ARS Ltd, in partnership with the Scottish Universities Environmental Research Centre (SUERC), set up the ‘Community Archaeology Radiocarbon Dating Fund (CARD Fund) in January 2016.
The scheme has provided support to community groups and projects with acquiring radiocarbon dates for their projects. It is open to community-based projects throughout all of the UK with a closing date of 30th November each year, shortly after which a decision will be made on which applications are successful. All the necessary information is available on the Fund’s website (www.cardfund.org/) with applications via the on-line application form. To keep costs down, and ensure that as much resource as possible is spent on funding new dates, all communications are electronic. A total of ten radiocarbon dates will be available in the first year of the fund.
Our own Clive Waddington says of the scheme, “I have always felt that it is crucial that archaeologists give back to society and support the amazing work that goes on in the wider community. We have worked with SUERC to establish a radiocarbon dating fund to assist the volunteer sector with obtaining much-needed dating evidence as we saw this as a way we could offer real practical help and maximise our support by making limited resources go as far as possible. We hope that community groups and projects will take advantage of this support and hopefully we can grow it over the coming years”. Gordon Cook from SUERC said “A significant proportion of the money that comes to the radiocarbon laboratory is from commercial archaeology. This is our way of putting a little of that back into the system.”
> Visit the CARD Fund website