Every year, thousands of archaeological records—from Roman pottery to medieval shipwrecks—are deposited with the Archaeology Data Service (ADS) to prevent them from being lost when research projects end. Since 1996, the ADS has built the UK’s national digital archive for archaeology and heritage, solving the problem that most excavation and survey data exists only in fragile, scattered formats. Without this infrastructure, decades of publicly funded research would become inaccessible to future scholars, planners, and heritage managers. This grant keeps the ADS running for three more years, funding a streamlined data-ingest system, a new search interface, and training for depositors. The impact is practical and systemic. The ADS already supplies data for major infrastructure programmes—HS2, Crossrail, the Channel Tunnel Rail Link—and is the mandated archive for Historic England and NERC. If this work succeeds, it will continue to underpin how the UK manages its buried heritage during construction, planning, and conservation. It also feeds international collaborations, including the European Collaborative Cloud for Cultural Heritage, where AI and robotics are being applied to archaeological recording. The project is not curiosity-driven; it is a core piece of digital infrastructure that quietly keeps the discipline functional.
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The Archaeology Data Service is the UK's world-leading data archive for research in archaeology and heritage. Since we were founded, in 1996, we have pioneered methods of exploiting information technology to address the problem of preservation and accessibility of archaeological data. We have brought archaeology into the Digital Era and shaped the development of the discipline, as well as providing a model for other domains. Our research into digital preservation and access has been put into practice, placing the United Kingdom at the forefront of digital archiving developments throughout the world, and our impact now extends across national heritage agencies, local government, commercial contract archaeology, and the general public. We have developed new data standards and good practice, transformed access to research reports, allowed non-academic users unprecedented access to information, and changed publication models for major government-funded transport infrastructure programmes, such as the Channel Tunnel Rail Link, Crossrail and HighSpeed2. We are the mandated digital archive for Historic England, and for Science-based Archaeology for NERC. From 2024 we are working with STFC and leading a consortium to create the Heritage Science Data Service, providing Digital Research Services for the AHRC RICHeS programme. At international level we take a lead role in capacity building and after a decade of development work we co-founded the European archaeological e-infrastructure, the ARIADNE RI AISBL, a not-for-profit membership association with offices in Belgium. We are currently developing Advanced Techniques for the Arts and Humanities in collaboration with the European DARIAH and CLARIN ERICs in the ATRIUM project, and we are one of two UK partners in ECHOES, building the European Collaborative Cloud for Cultural Heritage (ECCCH), as well as working on the ECCCH AUTOMATA project, applying AI and robotics to archaeological recording. The purpose of this proposal is to ensure that for the next three years the ADS remains a lead member of the AHRC's iDAH programme (Infrastructure for Digital Arts and Humanities) and continues to have the capacity and resource to be the place of deposit for research data from AHRC grant holders within the fields of archaeology and heritage. The scope of our collections policy includes below- and above-ground archaeology, and all tangible and built heritage from the distant past to the present day. There is no restriction on the range of data types accessioned, which includes text and numeric data, images, GIS and 3D models, as well as specific formats used in specialist sub-domains, such as geophysical survey and underwater archaeology. Our work plan includes provision to (a) complete our work on transforming our data ingest system, making it more streamlined and cost-efficient, (b) rollout a new search interface addressing the key issues identified in a recent user needs survey, (c) safeguard data at risk, and (d) provide a training programme for data depositors.
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