Project background and context for the Innovation festival
CIfA, in collaboration with the Association of Local Government Archaeologists (ALGAO), was commissioned by Historic England to undertake a project entitled Building capacity through innovation (HE7879), which also included the organisation of an event (the CIfA Innovation festival). This project was commissioned to address feedback in the 2017 21st century challenges for archaeology workshop series that highlighted a lack of innovation in developer-led archaeology.
The aim of the project was to explore this observation, identify the potential barriers and issues inhibiting the wider implementation of innovative approaches and present recommendations for improvement.
Project report and appendices
The project report was finalised in June 2021 and can be access below. Survey data were collected, and online discussions were undertaken to provide information related to practitioners’ perceptions and experience of innovation in developer-led archaeology. Several examples showcasing the different types of innovative practice taking place across the historic environment sector are also included. The survey data highlighted a number of potential barriers to innovation in developer-led archaeology but also highlighted that the historic environment sector does see itself as innovative, regularly adopting/adapting new science, technologies and methods for archaeological practice across developer-led archaeology.
The report summarises the data and discusses the identified barriers to innovation outlining several proposed recommendations for improvement. These focus on the themes of facilitating knowledge exchange and the dissemination of information across the historic environment sector.
The report and appendices are available at the bottom of this page.
CIfA Innovation Festival links and resources
The historic environment is rich and diverse benefiting from a wide variety of specialisms. Collaborations spanning academic, community-led and developer-funded archaeological research provide fascinating insights to our collective past often with the help of new/adapted ‘innovative’ approaches. However, implementing innovation is not always straightforward as highlighted in the Building capacity through innovation project.
The innovation festival was held as a follow on to this project and was made up of a series of events that took place over the week of 25-29 January 2021. These events provided the opportunity to showcase and celebrate the innovative practices and approaches being undertaken across the historic environment sector, whilst tabling some of the identified barriers and challenges to implementing innovation in archaeological research for wider discussion.
Session recordings
The festival comprised a mixture of sessions, webinars, workshops and discussion panels. The majority of these were recorded and the links can be found below.
Academic/early career poster submissions
Dr Tanya Dzhanfezova, University of Oxford
The Archaeologist 'Innovation' issue
The Winter 2021 issue of The Archaeologist magazine was focused on innovation to tie in with the wider Building capacity through innovation project and the CIfA Innovation festival.
Internet Archaeology Special Issue on Innovation
Coming later in 2021