The overarching goal of the research is to develop a new 'palaeothermometer' - a means of determining seawater temperature in the past, and use this new tool to study important and controversial episodes in Earth's climate history. The palaeothermometer is based on the ratio of magnesium to calcium within the secondary layer of brachiopod calcite shells. Within this broad goal, there are three specific objectives. Objective 1 is to quantify the Mg/Ca-temperature relationship in brachiopod calcite. Previous work has shown that (i) brachiopods living in warmer waters contain more magnesium in their calcite shells, and (ii) brachiopod calcite is deposited across seasons, and displays seasonal variations in Mg/Ca. Therefore, the student will achieve this first objective in two ways; by comparing Mg/Ca ratios from the secondary layer of shells with mean annual temperatures, and by comparing intra-shell cycles in Mg/Ca with intra-shell cycles in temperature (determined from recorded temperature ranges and intra-shell delta18O). The latter approach has been successfully applied to other marine organisms, e.g. Sr/Ca ratios in gastropods. The ultimate aim of this objective is that the student will determine the % change in brachiopod calcite Mg/Ca per degree temperature change. Objective 2 is to apply the Mg/Ca palaeothermometer to a dramatic interval of time in the Silurian (~ 428 Ma), which is marked by an enormous perturbation to the global carbon cycle. It has been hypothesised that this perturbation was associated with a global warming event, but direct evidence for a temperature change has not yet been found. The student will construct a high-resolution brachiopod Mg/Ca record across the event, such that even without knowing absolute values of seawater Mg/Ca, the magnitude and direction of temperature change can be calculated. This objective will provide the first direct records of seawater temperature across this high profile event in Earth's history, and improve our understanding of the links between carbon cycling and deep time climate change. Objective 3 is to use the Mg/Ca palaeothermometer to study Earth's greenhouse-icehouse transition at the Eocene-Oligocene boundary, 34 Ma. It has recently been shown that the formation of the Antarctic ice sheet was triggered by decreasing levels of atmospheric CO2, passing through an important 'threshold' intrinsic to the climate system. The Eocene-Oligocene climate transition represents a pivotal point in Earth's climate history, and contains valuable information regarding the stability of the Antarctic ice sheet under changing levels of CO2, which is of direct relevance to future projections of the behaviour of the ice sheet as climate warms. It has been suggested (for example on the basis of pollen records) that an important feature of the climate transition is an increase in seasonality (i.e. cooler winters). The student will study brachiopods spanning this climate transition from classic sections in New Zealand. They will construct intra-shell profiles of Mg/Ca before and after the climate transition to test the hypothesis that the ice sheet growth was linked to an increase in seasonality. An increase in seasonality would produce larger amplitude variations in the shell Mg/Ca profiles. Mean shell Mg/Ca will be used to estimate the overall cooling at these palaeolatitudes (~40 degrees south).

After ten years of devolution Wales has developed as a confident, post-industrial nation with particular economic strengths in the creative industries and heritage. It has pioneered a number of innovative heritage-related projects that have incorporated the latest digital technology, such as BBC Wales's Digital Storytelling Project 'Capture Wales', the National Library for Wales's 'Gathering the Jewels' and CyMAL's (Cymru Museums and Libraries) 'People's Collection' to name but a few. It is also highly involved in delivering on the Digital Inclusion agenda and recognises that it faces specific challenges in this respect due to its georgraphic and demographic profile. \nThis project will create a pan-Wales network of key academic and non-academic partners around the theme of digital heritage in Wales. The network will meet at a series of themed workshops, each of which will interrogate a key issue relating to digital heritage in Wales and seek to establish a more detailed agenda and a series of projects for further research in this emerging field that will have measurable impact upon policy-makers, as well as the economic, cultural and social life of Wales. Each workshop will be hosted by a different heritage organisation. The network will also establish sustainability and expansion of the network amongst academic and non-academic stakeholders and will create case study material which could be used for comparative research in other devolved nations, small nations and succession states.\nLinking the Chain: The Network for Digital Heritage in Wales will be led by the University of Glamorgan, where there is specific experience and expertise in Digital Heritage, but will also include cross-dicsiplinary teams from Bangor University, Swansea University,Glyndwr University and the University of Wales Newport. Non-academic partners include National Museum Wales, the National Library of Wales, the National Slate Museum, the National Waterfront Museum, the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historic Monuments

Abstracts are not currently available in GtR for all funded research. This is normally because the abstract was not required at the time of proposal submission, but may be because it included sensitive information such as personal details.

The capacity to make strong connections between historical objects and sources lies at the heart of this project as it does in the everyday museum and historical practices that it is designed to support. Curators creating displays combine artefacts, images, audio-visual materials and histories. Family and local historians connect records of ancestors and localities to establish their genealogy or to understand the past of where they live. Academic historians patiently and critically connect a diverse range of archive sources with existing literature to tell new stories about the past. All rely on connecting different fragments of the past as they create the tapestries of narrative that constitute our local and national histories. The Congruence Engine will create the prototype of a digital toolbox for everyone fascinated by the past to connect an unprecedented range of items from the nation's collection to tell the stories about our industrial past that they want to tell. Until now, we have become acclimatised to a world of research where it has only been possible to work with a selection of the potentially relevant historical source material for any historical investigation we want to undertake. And now, in our information society, we expect to go to a search engine and find a record of anything. But so often such searches disappoint, and for two main reasons. First because the tyranny of the free-text search where ranked results lists favour the results of previous searches, and cannot be guaranteed to include the full set of what is relevant to the search. The second reason is that the records of so very many of our heritage collections are thin, inconsistent, or kept in institutional siloes hidden from outside access. This project explicitly works with these collections that are generally represented by weak data. In place of the two-dimensional ranked list of search engines, we aim, with 'The Congruence Engine', to model a world in which users will be able to explore data neighbourhoods (technically 'knowledge graphs') where a great diversity of information about heritage items that are deeply relevant to their investigations will be readily to hand - museum objects, archive documents, pictures, films, buildings, and the records of previous investigations and relevant activity. Building on the successful experimentation of 'Heritage Connector' (the Science Museum's TaNC foundation project), this major project will develop a repertoire of prototype discovery tools to access the industrial and related collections brought into the study from our investigating and collaborating organisations and partners. To achieve this breakthrough in collections accessibility, it will bring together in collaboration a unique combination of skills and interests. Here, digital researchers will work with professional and community historians and curators to address real-world historical investigations of Britain's industrial past. Through 27 months of iterative exploration of three industrial sectors - textiles, energy and communications - the digital researchers will work with the historians and curators, tuning the software to make it responsive to user needs. They will responsively use computational and artificial intelligence techniques - including machine learning and natural language processing (specifically, eg, named entity recognition) and a suite of bespoke entity-linking routines - to create and refine datasets, provide routes between records and digital objects such as scans and photographs, and create the tools by which the participants - who will not need to be digital experts - will be able to enjoy and employ the sources that are opened to them in the construction of narratives. These narratives will be expressed in the project's mobile digital exhibition space, on its website and a variety of conventional popular and academic outputs. Software will be made available via GitHub; we will produce 'how to' guides.

The National Museum of Wales (operating as Amgueddfa Cymru - National Museum Wales, ACNMW) is a multidisciplinary museum with sites across Wales, which holds over 5 million objects and specimens, of which 2.2 million, relevant to this AHRC Capability for Collections Fund (CapCo) call, held in the archaeology, art, history (social and Industrial) collections. We have a proven track record of enhancing collections through conservation and research activity and ACNMW is the premier center for collection-based conservation and research in Wales. As such our resources are an important Welsh National facility, supporting not only ACNMW, but also organizations across Wales. This is particularly pertinent within Wales where few such resources are available. Enhancement of our equipment will not only support our own collections, through training students and up-skilling volunteers, but also support collections across Wales, and the analytical support we provide to the Portable Antiquities Scheme in Wales, and reporting under the Treasure Act (1996). Sustained cuts to our grant-in-aid has impacted on our ability to update key items of equipment, to support research and conservation. While we have been able to replace smaller items of equipment (e.g. up to £10,000), reductions in capital funding have impeded replacement of more expensive items many of which are now around 30 years old, and further items, which are 10-20 years-old, and are heading toward obsolescence. Outdated equipment undermines our strategic aims to increase access to collections to a wider audience through exhibition and outreach (with emphasis on co-curation), research (in particular through collaborative research with diverse partners), and physical and digital access for both researchers and a wider range of users. Facilities we have been able to upgrade or develop (e.g. Gweithdy collections study spaces, St Fagan, National Museum of History and specialist natural science collection DNA and imaging facilities) have been funded by external support, such as the Clore Duffield foundation and Heritage Fund, or by specialist expertise and equipment-supported contract research income generation. Under the new Directorship of Dr Katherine Davies, the Collections & Research Division is reviewing its research capability and working to better match resources (staff expertise, equipment and funding streams) for greater impact and more focused outcomes to deliver the Vision and supporting strategies. A formal review of research project has been completed and a Research Manager is in the process of being appointed. Enhancement of our research and conservation capability would be further enhanced by funding from this call to renew parts of our equipment base. We request equipment in four operational areas, Art Conservation Studio, Digitisation Studio (2-D imaging), Imaging Laboratory (imaging of 3-D objects, including 3-D scanning), and the Materials Laboratory. The later is dominantly concerned with processing archaeological objects and materials, but also supports the social and industrial history collections. We are requesting a total of £895,699 to support 4 major pieces of equipment, a suite of microscopes and 8 other pieces of medium scale equipment. We will develop new income generating plans to support maintenance of this equipment and contribute to future succession plans.