What drives decision making on topic prioritisation and resource allocation for research activities? Who are the primary beneficiaries, and how are the findings disseminated?
In September 2013 ICCROM undertook an online survey of key organisations from around the world to learn more about these issues and to highlight current trends in heritage conservation science research planning, funding and management. The survey was distributed to 120 heritage conservation organisations in 61 countries. The synthesis of the results available below is based on the contributions of 49 respondents from 26 countries (34 respondents from Europe and N. America; 12 respondents from Asia & the Pacific; 2 respondents from Arab States; and 1 respondent from Latin America & the Caribbean).
The findings illlustrate changes in the way the research is funded, in particular a shift towards increased external funding sources, with 50% of organisations reporting a decrease in internal sources of funding through their regular budget, as opposed to 52% reporting an increase in external (extra budgetary) sources of funding.
Regarding the intended beneficiaries of research: overall the respondent organisations cited conservators as their primary audience, closely followed in second place by conservation scientists. However, only 17% routinely share the results of their research in the form of guidance publications specificially written for non scientific end users.