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Enhancing the research value of the university collections

The Heritage & Creativity Institute for Collections (HCIC), at the University of Reading, is an interdisciplinary research institute with a focus on enhancing the research value of the University Archives, Collections and Museums. We encompass a community of researchers, policy-makers, practitioners and users with shared goals. Importantly, we encourage people to work together, and to learn from each other.

The University of Reading’s Collections are acknowledged to be an outstanding resource for public engagement, teaching and research. The expertise, skills and dedication of the staff involved is extensive and research using the Collections has taken place across the Institution for a number of years, engaging curators, archivists and academic researchers.

Values

The HCIC connects collections across disciplines with an initial focus on Heritage & Creativity disciplines. It will engage with historical research, creative/design practice and participatory/science engagement. We will help deliver impact by connecting stakeholders with collections which hold meaning for them via high quality and innovative research methods. Impact and research engagement with collections will draw on expertise of cultural engagement specialists who work within the University’s collections and on their strong partnerships outside the HEI sector.

The significance of the collections cuts across traditional disciplinary divides and offers opportunities to work in collaboration with professionals and community stakeholders to co-create innovative research outputs and impact. The collections also offer the opportunity to engage with knowledge transfer with the cultural, heritage, and creative sectors both in the UK and Internationally. By building on existing partnerships with communities, non-HEI organisations, and policy makers the HCIC is a hub for excellence around co-created research.

A Meditation on the 100th Anniversary of Armistice Day: The Soldier Returns

‘Embellish’d with gold: treasures from the European Manuscripts Collection’

Ure Lecture: The Empire of Things and the Empire of People – 23.11.18

Exploring the effect of WW2 on three generations – Silence comes to Reading

UK Prime Minister backs campaign to raise a statue to Lady Nancy Astor

Stepping out of time: the MERL Annual Lecture – 6.11.18