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This research has had transformational impacts: systematically providing evidence of the state of cultural heritage policies concerning nine countries in South East Europe; identifying the need for management tools to integrate inventories, environmental and spatial planning, heritage protection and funding mechanisms for projects to enable sustainable use of heritage resources; helping shape a Council of Europe regional programme; creating the framework for legal/administration reform requests by the states concerned; and has led to technical assistance actions, jointly funded by the Council of Europe and the European Commission, including monitoring to ensure the institutionalisation of methodologies in national policies and strategies.
This research in Libya has had several significant impacts with wide reach for a range of different groups, both national and international. It has made fundamental contributions to the archaeological mapping of Libya (a country of extraordinary archaeological richness but still poorly recorded), to the development of typologies of sites and artefacts, and to dating frameworks. This has delivered major related impacts for management of cultural heritage by the Libyan Department of Antiquities (DoA), and for Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and archaeological mitigation work by oil companies in the Libyan desert. There have been additional benefits through dissemination of new historical models, as well as protection of heritage sites during the 2011 conflict.
2The European funded ISAAC Project aimed to enhance the relationship between heritage and tourism in urban destinations through a novel Information Communication Technology (ICT) environment. The platform provided integrated and user-friendly tourism e-services facilitating an advanced access to European cultural heritage assets. Within this project the Sunderland team worked with a wide community of stakeholders to identify intangible aspects and stories worthwhile to be told within a destination. These stories were integrated in an interpretative strategy independent of, but aligned with destinations' current marketing and positioning strategies. The specific impact focuses on three destinations, Leipzig, Amsterdam and Genoa.
This case study describes the pioneering work undertaken with the Sultanate of Oman government to develop appropriate approaches towards sustainable documentation, management and renewal of 86 priority heritage sites of its 1000-plus vernacular settlements. Approaches established through a pilot project - now extended to 9 settlements (5 completed) including 3 World-Heritage- Sites - are helping Oman achieve a cohesive strategy and have instigated a thorough revision of the priority list. Wide-ranging stakeholder engagement was achieved through exhibitions, public lectures, workshops, press interviews (Arabic/English) and heritage-related film-production. The continued `capacity building' and employment of young graduates through skills development training has provided the social enterprise dimension.
Dr Watson's research is concerned with the understanding of heritage as a cultural phenomenon and the ways in which this is represented in tourism and in public engagement. The research has focussed on a re-theorisation of issues such as visuality and representation in the public sphere of cultural and heritage tourism and the ways in which this is implicated in modalities of marketing, destination development and the community management of cultural heritage resources. He has sought opportunities to apply this thinking in the real experience of tourism management and marketing in the City of York, one of the world's foremost heritage tourism destinations.
Simon Goldhill's research on the history and archaeology of Jerusalem led to his being asked to join the EU-funded programme Promoting Understanding of Shared Heritage (PUSH). The aim of the project is to develop a new policy on sites of shared cultural heritage, in which capacity Goldhill has met regularly with — and been able to influence — Israeli, Jordanian and Palestinian policy-makers. This influence is manifested in a rapprochement between groups who had previously been unable to meet; new signage at significant sites across Israel/Palestine and Jordan; and continuing interaction particularly on the crucial area of the management of natural resources.
Heritage is a key component of contemporary urban regeneration policies. Rebecca Madgin's research is embedded with, and informed by, knowledge-exchange with public bodies. Her historically-informed and methodologically innovative approach to the heritage of the built environment empowers a diverse range of user groups — local councils, public bodies and third-sector `heritage' organizations — to develop a more sophisticated knowledge of the ways in which local communities understand and value the buildings and spaces that they inhabit. Specifically, the case study shows how Madgin's work has directly informed the planning policies of two organisations: Edinburgh World Heritage Trust and Leicester City Council.
The IRPP/SAAH (also known as the Ljubljana Process) is part of the Council of Europe's Regional Programme in S.E. Europe. It was designed to establish methodologies for heritage-led rehabilitation in countries undergoing political, social and economic transition: improving heritage management practices; increasing ministerial acceptance of responsibility for the built heritage which had been lost in the new world, post-communist order; establishing a transferrable model; and fund-raising for the rehabilitation of a wide range of sites, encouraging new sustainable uses and jobs. The project has had significant financial impact, raising over 76m euros by the end of 2010, by which time over 80% of the 186 identified sites had undergone or were undergoing rehabilitation. Its methodology has been endorsed by the European Commission which as a consequence has increased its funding for heritage sites as part of its pre-accession programme. Within the participating countries the programme has been fully endorsed by ministers of culture, and has received significant further endorsement from the ministers of culture within the countries of the Caucasus which are participating in the Kyiv Initiative Regional Programme. John Bold was project leader 2003-10: this role included leading full project meetings in Strasbourg, Thessaloniki, Sarajevo (BiH), Ohrid (FYROM) and Zadar (Croatia); and numerous country-specific meetings, with ministerial, institutional and stakeholder involvement in Tirana, Sarajevo, Sofia, Zagreb, Skopje, Podgorica, Bucharest, Belgrade and Pristina. The role further required the writing of reports and guidance documents, many of which were then published on the Council of Europe website. All of these were informed by research into the individual sites (historical and architectural) and situations (proposals for rehabilitation, management and business planning).
The impact of this research has been to change architectural conservation practice to utilize plants as agents of conservation rather than remove them from ruins and other heritage sites. The impact stems from new scientific evidence based on integrated laboratory and field studies carried out at the School of Geography and the Environment in Oxford, by Professor Viles and her team, demonstrating that plants and other organic growths can be protective and contribute to successful and cost-effective conservation of heritage sites. The impact has been realised through close collaboration with English Heritage throughout the research process.
Research in UCL Information Studies on participatory and community-based approaches to archival and heritage activity has improved understanding of the motivations, impacts and challenges of these endeavours. This has led to the following impacts: (1) a higher public and professional profile for participatory and community-based archiving and heritage activities, including a better understanding of the motivations for such activities and of the significance of the engagement with such materials and activities, notably for the diversity and democratisation of cultural and knowledge production and for individual and collective senses of identity, and (2) the challenges and hurdles such approaches face, and some of the tools and collaborative approaches that can be used to overcome challenges.