The Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) has granted three years of funding, worth £800,000, to a project developing a digital, centralised catalogue of collections held in museums across the UK.
A joint venture between the University of Leicester, Art UK, and the Collections Trust, the Museums Data Service (MDS) aims to collect data for 100 million object records, making them accessible to other UK museums and researchers worldwide.
MDS was launched in September 2024 following an initial investment from Bloomberg Philanthropies and currently has data for more than 6 million objects from across 150 accredited museums.
The latest contribution from AHRC for the continued development of its digital infrastructure is £689,989, with additional funding from other sources amounting to a total of £800,765.
It represents the second AHRC grant for MDS, following financing of £329,662 in 2023 via its £2.2 million iDAH (Infrastructure for Digital Arts and Humanities) funding programme.
Chair of MDS Dr Catherine Eagleton said that the new funding would support the project’s “bold and ambitious” goal to bring together catalogue data from all of the UK’s museums, large and small.
“Since its launch in September 2024, MDS has already doubled the number of records available, “ she said, “And this support means we can continue to develop and grow, working closely with the other parts of the AHRC’s digital research infrastructure to revolutionise access to and research with collections.”
Dr Allan Sudlow, director of partnerships and engagement at the AHRC, added: “AHRC is pleased to continue to support MDS, which is enabling online discoverability of museum collections of all sizes, across all parts of the UK, for access and research.”
