Introducing the Heritage Science Data Service: Information Management DigITea talk - January 14 2026

The first talk of 2026 from CIfA's Information Management Group in their bitesize online DigITea talk series.

This session is titled 'Introducing the Heritage Science Data Service ' by Julian Richards of HSDS.

In October 2024 the AHRC launched the Research Infrastructure for Conservation and Heritage Science (RICHeS), an £80m investment over five years. In the first phase AHRC have funded 17 laboratory facilities and 13 reference collections hosted in universities, museums, libraries and archives. An Access Fund helps individual or organisations cover the costs of using these services. In addition to academic organisations​, registered charitable bodies, social enterprises, commercial companies, and freelance specialists working in collaboration with eligible partner organisations are all eligible to apply to the Access Fund to cover their costs. The Heritage Science Data Service (HSDS) is providing digital services which form the core of the RICHeS programme. It is managed by the ADS, and shares the same technical infrastructure and data repository. Data from all the Collections projects is archived by the HSDS and all data generated via the Access Fund must be deposited with HSDS. Commercial users of RICHeS facilities are strongly encouraged to offer new data to the HSDS, or an approved alternative repository.

In line with these goals, the HSDS has launched an online Catalogue of Facilities and a separate Catalogue of Data. Datasets which fall within the collections remit of both the ADS and the HSDS are available from either service. In addition, the HSDS is working closely with the Hartree Centre at the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) to develop collaborative virtual research environments for the visualisation and analysis of data which is beyond standard desktop and laptop computers. In October 2025 we launched a small grants programme to support the deposit of additional data, and opportunities to work the Hartree software engineering team to develop more online tools. A second round will be launched in 2026.

This talk provided an introduction to the full range of services being offered, with a focus on those which may be of interest to IMSIG members.

Links shared during the session include:

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/heritage-science-data-service/
HSDS website: https://hsds.ac.uk/ (Scroll down for email subscription button)
HSDS Data Catalogue: https://hsds.ac.uk/data-catalogue/
HSDS Services Catalogue: https://hsds.ac.uk/services-catalogue

And the session slides can be accessed here: https://www.archaeologists.net/sites/...