GW4 invites applications from GW4 academics with research interests in landscape change, environmental humanities, cultural heritage and social history to join us for this workshop and explore opportunities for partnership working with the National Trust in South-West England and Wales. We are particularly interested in those wishing to explore new approaches to changing landscape values through a social and historical lens, drawing on the National Trust’s extensive assets to integrate cultural and environmental understandings and engage diverse audiences with new ideas of landscape change.

Hosted on the National Trust’s Killerton Estate in Devon, this inaugural workshop will be a chance to meet others from across the region with shared research interests and hear about the National Trust’s research objectives for its historical landscapes as it seeks to improve the state of nature in the UK, mitigate biodiversity and habitat loss and be increasingly resilient and adaptable to future climate change. It is also a chance to find out more about opportunities to access funding to support exploratory, small-scale collaborative work at one of four National Trust sites across the region over the summer. A follow-up workshop in Autumn 2022 will bring participants together to share learning from these site-based explorations.

Whilst this initiative is open to researchers from all disciplines, applications from the arts, humanities and social sciences are particularly encouraged. We recommend you read the full programme description prior to submitting an expression of interest to ensure your expertise meets the thematic objectives.

This workshop is part of the GW4-National Trust Research Partnership - an initiative that brings academics in the GW4 universities together with National Trust properties and practitioners to co-create new research collaborations and projects. The Partnership’s other research priorities include: audience experience and creative technologies; colonial connections; health, wellbeing and landscape; and climate resilience.