research being funded and undertaken in the UK. His research has shaped particular thematic research funding calls, including the JPICH ‘Changing Environments’ and ‘Conservation, Protection and Use’ calls, and the AHRC GCRF Urgency Grants Highlight for ‘Proposals Addressing Threats to Cultural Heritage resulting from Natural Disasters and Climate Change’ [D4]. In turn, research projects funded under those calls have increased understanding, and changed ways of managing natural and cultural heritage, in the UK and internationally [D4].

Williams’ Ancient Merv project, based at one of the most important cities on the Silk Roads, promoted the development of conservation skills, shared research and educational opportunities across the region. Williams’ Silk Roads thematic study [R4] created the key conceptual framework of “corridors of movement” that now forms the basis of the Silk Roads World Heritage nomination strategy. This underpinned the successful 2014 nomination of The Routes Network of Chang'an-Tian Shan Corridor. At both international and national levels, the evidence gathering of the Central Asian Archaeological Landscape (CAAL) project has facilitated policy development and enabled strategic planning for site and landscape preservation. CAAL has developed heritage management capacities across that region through workshops and other training activities.

Changing the approach of government and heritage agencies to the Silk Roads:

World Heritage Listing unlocks access to international funding and attracts tourism and media attention. The Silk Roads thematic study [R4] established a new nomination strategy for World Heritage Listing, transformed the management and interpretation of Silk Roads archaeology and shaped the transnational working of governmental and heritage agencies in the Asian region [i, iv]. As the Project Officer for the Asia-Pacific Unit of the World Heritage Centre at UNESCO reports, **[R4]**’s conceptual framework of corridors of movement and impact “provided the approach that enabled nominations to focus on specific regions/responses, and paved the way for a series of transboundary nominations linked by a broader concept, rather than a single, unmanageable, nomination. This unlocked the ability for intergovernmental projects across Eurasia” [A]. This approach now forms the basis of the Silk Roads World Heritage nomination strategy and “[Williams] contribution to the World Heritage Silk Roads safeguarding is so significant that I continue to count on him for long-term continuous collaboration and advice” [A].

The strategy developed by Williams was adopted by 26 countries and implemented through transnational nominations. The first nomination using this approach was the successful 2014 Silk Roads: The Routes Network of Chang'an-Tian Shan Corridor, which is 5,000 km in length and encompasses 33 sites in 3 countries (China, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan) [B]. As Feng Jing, Chief, Asia and Pacific Unit, UNESCO and Susan Denyer, World Heritage Advisor, ICOMOS, explained in UNESCO’s magazine World Heritage, this successful nomination “represented a major achievement in a long process of international cooperation for safeguarding cultural heritage along the Silk Roads” [C]. It “demonstrates that – with a common value framework, a functioning cooperation mechanism and the proper upstream guidance – it is possible to structure a serial transnational World Heritage nomination with sites in three countries” and that this has “significant benefits in terms of fostering understanding, increasing regional and international cooperation and benefiting sustainable development” [C].

Williams’s new approach to nominations [R4] changed the focus of government and heritage agencies in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and China from simply focusing on large individual cities or spectacular monuments to a more holistic approach that recognised the complexity of Silk Roads archaeology. This improved the designation of sites and landscapes, increased state investment in heritage management and promoted capacity building [A]. ICOMOS China explain how collaborating with Williams built capacity: “Williams has subsequently been influential in the development of the strategies and approaches, including with us to provide capacity building programmes for site managers, from the three participating countries: China, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan” [D]. From 2015, this new approach to and promotion of Silk Roads nominations “created the agenda for significant investment by the National Administration of Cultural Heritage in China” enabling “document[ation of] the routes and sites of the region, to provide a platform for management, protection, and the selection of sites for inclusion in the nomination” [D].

As the Director of IICAS (International Institute for Central Asian Studies) puts it, Williams and his team were “crucial to the process of preparing the nomination dossier ‘Silk Road: Zarafshan-Karakum Corridor’” [E]. This “included creating and processing over 50,000 photographs of 31 monuments of architecture and archaeology; an important part of the nomination dossier, to demonstrate current condition, risks and to underpin management actions” [E]. The Director of the National Directorate of Turkmenistan for Protection, Research and Restoration of Historical and Cultural Monuments, Ministry of Culture explains that “The UCL team helped with documentation, for example, the desert caravanserai, mapping and GIS, management planning, and overall technical support in the writing of the dossier” [F]. The dossier, submitted in 2020, “marks a major achievement for our department and the cross-border protection of archaeological heritage” [F].

UNESCO has recognised the capacity-building and learning opportunities demonstrated by the Ancient Merv project. UNESCO’s 2019 report Cultural Heritage Innovation: Opportunities for international Development explains that the project “is being used as a learning tool, to develop a local skills base, share research and enhance the educational opportunities the site offers, as well as to aid methodological and technical development for the management of other World Heritage sites” [G: p. 20]. Williams’ research has enhanced further work by UNESCO to develop the South Asian Silk Roads, building capacity and supporting transboundary relationship building in 4 countries. Drawing on [R4], in December 2013, Williams was invited to advise the state parties of Bhutan, China, India and Nepal on potential transnational Silk Roads nominations (iii). UNESCO’s Project Officer explains that Williams “supported our initiatives” by “writing a draft nomination strategy (presented in Kathmandu, Nepal in September 2014) which identified key nominations and approaches, and playing an important role in a number of subsequent UNESCO meetings and workshop with South Asian partners” [A]. This included “developing inventories of sites and landscapes to support the selected corridors” which has had a “major impact on both policies and protection […] especially in the contest of transnational working”.

In 2016, William’s Final Technical Report on the results of the UNESCO/Korean Funds-in-Trust Project: Support for the Preparation for the World Heritage Serial Nomination of the Silk Roads in South Asia, 2013-2016 [H] was published. The report outlines the technical steps towards nominations in South Asia. As UNESCO put it, “the project has significantly enhanced the capacities of South Asian States Parties, particularly Bhutan and Nepal, to understand, conserve and inventory their National Silk Road Heritage sites/routes/corridors. It has also created a platform for sustained dialogue between the States Parties concerned, within the framework of the World Heritage Serial Nomination of the Silk Roads in South Asia” [I]. Williams’ expertise and technical report [H] led to China and Korea investing in Silk Roads research projects and developing capacity building programmes for South Asia professionals, with UCL providing input to six training workshops (May 2013 Kathmandu; Dec 2013 & Aug 2014 Thimphu; Sept 2014 Kathmandu; Sept 2017 & Nov 2018 Xi’an). These brought together professionals from India, Nepal, Bhutan and China in active transboundary work to frame new options of serial nominations in the region. This included, as ICOMOS China explain, “important initiatives to develop the trans-Himalayan routes, supporting us and UNESCO in numerous workshops and meetings with South Asian partners, and developing an important draft nomination strategy which identified key corridors and approaches” [D]. In addition, Williams “contributed to supporting Bhutan in developing their national inventory” [D].

Recording archaeological heritage to improve protection and management:

The Central Asian Archaeological Landscape (CAAL) project has directly benefitted international and national heritage agencies, facilitating evidence-based policy development and enabling them to strategically plan for site and landscape preservation. The archaeological heritage of the region faces multiple threats from infrastructure development projects, changing agricultural practices, climate change (including the collapsing glaciers of the “third pole” in the Himalaya-Hindu Kush mountain ranges), urban expansion and rural depopulation.

To enable a better understanding of the full range of archaeological heritage across the region, CAAL created an online geospatial open access inventory, http://3.11.16.60/. (v). 49,000 sites have been digitised and added to the database, fostering management and protection and enabling a more efficient response to threats by improving both the quality and dissemination of information. In Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, 131,721 documents describing 9,229 monuments have been digitized and catalogued by CAAL for the “preservation of the potential of historical and cultural heritage” in these countries [E/F].

This data facilitates policy-making at a national and local level to enable better site and landscape preservation and sustainable use, changing awareness and practice [A/D/E/F]. For example, the Director Secretariat of ICOMOS International Conservation Centre, Xi’an explains that CAAL “has enabled us to undertake work on the mapping, identification, and digital documentation of sites in five Central Asian countries and western China. This project is crucial to our long-term plans to develop digital national inventories to assist in the protection of archaeological heritage linking together existing records to provide an effective management platform” [D]. In addition, a revised World Heritage trans-national nomination for the Zarafshan-Karakum corridor (Tajikistan, Uzbekistan & Turkmenistan - submitted 2020) moved from only major sites to incorporating smaller sites and landscapes and committed resources to their conservation and management [F]. In Turkmenistan, the President agreed to support a Silk Roads heritage partnership with Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, a diplomatic breakthrough, and to redeployment of staff resources. As the Director explains, the collaboration with CAAL “has enabled us to devote staff to the digitisation of our National Monument passport records” [F]. As they put it, this “work is fundamental to our long-term protection of the archaeological resources of Turkmenistan, providing a high-quality national inventory and the capacity to deploy this to help manage and protect our country’s heritage” [F].

Professional impact on heritage practitioners:

Building on the Silk Roads project, the CAAL project has developed heritage management capacities across the Central Asian region. The CAAL team of post-doctoral researchers (Jorayev, Rui Pang, Marco Nebbia, Ona Vileikis, and Kimberly TeWinkle), under Williams’ direction, have trained more than 100 professionals in institutions across the region, through a mixture of workshop and on-the-job training programmes, collaborative fieldwork, and online support [E/F]. Workshops combined high resolution photographic and satellite imagery with “on the ground” field visits, in order to develop local capacity, discover new sites, improve documentation, and promote awareness. For example, the Director of IICAS explains that the “collaboration of the Central Asian institutions with UCL has considerably enhanced their technical base”. Documenting skills gained ranged from photogrammetry to “identification of risks during construction near cultural historical sites” as well as the skills and knowledge to generate a nomination dossier [E]. During the COVID-19 pandemic, training was delivered remotely “which facilitated [participants’] professional growth”. In addition, training on documentation using unmanned aerial vehicles resulted in more than 30,000 photos of archaeological sites, used to create orthophotomaps of Tajikistan’s monuments “for inclusion in the nomination dossier submitted for the inscription in the UNESCO World Cultural Heritage List” [E].

Williams’ research has led to new World Heritage nominations and transformed the capacity of local heritage and archaeological institutions to face the challenge of the sustainable use of heritage in the 21st century.