Icon’s membership of the National Heritage Science Forum (NHSF) creates opportunities for members to connect with heritage science research, access shared resources, and contribute to sector-wide initiatives.
Icon members may not be aware that Icon is a member of the National Heritage Science Forum (NHSF). NHSF brings together the producers and users of heritage science to improve collaboration, help practitioners make better use of research, and demonstrate the public benefit of heritage science, and organisational membership provides the individuals within these organisations (including Icon members!) with the following benefits:
- Opportunities to be involved in the delivery of the Strategic Framework for Heritage Science in the UK with other organisations through the NHSF Member Council;
- Opportunities to collaborate with other organisations through the NHSF Member Council and to engage with other heritage science programmes which are closely aligned with NHSF activity, such as RICHeS and ERIHS (these are programmes which provide routes to accessing heritage science facilities)
- Access to NHSF resources, such as the Kit Catalogue: Equipment sharing: NHSF Kit-Catalogue | National Heritage Science Forum
Icon has two representatives who attend NHSF meetings on behalf of Icon members. They are Nicola Grahamslaw, a Conservation Engineer who works for SS Great Britain, and Isobel Griffin, the Head of Collections Care at the National Records of Scotland. Nicola is the primary representative with voting rights, and as a member of Icon’s Heritage Science Group, she ensures good links between this group and NHSF. Isobel is the Vice Chair of the Icon Scotland group, which brings her into contact with conservators from a range of institutions and private practice, and helps her to represent their interests in NHSF.
Get Involved
So how can Icon members get involved if they are interested in the work of NHSF?
One option is to participate via the Icon Heritage Science Group, which has an active committee delivering an exciting programme of events, and is always open to questions and suggestions sent to [email protected].
Another option is to follow NHSF activities through Linkedin and the NHSF blog, and potentially get involved by contributing a post.
It’s also possible to join one of the NHSF working groups, which have been created to help deliver the NHSF Strategic Framework 2024-2027. There are four groups covering Research Priorities, Research Translation, Workforce and Metrics, and while Icon members are welcome to join any of the groups, there is a particular need for extra bodies in the Research Translation and Metrics groups. So if you’re interested in exploring how research can be successfully translated and communicated to practitioners, or how the outputs and outcomes of research can be measured, please contact Nicola or Isobel: [email protected] and [email protected].
Heritage Science Workforce Survey
A final piece of news is that Icon has been appointed to carry out labour market intelligence on behalf of the RICHeS programme. Icon will use a survey methodology to gather evidence about the heritage and conservation science workforce, the sector’s composition and the current labour market challenges and opportunities. NHSF's workforce (task group) is acting as the technical steering group for this research, which contributes to a key area of the Strategic Framework for Heritage Science in the UK. It’s a very timely piece of work, and Icon members can help by participating in the survey and encouraging colleagues to do the same.