A groundbreaking research project designed to increase access to information about Britain's public art collections has been awarded funding of over half a million pounds. The National Inventory Research Project (NIRP) - the first of its kind in the UK - aims to establish a high-quality online inventory of all post-1300 and pre-1900 non-British oil paintings in UK public collections.

NIRP was initiated by the National Gallery, London, the University of Glasgow and Birkbeck, University of London, in liaison with colleagues in other national and regional institutions. The project has so far received funds totalling £546,000 ﾖ with £328,000 from the Arts and Humanities Research Board (AHRB) Resource Enhancement scheme, £210,000 from the Getty Grant Program, and £8,200 from the Samuel H Kress Foundation. NIRP has two aims: to improve collection research in UK museums, and enhance publicly accessible information about collections.

'NIRP will be a major contribution to the realisation of national and regional cultural policies on improving access to our national heritage,' says Andrew Greg, Project Director, National Inventory Research Project, Department of History of Art at the University of Glasgow. 'It will raise the national and international profile of many regional collections and encourage further research, as well as their use in exhibitions and publications.'

Charles Saumarez Smith, Director, The National Gallery, London says: 'This project will contribute significantly to our knowledge and understanding of paintings held in public collections in this country. We are delighted to have been involved in this project and are excited by the new collections research that this will uncover and make accessible to the public.'

The first phase of the project, beginning this month, will focus on the 11,000 of these painting that are under-researched. From 2007, a web database will be made publicly accessible through the Arts and Humanities Data Service for the benefit of art lovers, art historians and researchers, students, curators, exhibition organisers, publishers, picture researchers, the wider educational sector and the general public. Data will also inform the printed catalogues of the Public Catalogue Foundation and its eventual website of all oil paintings in UK public ownership.

Media Relations Office (media@gla.ac.uk)

For further details please contact Mike Findlay in the University of Glasgow Press Office on 0141 330-3535.

Alternatively contact Catherine Doherty, Press Officer at Birkbeck, University of London: Catherine Doherty, Press Officer on 020 7631-6569 or Cathy Hinde at The National Gallery, London on 020 7747-2512.

First published: 11 October 2004