Heritage Council

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The Heritage Council seeks to protect and enhance the richness, quality and diversity of our national heritage for everyone. It works with its partners to increase awareness of our national heritage.

INSTAR Programme

INSTAR (the Irish National Strategic Archaeological Research) funds thematic archaeological research. It supports projects that require short to medium-term assistance and facilitates collaboration on national or international levels.

Needs in Irish Archaeology policy proposal:

1. Cultural Identity, Territories and Boundaries
2. Resources, Technology and Craft
3. Exchange and Trade
4. Religion and Ritual
5. Environment and Climate Change
6. Landscapes and Settlement
7. Archaeology and Contemporary Society

Collaborative Applications

To be eligible for INSTAR funding, research consortia must be formed from across the following groups: the archaeological consultancy sector, academic institutions on the island of Ireland, international academic and research bodies, and State bodies. The Programme is intended to link archaeologists, and practitioners from other disciplines, in partnerships across the profession, to address crucial research questions, and grow partnerships that could make an important contribution to understanding our past.

The INSTAR Programme will stimulate research on the major findings coming from the increase in ‘Celtic Tiger’ development-led archaeology. It brings together research partnerships from the academic and private sectors of the archaeological profession, and encourages a North/South and international dimension to the study of Ireland’s archaeological heritage.

Following international peer review and assessment, fourteen projects were approved by the Heritage Council for funding in 2008, ten were approved in 2009 and nine have been approved for 2010.

These include:

A project from University College Dublin examining life and death in Ireland during the period AD 500–1200 by studying the evidence from cemeteries.
A project from the University of Coleraine on the archaeological information provided by new surveys of the seabed off the north coast of Ireland.
Cultivating Societies, a project from Queen’s University Belfast assessing the evidence for the establishment of farming in Neolithic Ireland.

The Heritage Council offered grants to the grant applicants outlined in the lists below. Please note that this does not necessarily mean that grant applicants accepted the grant and proceeded with their project.

Click on the year to view the list:

2009

2008

Research for 2008 and 2009 can be accessed on the INSTAR Web Archive.