This project will investigate how digital data from archaeological excavations can be made more useful and interesting to a range of users and audiences. It will produce a plan and methods to get such data more consistently recorded, analysed, disseminated and archived in a way that is Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Re-useable (FAIR). The project has four objectives 1) Digital Standards; 2) Heritage Data; 3) Stratigraphy Standards; 4) Search Tools; that aim to address 2 research areas: 1. How can we encourage the sharing, linking and interoperability of archaeological data and information, particularly information derived from the commercial sector in order to maximise public value and enhance the research potential of archaeological data? 2. How can we ensure the consistent development, application and enforcement of existing technical information and data standards and their promotion to others? Over the last 20 years the Heritage sector and others have concentrated on how the digital data created and stored on computers can be preserved to the same degree that museum objects, like the Rosetta Stone in the British Museum, can be kept for the benefit of future generations. This interest in digital preservation has been especially strong in the archaeological world where excavation data sets are being increasingly gathered as "born digital" data, using the latest computer technologies, i.e. data created on, and only preservable on a computer. Archaeologists, are particularly concerned to make sure that digital records of excavations are safely digitally archived and preserved for future research, because an archaeological excavation cannot be repeated. This focus has helped address the principle concerns about "how do we keep this stuff digitally". But although there are now well established digital archives, such as The Archaeology Data Service, their next challenge is whether the data are preserved and accessible in a way that makes that data most useful to others beyond the archives and the archivists? This project will address the current problems caused by the lack of standardized approaches to digital archiving of archaeological data using the particular case study of stratigraphic and phasing data. Stratigraphic data form the backbone of all the related archaeological records from each excavated site and are essential for integrated analysis, wider synthesis and accessible archiving of the growing body of archaeological data and reports generated through the commercial archaeological sector in the UK and internationally. The stratigraphic record, usually in the form of a stratigraphic matrix, with associated relationships and data, acts as a primary, if not the primary piece of 'Evidence' for how, and in what order, the site was excavated. As such the stratigraphic matrix is the key mechanism that enables anyone less familiar with the site, to re-visit the excavation records, understand what data is most relevant for any particular research questions, or problems encountered, and piece together the underlying details of how the interpretations by the excavator(s) were actually arrived at. However, such records are often only held on paper or scanned copies of matrix diagrams that cannot easily be re-used with associated data. Often the key phasing data needed for synthesis work and interpretive understanding is not well documented or archived consistently, if at all, in written reports. This results in key records being unsearchable or remaining unconnected to other data and at best usually requires lengthy and wasteful re-keying if any one wishes to work with the archives from such sites. The focus of digital archives and museums is now switching from simply providing better access to digital archives, to questions of how are users in commercial units, curatorial organizations and academia, along with the general public, going to make best use of this growing body of digital information and data.