Dr Anita Quye, the Centre's Lecturer in Conservation Science secured a prestigious EU grant: a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions award.

Called LightFasTR, this innovative 2-year postdoctoral interdisciplinary research will investigate the true lightfastness of Turkey Red. This will inform light-exposure for heritage collections and to improve colour stability of commercial industrial madder dyeing, which is resurgent in India.

The award will fund an International Fellowship for Dr Mohammad Shahid from New Delhi.

In addition, Anita has secured a Carnegie Trust Research Initiative Grant to fund her research into the chemical variability of early synthetic dyes in her Dye-versity project.

Anita has started archival research, and completes the full study, which will include uHPLC analysis, in the Autumn when she begins a semester long sabbatical. She is also currently supervising literature reviews by four chemistry undergraduates for 19th century industrial synthesis of aniline dyes to understand their chemical composition.