CHIRON · Continuing Heritage Research Infrastructure Education

The CHIRON project (Continuing Heritage Research Infrastructure Education) addresses a central challenge for research infrastructures: sustaining excellent science through expert technical staff with specialist, cross-disciplinary skills. Technical staff are the backbone of research infrastructures, yet their training pathways and long-term professional development remain fragmented. CHIRON’s vision is to transform and expand the Heritage Science Academy into a true one-stop-shop for training, career development, and knowledge exchange for technical staff across the Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH) domain.At the heart of this vision is the Heritage Science Handbook, a collaboratively authored and openly accessible resource that will serve both as a catalyst for innovative training and as a lasting reference for technical staff development. By consolidating dispersed knowledge into a single structured framework, the Handbook will provide a clear entry point for new practitioners while guiding experienced professionals toward advanced methodologies and specialist expertise.CHIRON will implement this vision through the establishment of thematic communities of practice (CoPs). These groups will bring together technical staff, early career researchers, and senior experts across heritage science and allied SSH domains. CoPs will play a double role: first, as engines of co-creation, consensus building, and collective authorship of the Handbook and other training resources; and second, as durable professional networks that ensure the long-term sustainability of CHIRON’s outcomes. In this way, CHIRON ensures that training content is shaped by those who use it, while embedding structures for its continual renewal.CHIRON will also will pilot a mobility programme and a mentorship scheme, and organise an intensive in-person course designed to equip infrastructure technicians with the skills needed to work effectively within research infrastructures.