Meet Helen Spencer, Lead for Aim 2: Enhancing Understanding
Helen Spencer is Head of Research at the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland and serves on the Scottish Strategy Archaeology Committee as the lead for Aim 2 – Enhancing Understanding.
I’ve worked at the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland since 2018, initially as Scottish Archaeological Research Framework Project Manager (ScARF) and now as Head of Research. The Society is the lead on Aim 2 and a great deal of my day job is about ‘enhancing understanding’ and promoting ways to share that new knowledge more widely.
As well as being responsible for ScARF, I also manage our Grants and Awards Scheme, oversee our publications program and all research projects the Society is involved in. A typical day is hard to describe – as every day will be different – but it may involve meeting with one of our regional or thematic research framework teams to discuss progress or plan our next events. We currently have regional projects ongoing in the South-East, South-West and the Clyde Valley. We are also completing the Scotland’s Islands Research Framework project, so as the final drafts come to us, I may spend time commenting, editing text or creating the new webpages. The Dendrochronology Research Framework for Scotland was our most recent framework to be launched and, as well as being on our website, is also available as a free booklet. We already have a busy first half of 2025 planned, with five ScARF events, as well as a full program of Society lectures and events, so some time may be spent planning and then promoting these through a variety of newsletters and social media.
I spend quite a lot of my time working on funding applications. Historic Environment Scotland are the main funders for most of our projects, but we also require significant match funding. Looking for new funding opportunities and applying for funds is always a high priority. Our aim is to have all the regional projects either ongoing or complete by 2026 – so developing the project plans and finding funding for our last two regional projects on our operational plan is key at the moment. Managing the budgets as well as evaluating and reporting regularly on all our ongoing projects to our funders is also a big part of my role.
Helen at the launch of the Dendrochronology Research Framework for Scotland, with some of the project team (second from left) © Helen Spencer
Recently, I’ve been processing grant applications made to the Society as we ourselves fund up to £30,000 of projects each year to enable research into Scotland’s past. The Society and ScARF also try to support students and early-career researchers by encouraging new research through our various grants and bursaries. At the end of November, we were excited to announce a new project funded by the Society’s Audrey Henshall Legacy Fund. Led by Archaeology Scotland the Scotland’s Earliest Megalithic Monuments project will investigate the earliest Neolithic tombs found in Scotland and investigate their connections to similar monuments in Ireland and Northern France. I am also working with our Editorial Manager as we plan the Society’s publications output over the next few years. We are considering various options to make our publications more sustainable and accessible as well as trying to be more strategic about what sort of books we produce.
One of the best things about my role is that I get to work across all parts of the sector. One of the strengths of the framework projects is that they bring together everyone with an interest in archaeology – so I work with a range of people including commercial archaeologists, local planning archaeologists, academics, students and third sector groups, as well as community-based groups and individuals. I get to attend a variety of archaeology conferences and events across Scotland to promote the Society and the ScARF project, and I really enjoy being able to hear about the latest excavations and research as well as catching up with people over coffee. We are always looking for new case studies for our ScARF website or new ways to make research available to as many people as possible, so talking to people at events is invaluable. I also really enjoy having the opportunity to travel (a bit less nowadays than before the advent of online meetings) and to visit archaeological sites and soak up the archaeological knowledge of the many experts I get to work with.
