Ethics Framework for N-RICH Prototype

Closing Date: 23 June (noon)

Duration of Contract: 1 September 2026 to 22 January 2027. 

Ethics Framework for N-RICH Prototype (Public Contracts Scotland Reference Number: MAY556475)

Towards a National Collection is tendering for an Ethics Framework for the National Research Infrastructure for Cultural Heritage (N-RICH)  Prototype project, a two-year initiative delivered in collaboration between the Towards a National Collection programme and AHRC, funded by UKRI. The N-RICH Prototype aims to de-risk and test the key elements of a digital research infrastructure for cultural heritage in the UK. The ethics framework is closely integrated with other components of the N-RICH ecosystem:

• Environment and Sustainability Project: Informs environmental impact considerations, carbon trade-offs and long-term sustainability, supporting responsible stewardship and preservation decisions.
• Digitisation Capability Pilot: Shapes digitisation standard and responsible practices to ensure transparent, FAIR and reusable cultural heritage data.
• Infrastructure Prototype Reference Stack: Supports the design of accessible computational research environments, ensuring usability, scalability and alignment across technical systems.

We seek a supplier, who will design and deliver an ethics framework to provide a mechanism for a National Research Infrastructure for Cultural Heritage to recognise, assess, operationalise, and act upon values-led approaches to data, people, processes, and technology.

The Framework should:

• Define core ethical values, behaviours, and practices for collections, and identify key ethical challenges and operational requirements for inclusive, accessible national infrastructure development, including scoping and business case development.
• Propose and test standards, tools, and workflows to support the wider adoption of ethical principles across cultural heritage data, processes, people and technology at scale. 
• Produce a responsibility and accountability matrix for use within a future National Research Infrastructure, providing a clear map of decision-making, baseline legal compliance across the system, making governance structures and ownership transparent and recognising the contributions of all actors involved.
• Provide a human-first responsible technology playbook to guide the ethical adoption of emerging and computational technologies, including AI, prioritising transparency, inclusion, and accountability.
• Not duplicate, existing ethical work across the cultural heritage sector and UKRI-funded research, while outlining the requirements for both prototype development and future investment, and providing the necessary ethical guardrails for the infrastructure work.

To access detailed information about this tender opportunity, please first register for free on the Public Contracts Scotland portal and then use the Open Tender link provided here.