Heritage consultancy and contract research

Research projects and collaborations can be funded either by the University (typically when the academic has secured research council funding) or externally by organisations who wish to employ the services of an academic.

When external organisations are writing bids to secure grant funding, we recommend you include a budget for academic research, and in this way, we can advise you on cost and ensure sufficient academic time can be allocated to the project. By contacting us and initiating discussions at an early stage of your bid writing, we can help you strengthen your application and add value by embedding our research services.

When funding is provided by an external organisation, we work in two ways:

Heritage contract research

Contract research typically contributes to the creation of new knowledge and furthering research. It may span a period of months to years and have unknown outcomes in advance until the research has been carried out. Results from contracted research are free to be published. If you would like to commission a piece of contract research, please contact the Exeter Innovation team.

Heritage consultancy

Consultancy usually builds upon existing knowledge, by employing an academic for their specific skills and expertise to support an organisation solve a particular problem. Projects tend to be on a shorter timescale (weeks/months) and have clear and well-defined deliverables. The client organisation would normally expect to own the results of this work. Any publication arrangements will be made by agreement.

Our Culture Innovation Consultancy service enables us to share our wealth of world-class knowledge with your organisation, and to provide you with the tools to realise your ambitions. We draw our team of experts from multiple disciplines and colleges, with academics and knowledge economy specialists providing consultancy to clients nationally and internationally, for public and private organisations, businesses, large-scale institutions and regional initiatives.

To find out more, please contact the Culture Innovation Consultancy Manager.