Construction Development Alliance (CDA) members, Archaeological Research Services (ARS) have been awarded a King’s Award for Enterprise for Innovation.

The team at ARS Headquarters in Bakewell was honoured on the 13th of May 2024 to receive the official presentation of our ‘King’s Award for Enterprise for Innovation’.

His Majesty’s Lord-Lieutenant, Elizabeth Fothergill CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) and Scott Knowles DL (Deputy lieutenants) were in attendance, along with a host of VIPs from the area.

Presenting the Award on behalf of His Majesty The King. His Majesty’s Lord-Lieutenant explained her role in introducing the award before the Grant of Appointment was read out. The award was presented to ARS’ Chief Operating Officer, Will Throssel.

The Crystal Bowl was then presented to ARS’ Head of Innovation, Dr Roger Doonan.

Dr Clive Waddington offered a few words acknowledging the team’s hard work and the vision and support of many others we work with.

Last year, this Award for Innovation was won for ARS’ unique landscape prospection service, which focuses on non-intrusive landscape-scale geochemical surveys. This cutting-edge technique has benefited the clients that work with ARS around the UK, allowing the team to identify better hard-to-find archaeology (or the absence of it) and reducing the need for costly excavation.  The innovative approach helps to cut development costs, speeds up the archaeological process on site, and reduces health and safety risks (as well as the carbon footprint) because of the reduced need for plant machinery on site.

Once again, the team would like to acknowledge the vision and support of various clients and regulators who believed in these innovative approaches and supported or commissioned the pioneering work.