On 29 October, in a University of Oxford peer review-based initiative at Oxford’s Said Business School, the IHBC and project partners the Historic Towns Forum (HTF) and Urban Vision Enterprise (UVE) secured £5000 of academic research funding to help in identifying values added by skilled volunteers in heritage planning, one thread in a projected training programme for non-specialists in conservation and related planning processes.
The ‘Oxford Heritage Partnerships’ event was supported by the Higher Education Funding Council for England, and saw pitches from a wide range of heritage-related projects in the region seeking funds.
IHBC Director Sean O’Reilly said: ‘This research funding success is great news for the IHBC and for our project partnership with the HTF and UVE, as well as for developing the project itself. With the funding award based on evaluations by fellow practitioners and heritage interests from hugely diverse backgrounds – including museum and craft sectors as well as academic and community interests – it offers a ringing endorsement of how practitioners can effectively guide research funding strategies when they need to work ‘outside the box’.’
‘It also establishes our project as a viable research area for the future. This suggests a basis for much wider research into the pan-environmental damage caused by conservation skills deficits at all levels, from interested but inexperienced community bodies to under-funded or even non-functioning regulators.’
‘Credible conservation capacity is a critical issue for the IHBC, and increasingly we must look to advocacy based on the type of research proposed in Oxford if we are to successfully embed our interests in government agendas.’
HTF Director Noel James said: ‘The HTF has always been proactive in providing timely, topical training, and now that current legislation has provided an opportunity for communities to have their say in planning it’s clearly the right time to give communities the training they need and want.’
‘The grant will help us to develop a kitemarked model for community conservation training that will ensure coherent and supported skills across the planning process. Working closely with partners IHBC and UVE is a fantastic opportunity to do this.’
‘The project itself is aimed at developing a structured programme to support core conservation skills in volunteers and other non-specialists, including also mainstream built environment practitioners, from builders to engineers.’
‘It’s a challenging concept, as the added values reach across so many areas, from community rights to economic policies, but it’s great that its potential was so absolutely clear to many delegates on the day.’
For work in progress on presenting the IHBC’s research see the website
For the HTF see the website
