The British Library Sound Archive

Website:  www.bl.uk
Grant Awarded: $825,000

Arcadia is supporting a new National Life Stories oral history programme about Britain’s scientific endeavours in the 20th century.

Established in 1987 as an independent charitable trust within The British Library Sound Archive, the aim of National Life Stories is to record first-hand experiences of a cross-section of contemporary society.

The new project is the first time such a comprehensive study of modern British science has been conducted and will draw on the personal memory and experiences from 200 interviews.

The grant, paid over four years between 2009 and 2012, funds the ‘Made in Britain’ and ‘Changing Planet’ strands of the project.

‘Made in Britain’ considers the important discoveries in science and technology that have been crucial to new industrial applications. The areas covered include applied science, the engineering fields and aspects of computer science.

The interviews seek to learn how scientific and technological breakthroughs have affected national pride and the economic exploitation of inventions, including intellectual property.

‘Changing Planet’ considers the advancement of the earth system sciences in the light of recent environmental and climate change concerns. Experts in climatology, oceanography, ecology and other related fields will be interviewed to learn how, when and why the earth became a subject of scientific investigation and how this investigation became pivotal to the rise in current environmental concerns.