Welcome to the Heritage Science Group pages!
‘Heritage science is the application of scientific techniques and technologies to improve our understanding, conservation, management and engagement with cultural heritage. It ensures that heritage assets remain safe to view, display, handle and study, and is therefore critical to the continued economic viability of the heritage sector. Put more simply, heritage science is the use of scientific techniques to answer questions about our cultural heritage.’ What is heritage science? – RICHeS
Icon’s Heritage Science Group serve anyone who’s interested in heritage science and its application to conservation, whether you’re a student in conservation or heritage science, a conservator looking to apply heritage science in your work or a formally-trained heritage scientist, analysing collections as part of your day-to-day work!
In 2022 we conducted a survey of the Icon membership, to hear what Icon members wanted from the Heritage Science Group. Thank you to all who participated as these results continue to shape our offer.
We regularly review our group strategy alongside the results from this survey, Icon’s Strategy, the NHSF Strategy and other sector developments, to create a plan of events, training, publications, and resource development, that serve you!
With many thanks to the committee members, authors, hosts, and collaborators involved, here are some examples of our activities:
- Regular publication of heritage science articles in Icon’s magazine Iconnect (members only), aimed at translating heritage science research into practice.
- Advocate for Icon Members at NHSF meetings on behalf of Icon. Several of our committee members are also involved in NHSF strands which helps us stay up to date in NHSF developments and opportunities for collaboration!
- Running several in-person lab tours a year – these often sell out quickly!
- Regular committee catch-ups with Icon Head Office to identify where we can support and tie-in to wider Icon activities.
- Creation of resources to support members such as our Ethical Sampling Guidance.
We collaborate with other Icon groups and organisations where possible to increase our reach and impact. Some recent examples include:
- British Science Week webinars 2026, in collaboration with the National Trust. A review of these alongside links to the recordings is available here: What is Heritage Science? – Reflections on British Science Week 2026 – heritage science, fact not fiction.
- Heritage Science Infrastructure panel at the Icon Book & Paper Group Conference 2025, as well as joint bursaries to support attendance. Blogs written by bursary recipients are published here, dated 9th February 2026.
- Speed Mentoring for Emerging Professionals workshop at the NHSF 2025 conference, Trends in Heritage Science. Brochure, presentations, and posters available here!
We support and advocate for inclusivity and sustainability in the application of heritage science wherever possible. For example:
- We recently highlighted the diversity in backgrounds of those working in heritage science in our article: Balancing Identities: Heritage, Science and Conservation.
- Through our committee members’ work on NHSF groups and involvement in RICHeS infrastructure.
- We offer bursaries each year to support attendance at our events.
- We evidenced a need and interest from the sector for a sustainability framework for heritage science labs and conservation studios. This was established through a project conducted (2022-24) in collaboration with Icon Sustainability Group, UCL and to trail the LEAF sustainability framework. The webinar by former UCL Sustainable Labs Adviser, Martin Farley, who introduced the LEAF framework is available here: Sustainability in Science, Labs and Beyond | Heritage Conservation | Icon SN &Heritage Science Group. Follow-on work from this project is ongoing.
If you’d like to get in touch with the committee, please contact us at [email protected].