Historic Royal Palaces (HRP) is an independent charity and an Independent Research Organisation (IRO) that looks after six internationally significant heritage sites: the UNESCO World Heritage Site HM Tower of London; Hampton Court Palace; Banqueting House, Whitehall; Kensington Palace; Kew Palace; and Hillsborough Castle and Gardens covering over 1,000 years of architectural history and two geographical locations (England and Northern Ireland). The HRP scientific laboratory was founded 35 years ago and since then has established a distinguished reputation in the field of heritage science and conservation research, collaborating extensively with academic, heritage and industry partners on innovative projects. Research outputs include scientific samples and reference materials as well as an extensive print and digital archive of scientific reports, analytical data and technical images. HRP's scientific sample collections constitute an important resource for research by academics, heritage organisations, industry partners, students, artists and community groups. However, many of these samples are not catalogued and are dispersed across different locations as they were commissioned externally. Furthermore, HRP does not currently have dedicated facilities for organising, storing and hosting researchers to access and engage with these resources. As a result, only a small percentage of our scientific collections is available for research. The substantial investment of nearly £1M from the Arts & Humanities Research Council capital funding programme, Capability for Collections (AH/V012487/1), offered a rare opportunity for establishing in-house extensive analytical capabilities as well as installing a dedicated server for the safe storage of heritage science data. As a result of this capital investment, HRP has initiated the recovery of scientific samples from external contractors to consolidate them in a dedicated repository for historic materials and decorative finishes. The HRP REsearch Vault for HEritAge Science CoLlections (REVEAL) proposal to the RICHeS Host collections as part of our heritage science infrastructure funding estimated at £434K will deliver urgently needed physical and digital storage facilities as well as staff resources for cataloguing the large number of HRP scientific sample collections and data. The significance and impact of the REVEAL research infrastructure is demonstrated by the strong letters of support from heritage organisations (The Royal Collection Trust (RCT), English Heritage (EH), Historic England (HE)), academia (University of Oxford (UO), University College London (UCL), Kingston University London (KUL)), industry (Clyde HSI) and practitioners (Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA)). Parallel to the physical archive, the REVEAL project will build a substantial digital repository of previous and ongoing long term research projects which were funded externally (EU and UK research councils) or internally. In addition, the repository will host digital assets and analytical data generated from technical studies and conservation projects from our palaces and collections. Other important assets stored in this repository include 3D laser scanning data and digital twins from our collections and sites. As part of the RICHeS project a heritage science sample and data archivist (full time, HRP pay range 8) will be recruited for the REVEAL Co-ordinator post, responsible for the organising and storage of the samples and data to scientific reference collection standards. The successful candidate will receive extensive technical training, induction to the organisation and mentoring in advance of the launch of the facility to external access. The project will be also supported by two fixed term post for cataloguers to organise and record the scientific sample collections

Interacting with computer-based maps has made many tasks, such as navigating from one place to another, significantly simpler for many users. The technology behind these developments, however, depends on being able to pin-point roads, buildings, paths, and other features in a precise way. The space of the world people move around in day by day is not the only kind of space which it is important to represent on computers. For example, historical documents can describe where buildings were, or where events happened. Writings about journeys made in the past, can help us today understand our own environment and how it was shaped and is still being shaped by the ways it has been perceived and described. Narratives of journeys are significant too in imagined worlds whether created in literature, or through media such as film. Studying such journeys, as well as other kinds of imagined spaces in literature, also helps us understand the ways in which people tell stories as a way of communicating with each other. The digital humanities includes the study of history, literature, and many other aspects of human experience, through digital technology. Ths technology may be used to process large amounts of information, which might come from historical documents or literary texts for example. This enables scholars to find patterns in the information, through techniques including visualisation of the data. These patterns can generate new questions or new perspectives on the world from which the data came. The digital humanities has successfully used Geographical Information Systems (GIS) for the study of data using computer-based maps. However, what can be done if all that we know is that the church is next to the house, or that the path went through the forest, or that the flood covered most of the town? These examples all include qualitative spatial relations: 'next to', 'through', 'covered most of'. These kinds of relations have been studied in computer science because, although they do not give enough information by themselves to plot things on a map, they can be represented computationally using logic. One motivation for the study of Qualitative Spatial Representation (QSR) in computer science is that humans often don't use very detailed spatial information. We might say ''move the chair next to the window'' instead of having to calculate the exact distances and angles involved. This kind of flexibility when dealing with locations is very similar to the need in the digital humanities to handle events, objects, journeys, and so on that cannot be pin-pointed on a map. Thus, the digital humanities needs more flexible computer-based ways of representing spatial information, and computer science has extensive research on QSR. These two areas of study have had almost no interaction before now. This network brings together experts from the humanities in areas including history, literature, and archaeology, with experts from computer science in areas including artificial intelligence and geographical information systems. The network will focus on how the digital humanities can use adaptations of the ways qualitative spatial relations are used in computer science. Two workshops will explore detailed case studies based on documents and other resources from the participants' areas of expertise. A third workshop will encourage the formation of a cross-disciplinary community centred on spatial information in the digital humanities. This workshop will report on the case study explorations. It will also allow researchers, and organisations who make archives and other historical records accessible to the public, to plan together the work needed to build digital tools that will help people handle spatial information in the humanities which is qualitative, metaphorical, vague, uncertain or ambiguous .

Using cultural heritage assets as the basis for enhancing health and well-being is well established in Britain. Although health benefits are clear, many programmes have been small-scale, poorly evaluated, and costly to run. Using a network of academic and third-sector partners, Scaling-up Human Henge will co-produce a place-based Culture Heritage Therapy Programme (CHTP) that will be evaluated and documented so that it can be rolled-out nationally. The focus is on prevention and intervention through social prescribing to enhance the well-being of people living with long-term common mental health disorders (CMHDs). Heritage assets in the form of prehistoric ritual landscapes, such as the henge monument at Stonehenge in Wiltshire, will be used because similar places are widely scattered across Britain, are easily accessible and safe, and provide ideal venues for structured performative engagements with cultural heritage. Mental health well-being is one of the most pressing issues facing society today. The NHS estimates that one in four people in Britain will experience poor mental health at some point in their lives, and living with a mental illness can lead to isolation and effect personal and social relationships. The cost of mental illness in England has been put at £105 billion per year. Finding solutions, whether clinical or through wider community activities and social prescribing, is high on the political agenda, headed by UN Sustainable Development Goal 3 on health and well-being to be achieved by 2030. Using heritage assets fits well with new and emerging local and national health intervention structures. This innovative and original project based at the universities of Bournemouth and Exeter includes collaborations with the Avon and Wiltshire NHS Mental Health Trust; English Heritage; Rethink Mental Illness; and the Restoration Trust. As a multi-disciplinary project it brings together specialists in healthcare, health economics, public services, social archaeology, heritage studies, and anthropology to advance knowledge and practice in relation to using heritage assets to enhance mental health well-being as part of public health policy. Scaling-up Human Henge addresses issues around combating health inequalities, treatment within communities, the reduction of social isolation, the value of therapeutic intervention to society, and how a network of locally-based CHTPs can be made to work from grass roots through to a strategic level on a national canvas. Building on the results of a Heritage Lottery funded study known as Human Henge, as well as other related projects, the highly experienced project team led by Professor Tim Darvill and Dr Vanessa Heaslip will co-produce a CHTP involving creative activities and participatory events at ancient sites. This will open up new ways of experiencing heritage in order to create and build relationships, stimulate self-awareness, and make connections across a range of social and physical environments. The co-produced CHTP will be run as a Pilot Study to evaluate the programme in terms of its delivery, effectiveness, scalability, and cost-consequences. Individuals with long-term mental health issues will participate, taking part in varied activities on-the-ground and on-line, including drawing, singing, dancing, making things, and thinking about the power of place. Their experiences will be formally evaluated using nationally recognized quantitative and qualitative measures, and those that wish to will be involved in reviewing and revising the programme, and analysing what the overall benefits are in economic and social terms. Using our experiences, good practice guidelines to support the development and delivery of future CHTPs will be co-produced and shared with heritage organizations. The guidelines will include advice for staff facilitating cultural therapy as well as suggestions for delivering successful CHTPs at ancient sites.

The Tudor period continues to captivate and maintain a presence in popular culture. Henry VIII's reign, in particular, fascinates as much for its architectural magnificence and courtly splendour, its music, masques, tournaments and hunting parties as for its dynastic concerns, political machinations and religious controversies. 2020 will mark the quincentenary of the Field of the Cloth of Gold, described as "the most spectacular progress". It is an opportune moment not only to assess the characteristics, iconography and material culture associated with Tudor royal progresses and ceremony, but also to invite network participants, project partners and the public to engage with and reflect on what it means for us in the 21st century. This one-year research network led by Historic Royal Palaces (HRP) and the University of York (UoY) will examine the nature and significance of Henry VIII's journeys between royal residences and to parts of the realm, setting them in their political, social and cultural context and considering their implications for modern heritage practice and management. A wealth of archival and material evidence survives, yet Henry's progresses have never been systematically studied. Our network aims to recover their role within the regional and national politics of 16th century England and assess their cultural significance both on a broader international stage and at a crucial moment in the development of English Renaissance architecture, drama, art and music. Using surviving records we will track the movements of Henry VIII and his court, their impact on venues visited, and how progresses affected perceptions of access to the king in Tudor England. We will explore notions of public and private space and assess the logistical challenges entailed in supplying and accommodating an itinerant household. We will also evaluate the role of Henry's progresses in fashioning an image of the monarchy, and the consequences of the cultural and material legacy for interpretation of the Tudors as a heritage phenomenon today. The workshops and conference initiated by this network will interrogate the whole phenomenon of royal progresses with a view to identifying research priorities, exploring which themes might be most fruitfully pursued, and ascertaining the most appropriate methodologies to be employed (including digital and virtual reality technologies) in anticipation of applying for funding for a larger multi-disciplinary and collaborative project. The participating scholars and heritage experts will aim to challenge orthodoxies associated with royal progresses, enabling clearer distinction between Henry VIII's expeditions and those of his medieval predecessors and Tudor successors. In short, this network will begin the work of re-connecting Henry VIII's royal palaces (whether extant buildings or archaeological sites) with the culture of royal magnificence that created them and gave them their meaning. Tudor monarchs are central to the presentation of historic royal sites including Hampton Court and the Tower of London (HRP). This project builds on a public appetite for information on the Tudors heightened by period dramas filmed at historic locations. There is also public interest in lost Tudor palaces such as Whitehall, Nonsuch, Greenwich, and the old Palace of Westminster (subject of a major AHRC project led by Cooper). Royal residences outside London (e.g. Sudeley Castle and Beaulieu Palace) and elite houses (e.g. Greys Court and the Vyne), were built by or altered for Henry VIII and possess important architectural and archaeological remains that deserve better investigation and public presentation. HRP and UoY will use their technical expertise in creating immersive experiences through virtual and augmented reality to bring venues to life for visitors by exploring existing palaces and recreating 'lost palaces' as well as aural and visual experiences of the court on progress.

Stonehenge, Britain's iconic prehistoric monument, continues to fascinate. Thanks to recent research including a new series of excavations undertaken over the last 10 years, the public's appetite for the story of Stonehenge is a voracious as ever, demonstrated by countless documentaries, popular books and a new visitor centre at the site. Here we wish engage new audiences with the remarkable detailed evidence for the consumption of food at Stonehenge, that has recently come to light through the Feeding Stonehenge Project (FSP) funded by the AHRC. Food is central to all our lives, forming the structure of our days and lying at the heart of many social events. At the same time, food is the focus of many health concerns, with advice on the quality, quantity, type and source of food never far from the front page or the screen. This project will tap into this public appetite for all things edible by providing a prehistoric perspective on how foods were treated (acquired, prepared and consumed) in Neolithic Britain. We will show how scientists have made these discoveries through examination and molecular analysis of bones and artefacts, focusing on those recently excavated from the Stonehenge monumental complex. Through these twin core themes (food and science), we aim to substantially extend the reach and significance of the original research. To do this we will embed a post-doctoral researcher within English Heritage (EH) during their temporary exhibition "Feast! Food and Feasting at Stonehenge''. As an archaeological scientist, the PDRA will train staff and volunteers, and collaborate with the EH interpretation team to develop creative engagement activities whilst ensuring that these are aligned to the original Feeding Stonehenge research. In addition to the exhibition, we will bring in specialists (food interpreters and artists) and work with the local community to recreate some of the food procurement and culinary practices at the visitor centre through a series of workshops designed to engage the public. Working with the EH educational team and STEM Learning, the largest provider of science education and careers support to schools, we will develop primary and secondary schools resources to enthuse young scientists in the scientific aspects of the original research. Finally, we will create and deliver workshops to engage families adn young people at national cultural events through expertise and networks developed by Cardiff University's outreach group, Guerilla Archaeology. Guerilla Archaeology takes archaeology to new audiences at music festivals; these hugely popular 3-4 day events are fast becoming the most exciting places to creatively engage with research, and provide the potential to bring entirely new audiences to prehistory. Guerilla Archaeology will help us to deliver pop-up, provocative and highly interactive events that make the past present for younger audiences, and stress the important role that both scientific enquiry and cultural reflection can bring to our understanding of ancient, modern and future lives. We will evaluate the effectiveness of transferring our key messages to the large number of visitors to the Stonehenge Visitors Centre, festival goers and the local community using embedded evaluation, face to face surveys and online questionnaires. By end of the project, will we have transferred knowledge to EH staff, artists and food interpreters, members of the community local to Stonehenge, and the Guerialla Archaeology team who will be well placed to continue the dissemination activities leaving a legacy to this project. We also will have created a series of online schools resources that will be freely available and preserved for the foreseeable future and which can be easily expanded or used as template by other cultural heritage agencies.