Future Directions
2023 marked a moment of reflection. Over four months a team from People’s Palace Projects (PPP) were commissioned to explore with academics, artists, activists and cultural heritage stakeholders potential future directions for AHRC-DCMS’s Cultural Heritage and Climate Change Programme. The research provided 16 recommendations on what the next phase of the programme might focus on, identifying emerging research areas, exploring how the portfolio can enhance the value and impact of research on cultural heritage in climate planning and advising the format and structure of future funding opportunities.
“There is an urgent need to align, coordinate and effectively disseminate research in this field: ‘The escalating climate crisis is rapidly evolving into a cultural emergency that threatens some of the world’s most valued heritage sites. But leveraging cultural diversity can also play a pivotal role in mitigating and adapting to climate change, unlocking innovative strate- gies, and promoting inclusivity.”
HE Sheik Salem bin Khalid Al Qassimi (Minister of Culture and Youth, UAE) and HE Margareth Menezes (Minister of Culture, Brazil) in a joint op-ed on Culture-based Climate Action at COP28
16 Recommendations
Themes, Contexts and Geographical Reach
#1: Expand scope of future call(s) to explicitly consider the ways in which tangible and intangible cultural heritage can also build resilience and contribute to climate action.
#2: Encourage interdisciplinary collaborations in all future funding calls.
#3: Encourage and support research that is co-designed and co-produced with the cultural heritage sector.
#4: Seek geographical diversity of cohort, but don’t underestimate the challenge and the necessary investment of making disparate voices and places coherent.
Methodologies and Approaches: Co-creation and equitable partnerships
#5: Provide a transparent, long-term vision for UK cultural heritage and climate research to support more impactful and long-term interventions, teamed with application/project cycles that support collaboration with partners.
#6 :Increase dialogue and training between funders, academics and research managers to align expectations and support effective and appropriate grant administration, particularly with international partners.
#7: Maintain the flexibility of the programme; provide a key point of contact for researchers; keep a focus on diversity and inclusivity within research teams.
#8: Reposition the centre of the research away from Higher Education Institutes (HEIs) to local communities: structure funding calls to include scoping visits, sustainability and network building, early and robust stakeholder mapping/engagement; and embedding Community Co-Investigators (Co-Is) into the programme.
#9: Recentre traditional knowledge, recognising its material value in devising post-carbon futures alongside the devastating injustices experienced by Indigenous peoples.
Themes, Contexts and Geographical Reach
#10: Move beyond mapping: focus on the impact rather than the output of AHRC/DCMS funded research.
#11: Incentivise risk-taking in future calls, investing in the discovery of creative and affective ways to tackle climate issues, and valuing the process alongside potential outputs.
#12: Set big research questions so that the aims, objectives and outputs of research simultaneously serve academic institutions, policymakers and communities.
#13: Encourage and support projects that have a focus on long term impact from the outset.
#14: Coordinate AHRC/DCMS research in cultural heritage and climate change to support dissemina tion, wider stakeholder engagement and policy im pact.
#15: Coordinate AHRC/DCMS research in cultural heritage and climate change to support dissemination, wider stakeholder engagement and policy impact.
#16: Continue to build on the cohort model, establishing a Research Observatory on Cultural Heritage and the Climate Crisis.
The Future Directions for AHRC-DCMS Cultural Heritage and Climate Change Research was undertaken by a team from People’s Palace Projects, led by Dr Poppy Spowage. It is rooted in learning from across the cohort, teamed with desk-based research, interviews with academics from connected fields and practitioners working at the intersection between cultural heritage and climate action.
People’s Palace Projects is an arts and research centre that brings together artists, activists, academics and audiences to challenge social and climate injustices through the power of the arts. Directed by Paul Heritage, People’s Palace Projects is a subsidiary of Queen Mary, University of London.