National Trust Partnership

In 2021, UCL signed a long-term strategic partnership with the National Trust to help conserve its historical sites and address important heritage challenges.

Image: Scaffolding surrounds the hall during the roof restoration project at Oxburgh Hall, Norfolk | ©National Trust Images/Mike Selby

Read the full announcement on UCL News

This exciting five-year initiative offers opportunities to: 

• Collaborate on activities focussed in the discipline of heritage studies (including heritage science), aligning with the ‘Looking after’ pillar of the National Trust's strategic framework for research.
• Focus on providing opportunities for joint research, knowledge exchange, and supporting the development of the next generation of heritage professionals.
• Explore ways to collaborate generally in the development of joint and respective research interests relating to heritage, training and professional development.

The Partnerships’ co-developed research strands prioritise three Sustainable Heritage themes developed in line with UCL Grand Challenges and the National Trust Strategic Framework for Research:

Adapting to Change in the Anthropocene    

Supporting projects to better understand various, complex and changing forces, from socio-cultural to economic and environmental that affect heritage across a range of time frames from short to very long term. This theme supports future resilience through effective evidence gathering and improved foresight, planning and the development of adaptable management strategies and tools. 

Image: Wreck of the Yankee at Blakeney Point, Norfolk | ©National Trust Images/Rob Coleman

Connecting People with Heritage for Health and Wellbeing

Supporting projects to help us understand the contribution which cultural heritage can make to individual and community health and wellbeing. How can greater public benefit be enabled – physical accessibility to interpretation, community participation and programming – measured, and successful interventions shared? 

Image: Dogs welcome at Attingham Park, Shropshire | ©National Trust Images/Annapurna Mellor

The Social Lives of Heritage: understanding heritage significance 

Acknowledging cycles of cultural and natural change over time, this theme addresses the potentials of technology, scientific analysis and modelling to deepen interpretation/understanding of collections and the historic environment. How can change be predicted and resources managed?

Image: A volunteer cleaning windows at Little Moreton Hall, Cheshire | ©National Trust Images/John Millar

• Small grant funded projects
• Multidisciplinary knowledge-exchange programme
• Policy placements 
• The development of an innovation network 
• Knowledge transfer partnerships
• Joint research funding bids and studentships
• Connecting researchers and expertise across the organisations, and mapping existing collaborations as a mutual resource

Supporting regular UCL-NT Strategic Partnership meetings, the UCL Steering Group is chaired by Professor Christoph Lindner (Dean of The Bartlett Faculty of the Built Environment) and comprises representatives from anthropology, archaeology, heritage and conservation science, art history and the built environment. The Joint Steering Group sets out:

• our ambition for next five years for research with impact, building our role as an IRO, research to inspire & engage;
• our priority areas; Looking after focus on connecting people with nature and heritage, heritage understanding and significance, adapting to environmental change, embedding sustainability in our operations