Major Research Grant Success for the Centre for Textile Conservation

Frances Lennard and her colleagues at the Centre for Textile Conservation (the TCC's successor) - which is part of the University of Glasgow - are celebrating, having secured two major research grants in recent months.

Barkcloth Project
The first is a grant of nearly £1m from the Arts and Humanities Research Council. This major project will run over three years and will shed light on barkcloth (also known as tapa cloth) which is made from the inner bark of trees. Frances Lennard is leading the project, and project partners are the University's Hunterian Museum, the Economic Botany Collection at the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew, and the Smithsonian Institution in Washington.

Tapestry Monitoring Project
A grant of £200,000 from the Leverhulme Trust will enable Frances Lennard and colleagues from the University's engineering department as well as from Glasgow Life and Historic Scotland. This two-year project will focus on the application of engineering techniques for strain measurement to tapestries.

Competition for research grants is more intense than ever, so to secure two such major awards is a huge achievement for Frances and the Centre and helps to underline how successful the move to Glasgow has been.