Research England, part of United Kingdom Research and Innovation, has supported nine of Cambridge University’s museums and collections with £3m a year of Higher Education Museums, Galleries and Collections (HEMG) funding, over the coming five years.
The university said the HEMG funding is “critical in ensuring our collections support researchers and students across the UK and worldwide”.
Awarded the HEMG funding are: Cambridge University Botanic Garden; Fitzwilliam Museum; Kettle’s Yard; Museum of Archaeology & Anthropology (MAA); University Museum of Zoology; Polar Museum; Whipple Museum of the History of Science; Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences, and Cambridge University Herbarium which joins the portfolio for the first time.
The University’s combined collections include more than five million works of art, artefacts and specimens.
Dr Liz Hide, Director of the Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences, which has been awarded £210,000 a year, said the funding will “[ensure] researchers can fully utilise our new Collections Research Centre, and enabling our outstanding collections to inspire many new avenues of research across both the sciences and the humanities.”
Dr Juliette Fritsch, the University’s first Director for Collections’ Strategy, said: “I’m thrilled to work across the incredible resources contained within the University’s museums, libraries, and botanic garden collections to create strategies together, building on major initiatives, such as the cross-collections Power and Memory programme. These integrated approaches enhance our collective impact and are only possible through the input of our funders, including Research England and Arts Council England.”
