Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask Her Majesty's Government how the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport is collaborating with UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) on sharing and preserving digital heritage collections.

The cornerstone of the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) and Arts and Humanities Research Council’s (AHRC) collaboration to preserve and share digital heritage collections is, ‘Towards a National Collection: Opening UK Heritage to the World’. The programme sees DCMS and AHRC work with AHRC’s Independent Research Organisations (IROs) and universities with the aim of creating a unified virtual ‘national collection’. It is funded via an £18.93 million investment over five years.

The AHRC’s IROs include many of the world’s pre-eminent museums, galleries and archives, playing a highly significant role in the UK’s international prestige and in its multi-billion heritage tourist economy.

Towards a National Collection forges new partnerships between IROs and universities, amplifying and deepening their joint research power. The programme uses new technology to dissolve barriers between different collections – and open UK heritage to new audiences at home and across the world.

The funding for the programme forms part of the Strategic Priorities Fund (SPF), delivered by UK Research & Innovation (UKRI) to drive an increase in high quality multi- and interdisciplinary research and innovation. The SPF ensures that UKRI's investment links up effectively with government research priorities and opportunities.

AHRC and DCMS also collaborated on designing the Capability for Collections Fund (CapCo), an allocation from UKRI’s £315m World Class Labs programme, to upgrade and renew conservation, heritage science and digitisation facilities in museums; and provide the underpinning infrastructure required to unlock the creative, economic and innovation potential of the UK’s heritage assets.