Monday, April 10, 2023 1The National Archives: Funding the Archives Sector

Working with University Development Teams

Sally Bowden,

Centre for Advanced Studies in the Arts and Social Sciences

Image courtesy of the University of Nottingham

Monday, April 10, 2023 The National Archives: Funding the Archives Sector 2

There are approx. 165,000 academics in the UK.

How do you find the right person

or team for your needs?

Needle in a haystack?

Monday, April 10, 2023The National Archives: Funding the Archives Sector

3

Institutional Structures

Vice Chancellor

Pro-Vice

Chancellor

for Research & KE

PVC for

another

portfolio

PVC for

another

portfolio

PVC for

another

portfolio

Research Services including:

Contracts Research Policy Awards Team

Research Development Managers/ KE Executives

(working at Faculty and/or School level)

Arts and HumanitiesSocial Sciences

EngineeringMedicine

Sciences

PVC for

another

portfolio

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So you want a partnership…questions you

need to think about first What are your institutional priorities and

does your project fit with these priorities?

Will you need money/resources for

your plans?

Do you have institutional support for

the development of a collaboration?

Image courtesy of the University of Nottingham

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What do you need from a partnership?

A key advantage to working with a University is

that you can draw together expertise from a

broad range of disciplines to suit your needs.

Do you need a historian to help you with

contextualising a collection?

Do you need a computer scientist to help you

develop a crowd sourcing tool to unlock

thousands of hours of online volunteer time?

Do you need a business expert to help

identify new business models and a copyright

expert to understand the implications of

making data available?

Images courtesy of the University of Nottingham

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Being a Partner on a Funding Application

The support of non-academic partners on University-led

research bids is an important indicator of the value of a

research proposal in terms of its relevance to the wider

public and the potential impact of the proposed research.It is now the norm to have multiple non-academic partners involved in the process of research and/or as named beneficiaries of research.

Universities are also increasingly asked to be

partners on sector-led bids.

Image courtesy of the University of Nottingham

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Being a Partner on a Funding ApplicationTo support a University-led proposal the non-academic partner is required to write a letter of support

that outlines why the project is of value to their organisation and what they can offer in support of the

project in terms of in-kind (e.g. staff time, use of venue) or cash contributions.

The costs associated with the non-academic

partners’ contribution to a proposal (e.g. staff time

to participate) can not be budgeted into a funding

application unless the funding scheme specifically

states that such costs are eligible.Independent Research Organisations (IROs) can

include its staff costs on funding applications where

the IRO is acting as an applicant institution.

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Case Studies at Nottingham

Southwell Workhouse Project (match funded)

John Player Advertising Archive (partner-led funding

bid)

Creative Economy Knowledge Exchange Project:

Archives, Assets and Audiences (University-led

funding bid)

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The Southwell Workhouse Project

A collaboration between the National

Trust and the University of Nottingham

The National Trust’s ambitions for the

property include a reinterpretation of the

site, new visitor facilities and the launch

of an educational centre.

Photo by Jacqueline Anderson

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The Southwell Workhouse Project

The initial stage of the project was

sponsored through a match fund

arrangement between the NT and the

University to support a Research Associate

to explore the archive holdings and draw

out individual life stories of people who

experienced the Workhouse. The second stage will focus on how

these life stories and archive resources

can be used to engage existing and new

audiences with the Workhouse property,

using new technologies.

Image courtesy of the University of Nottingham

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The John Player Advertising Archive

A collaboration between Nottingham Museums and

Galleries Service and the University of Nottingham.

The John Player Advertising Archive was

given to NMGS in the 1990s with a small

dowry. The dowry wasn’t quite big enough

to cover the costs of cataloguing the

collection and so the collection remained on

pallets in a store. The ambition of the

NMGS was to understand what was in the

collection and to be able to use it for

exhibitions, public engagement and

educational purposes.

Image courtesy of Nottingham Museums and Galleries Service

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Working with academics in the Department of

History and the Business School, NMGS

applied for a Technology Strategy Board

Knowledge Transfer Partnership to fund a KT

Associate to catalogue, mine and help

commercialise the collection.The project helped achieve a copyright

agreement and has led to two public

exhibitions, an oral history project with ex-

workers and educational resources. The

project is now being continued through an

AHRC collaborative doctoral award.

The John Player Advertising Archive

Image courtesy of Nottingham Museums and Galleries Service

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The Creative Economy Knowledge Exchange Project (CEKE): Archive,

Assets and AudiencesA collaboration between the

Universities of Nottingham,

Nottingham Trent and Leicester

working with a range of regional and

national non-academic partners.The project aims to enable new

exchanges between academic

disciplines, and between partners, to

explore how archives and collections

can be used remotely to engage

audiences with heritage sites and other

venues.

Image courtesy of the University of Nottingham

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The Creative Economy Knowledge Exchange Project (CEKE): Archive,

Assets and AudiencesThis AHRC-funded project provides

seed-corn funds for pilot projects and

other forms of exchange (visiting

fellowships and internships) and we will

use the pilots to develop new

collaborative projects for future funding

opportunities.

The Southwell Workhouse and the

Nottingham Museums and Galleries

Service are partners on the project and

where possible we encourage these

existing projects to develop pilot projects

under the CEKE programme.

Image courtesy of the University of Nottingham