Results of CCI Research Brainstorming

At the 2018 Canadian Association for Conservation of Cultural Property (CAC) conference in Kingston, the Canadian Conservation Institute (CCI) held a brainstorming exercise to identify areas of interest for future research. Delegates were asked to submit ideas during the first two days of the conference. On the third day, they ranked the submissions in order of importance.

Below is a list of the 10 submissions with the highest point totals.

Rank	Responses to the question: What is the most important conservation problem that CCI should be addressing through research?
1	Polymers, plastics, modern materials and installations: deterioration, storage, care and treatment.Footnote 1
2	Developing new low-tech analysis methods for conservators to evaluate chemical and physical characteristics of a surface.Footnote 2
3	Protein-based materials – leather, vellum: conservation and care of objects (books, documents, objects, furniture).Footnote 3
4	Mid-career training / workshops on a wide variety of topics.
5	Bringing back the mobile lab (think of the high cost as an investment in skills / training for emerging conservators).
6	Rigid gels and their applications for various materials.
7	Publishing more CCI Notes and Technical Bulletins. Getting information to small organizations / private conservators.
8	Promoting public and government awareness of our role in protecting cultural heritage.
9	Shared databases where results from Oddy tests, microfade testing and other research on materials can be easily submitted by institutions and individuals.Footnote 4
10	Standardizing terminology and the level of detail in digital conservation documentation so that it can be easily shared and linked between text and images. Footnote 5

CCI would like to thank all of the delegates for their participation in generating over 100 suggestions and in indicating the ideas that they felt were of the highest importance. CCI will consider all feedback and take these suggestions into account in its future planning.