Heritage science

Heritage science is an old field of research: in his Royal Institution Christmas Lecture in 1843, Michael Faraday already pointed out how pollution importantly contributes to book degradation.

Heritage that is accessible, in its preserved authentic form or as a (digital) reproduction, is also a "resource for economic growth, employment and social cohesion".

Schouten as "history processed through mythology, ideology, nationalism, local pride, romantic ideas or just plain marketing.

[citation needed] With its wide definition, heritage science spans a significant variety of scientific activities.

In order to support conservation, access, interpretation and management, heritage science must be based on an interdisciplinary palette of knowledge, from fundamental sciences (chemistry, physics, mathematics, biology) to arts and humanities (conservation, archaeology, philosophy, ethics, history, art history etc.

This could be taken to estimate the domain size – with the number of outputs in 2014 being 6,800 (Source: Web of Science[10]), it could be assumed that there are about 3,000 heritage scientists active in the field (publishing on average 2 academic publications per year).

The proportion per country varies greatly, about 20% of researchers being active in the US, 15% in the UK, 10% in Italy, 5% France, and 5% in China (with a strong increase in the last decade).

[11] In 2013, the Mind the Gap project,[12] funded by the UK EPSRC/AHRC Science and Heritage Programme,[13] reported on the drivers and impediments in cross-disciplinary research.

E-RIHS is currently in a transition and implementation phase to change its status into a European Research Infrastructure Consortium (ERIC) in 2022.

[21] Several other universities in Italy have faculty members whose primary research focus is in heritage science; these groups often accept international students who would like to obtain a PhD in the field.

[26] A key aspect of the SEAHA scheme is the collaborative nature of projects, enabling partnerships between academic institutions, industry and national heritage agencies and giving an applied focus to the research training.

In Spain, the Spanish Network of Science and Technology for the Conservation of Cultural Heritage (TechnoHeritage) brings together more than 65 research groups working in heritage science, from the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), universities, conservation institutes and other cultural institutions.