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Jurassic Coast Studies Centre
The Jurassic Coast Studies Centre is a joint venture with the Natural History Museum (NHM), Field Studies Council (FSC) and Jurassic Coast World Heritage Team (JCWHT) to establish a national centre for excellence in earth and natural sciences on the Jurassic Coast World Heritage site.
The Jurassic Coast Studies Centre is a 34-room residential education facility offering 120 bed spaces for field-based learning. It is an educational outreach platform for the Natural History Museum, science institutes, universities and other partners. The Centre will be managed by the Field Studies Council, who manage 17 studies centres and are recognised as the national leaders in field-based learning.
The Jurassic Coast Studies Centre will target and provide a range of accommodation and conference facilities for different types of groups, including primary, secondary and university students; special-interest parties, including teacher training and professional career development; academics. It will have the potential to act as a training venue, provide workshop and gallery space, support resident fellows for research projects, and link to the Natural History Museum’s recently opened Darwin Centre.
The Studies Centre is led by community enterprise the Lyme Regis Development Trust, a charity established in 1998 to provide social, economic and environmental benefits to all people in the town and surrounding areas of East Devon and West Dorset. The Development Trust has successfully delivered a range of major capital projects and, in partnership with the NHM and JCWHT, has for the last five years staged the Lyme Regis Fossil Festival. The Festival is recognised as an exemplar in engaging the public in science, and was recently awarded UNESCO patronage. It is a ‘proof of concept’ project that supports the further development of the Jurassic Coast Studies Centre. The Centre will deliver a range of direct and indirect benefits and act as a catalyst for further regeneration.
Dorset County Council and SWRDA funded a Feasibility Study to establish the viability of the Jurassic Coast Studies Centre (provisionally costed at £7.5m). A successful Pilot Project was carried out in Q1 2010 to further test the concept. The Jurassic Coast Studies Centre is supported and actively assisted by West Dorset MP Oliver Letwin and East Devon MP Neil Parish.
A number of other key organisations, including Natural England, UNESCO, science institutes, companies and universities have expressed their support for such a facility – one that will become a national centre of excellence for field-based education. The Jurassic Coast Field Studies Centre delivers Policy No 3.8 of the JCWHS management plan and would provide the essential piece of missing infrastructure to support education along the World Heritage Site. The importance of this type of project to UNESC is highlighted in Article 5.5 of the World Heritage Convention: '[(e) to foster the establishment or development of national or regional centers for training in the protection, conservation and presentation of the cultural and natural heritage and to encourage scientific research in this field]'.
The Jurassic Coast Studies Centre will be located on a five-acre site in East Devon, adjoining the Lyme Regis development boundary and linked to scientifically significant Undercliff Natural Nature Reserve. The proposal has been presented to East Devon District Council at a ‘Pre App’ presentation to Members and Officers, where it was received positively in principle, and work is currently underway to move to a planning submission.