Research excellence
The Institute of Archaeology is a long-established international leader in the discipline, unique in the scale and diversity of its research and the global scope of its expertise and collaborative links.
The Institute's key strategic research aims are:
- to be internationally pre-eminent in the study, and comparative analysis, of world archaeology.
- to maintain and enhance its reputation for the quality and breadth of its multi-disciplinary and thematic approach to the study of the human past.
- to develop theory, method and practice in the study and management of cultural heritage in its social, political and economic contexts.
- to be at the forefront of international research in archaeological sciences.
The Institute’s research covers fieldwork, laboratory analysis and conservation, artefact studies, and theoretical, synthetic, and analytical work across a range of perspectives. It has more than 60 research active staff, projects on five continents and in the Pacific, and wins regular and substantial research funding from a wide range of national and international sources.
RAE 2008
Since 2001 Institute of Archaeology staff have published >50 authored or co-authored books, >40 edited books and 20 thematic journal issues, together with >800 book chapters and journal articles.
In the 2008 UK Universities Research Assessment Exercise (RAE), 90% of the Institute’s research activity was rated as internationally recognised by the assessment panel, with 30% considered world-leading. The panel also noted that, ‘UCL's Institute of Archaeology is one of the very few places in the world that is actively pursuing research on a truly global scale‘; that it has ‘a generally outstanding research environment in which all [its] research groups participate, [contributing] to an increasingly cohesive research environment‘; and that its staff and their work have ‘generally excellent impact and recognition‘.
Research grants
In the last few years the Institute has won over 40 UK Research Council and charity grants over £10,000 and many smaller ones. Competitive funding that has been obtained includes: UK Research Councils: more than £5.445M; UK charities: more than £1.993M; EU: more than £4.0M.
Ignacio de la Torre has been successful in obtaining a European Research Council (ERC) Starting Grant for his research project 'ORACEAF: The Origins of the Acheulean in East Africa' (2012-2016). Further details are available here»
Stephen Shennan has been successful in obtaining a European Research Council (ERC) Advanced Investigator Grant for his research project ‘EUROEVOL: Cultural Evolution of Neolithic Europe’ (2010-2014). Further details are available here»
Sue Hamilton has very recently been awarded a 4-year Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) Research Project Grant for the collaborative project 'Rapa Nui: Landscapes of Construction' (2011-2015).
Paul Basu obtained an Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) Large
Grant, under its 'Beyond Text' programme for his 'Reanimating cultural
heritage: digital repatriation, knowledge networks and civil society
strengthening in post-conflict Sierra Leone' project (2009-2012).
James Steele (Director of the AHRC Centre for the
Evolution of Cultural Diversity) was successful, in collaboration
with the University of Exeter, in obtaining funding from the Leverhulme Trust
for their project on ‘Learning to be Human: Skill acquisition and the
development of the human brain’ (2010-2013).
Andrew Reynolds also obtained a Leverhulme Trust research project grant for his research project on ‘Landscapes of Governance: Assembly Sites in England, 5th-11th Centuries’ (2009-2012).
Dorian Fuller has obtained a Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) research project grant for research on ‘The Identification of Rice in Prehistory’ (2009-2012).
Postdoctoral research has been significantly developed through external research funding. Since 2001 30 postdoctoral researchers have been funded by external grants. Six of this postdoctoral group have gone on to lectureships, 13 are either still employed as Institute researchers or in research positions elsewhere. The Institute has continued to be successful in attracting PhD students, with >100 fee-paying students currently registered, from 27 different countries.
