AHRC Follow-on-Funding success for Heritage Futures research programme

Landscape Futures and the Challenge of Change: Towards Integrated Cultural/Natural Heritage Decision Making (LFCC) is a newly funded research project which follows on from the AHRC-funded Heritage Futures project (2015-2019), based at UCL and led by Professor of Heritage Studies Rodney Harrison, which sought (amongst other things) to understand the challenges associated with managing change and loss in dynamic heritage landscapes. Heritage Futures research found that new strategies are needed for sensitive, proactive management of heritage transformations, particularly in vulnerable coastal landscapes and for assets already in an advanced state of decline. LFCC, which will run for 12 months from 1^st February 2020, has received £100k of research funding under the AHRC Landscape Decisions/Changing Landscapes Follow-on Fund for Impact and Engagement Call, and has been awarded to a project team which includes Principal Investigator Caitlin DeSilvey (University of Exeter); Co-Investigators Rodney Harrison (University College London), Hannah Fluck (Historic England), Rosie Hails (The National Trust), Ingrid Samuel (The National Trust), and the organisation Natural England as project partner.

The main LFCC project outcome will be a decision support framework to facilitate iterative, adaptive landscape management, as heritage and land assets undergo gradual or abrupt change. Working collaboratively with the National Trust, Historic England and Natural England, the framework will deliver three key outcomes for landscape and heritage managers: (1) consistency in interpretation of relevant regulations and guidance, (2) confidence in making the decision to manage for change, and (3) capability in devolving decision making to local managers and inspectors.

Further information about the Heritage Futures research programme is available on the website www.heritage-futures.org