PERFFORM: Built Heritage for Communities and Collections

Description

PERFFORM (Welsh for "perform") is a heritage-science research facility at Cardiff University, established as one of the tranche-1 facilities of the UKRI Arts and Humanities Research Council's Research Infrastructure for Conservation and Heritage Science (RICHeS) programme, announced on 1 October 2024. It builds on Cardiff's earlier AHRC Capability for Collections (CapCo) investment. The facility applies heritage science to analyse and optimise the performance of built heritage across Wales: surveying historic buildings and their internal environments, characterising heritage materials and their decay, and investigating conservation treatments, so that owners and custodians can make informed decisions on energy efficiency, retrofit, conservation strategy and adaptation to climate change. It brings together expertise from the University's School of History, Archaeology and Religion (Archaeology and Conservation) and the Welsh School of Architecture, and hosts equipment including upgraded digital microscopy, structured-light scanning for artefacts, a laser scanner for buildings, and a climatic simulation suite modelling UV, humidity and temperature. Services are listed through the Heritage Science Data Service (HSDS) catalogue. PERFFORM is supported by an award of 1,000,000 pounds from the UKRI Infrastructure Fund, delivered by AHRC through RICHeS, running 2024 to 2027, and is in its set-up phase.

Currently active

Yes

Offers funding

No, this infrastructure does not provide funding.

Founding year

2024

Contact details

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Categorisation

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University affiliation(s)

Cardiff University
Cardiff