New strategic partnership to boost collaboration across Higher Education and the Heritage sector in Wales

Cardiff University and Amgueddfa Cymru – Museum Wales are joining forces to boost collaboration across Higher Education and the Heritage sector in Wales.

A strategic partnership between the two organisations will see them working together across five areas: research and innovation; safeguarding and restoring the environment; digital cultures and adaptive technologies; skills, talent and lifelong learning; and ensuring wellbeing and inclusive representation through an appreciation of heritage.

Although there is a long history of both organisations teaming up to address research and civic and societal issues, this new partnership will ensure greater alignment of expertise, experience and resources.

Past successful collaborations have included work on the CAER Heritage project, hands-on bioscience-related projects across Amgueddfa Cymru – Museum Wales’s sites, and  research such as the Arts and Humanities Research Council-funded, “Refugee Wales - The Afterlife of Violence”.

Future plans include the development of tailored courses for the next generation of heritage graduates, more bilateral staff secondments and more students and postdoctoral researchers undertaking projects, placements and internships.

The partnership will also see academics from both institutions exploring solutions to shared challenges, such as meeting Net Zero targets and creating new ways of reaching wider and under-represented audiences through digital technologies.

Dr Kath Davies, Director of Collections and Research, Amgueddfa Cymru – Museum Wales, said: “We are very pleased to build on our long-standing relationship with Cardiff University and to formalise our ongoing work with the organisation. There are many areas and many ways in which we can co-operate - learning from and with each other, for the benefit of all our communities. At Amgueddfa Cymru, we are collaborative in our approach to all our work and this strategic partnership is an example of that.”

Vice-Chancellor of Cardiff University Professor Colin Riordan said: “We have a well-established and wide-ranging working relationship with Amgueddfa Cymru and this strategic partnership builds on what we have achieved already, focusing on some of the key challenges and opportunities that we share. I have no doubt that this new phase of collaboration will be of great benefit to Wales, as well as staff, students and the wider community.”

A formal signing ceremony between the organisations took place earlier this month at the University’s Glamorgan Building, against the backdrop of the exhibition Inside Out, a collection of photographs taken by Simon and Anthony Campbell from Tiger Bay.

Amgueddfa Cymru – Museum Wales is a charity and a family of seven national museums which together tell the story of Wales. They include the National Museum Cardiff, National Waterfront Museum in Swansea and National Slate Museum in Llanberis.