The House of Lords Science and Technology Committee inquiry into science and heritage, held in 2006, recommended that the sector should formulate a UK wide strategy for heritage science, covering both movable and immovable heritage. This September, the last of three reports written to underpin the development of the strategy has been produced and is now available to download.

This third report is about understanding capacity in the heritage science sector. It reviews the numbers of heritage scientists working and considers what they do and where they work. It explores gaps in capacity where demand exceeds current provision, along with arrangements for funding and training. A range of recommendations are drawn into three general themes which cover practitioner capacity and capability; access to information and infrastructure; and funding and its public benefit.

The first and second reports are also still available on the website, along with two documents summarising the sector's responses to these reports. During October and November the steering group will be working to develop some preliminary ideas about the strategy itself. We will share these emerging ideas with the sector to get their input at a stakeholder meeting on 25th November at the New Armouries in the Tower of London. After this meeting we will produce and publish the strategy.

If you would like to know more about the third report, the strategy development or the stakeholder meeting, please get in touch with the coordinator Jim Williams (nhss@english-heritage.org.uk).