The Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) Doctoral Focal Awards will champion the next generation of researchers, offering future-facing training in areas vital to the UK’s creative economy and societal wellbeing.
The awards will foster the strategic skills needed in arts and humanities research which align closely with AHRC’s vision, mission, and theory of change.
Focal Awards ambitions
The Focal Awards will deliver UK-leading doctoral training and development to:
- provide opportunities for students, preparing them to follow a diversity of career paths within and beyond academia
- focus on supporting research capacity in specific strategic areas, addressing societal challenges through arts and humanities doctoral research and involving interdisciplinary approaches
- advance current understanding, generate new knowledge, and develop the breadth of expertise for the future of the research and innovation workforce
- address underrepresentation in the AHRC-funded doctoral community
- address skills gaps identified across specific research areas within and beyond academia
- enhance collaboration and knowledge exchange within and between academia and other sectors for the benefit of the students, consortia members, and wider society
Addressing challenges
Research led by the Focal Awards will include:
- working with communities to improve wellbeing, water resilience, and the cultural and heritage economies of disadvantaged coastal regions
- researching physical conditions, mental health, and the work of disability and civic arts providers in addressing health and wellbeing needs in the face of changing ecosystems
- bridging creative economy challenges between research and industry, and generating impact for society and good employment, through diverse, sustainable solutions
The future of arts and humanities
AHRC Executive Chair, Professor Christopher Smith, said:
Introducing Focal Awards allows us to support cohorts of students in centres for excellence for strategically valuable areas such as health and the creative economy.
In the future, this approach will allow us in consultation with the sector, to provide support where it is needed to disciplines across the arts and humanities, vital skills and digital humanities. But the scope for individual projects is wide and autonomy for researchers remains as important as ever.
The Focal Awards exemplify AHRC’s approach to doctoral training and our ambition for a sustainable portfolio providing support for training, investigator-led research, strategic direction and building the infrastructure necessary for people and ideas for the future of arts and humanities.
Research themes
Arts and humanities for a healthy planet, people and place
This theme will address the interaction between environmental change, environmental factors, such as access to health resources and nutrition and wellbeing for all.
In doing so, it will align with the UK government’s net zero ambition and contribute to its wider mission to improve healthy life expectancy and reduce place-based disparities.
This ensures that everyone, wherever they live, can lead longer, healthier lives.
Innovative methods
Led by arts and humanities disciplines, this theme will use innovative methods to explore how the following factors are all closely connected:
- human health
- ageing
- wellbeing
- environmental change
- our surroundings
Interdisciplinary collaborations are also key to this theme with the Natural Environment Research Council co-funding the ‘Living Well with Water’ award.
Creative economy
This theme aims to support the development of skills and expertise that are vital to a thriving cultural and creative sector and creative economy.
The awards will demonstrate how doctoral training can develop and enhance creative practice in different settings and contexts with positive impacts for skills and growth.
These awards will also utilise creative methodologies and collaborative approaches, widening the ‘how’ and ‘who’ of arts and humanities research for the creative economy.
Awards
Collaborative working
Focal Awards have a strong emphasis on collaborative working, with at least two higher education institutions (HEIs) and at least one non-higher education institution (non-HEIs) partner included in each application.
With over 25 HEIs and over 100 non-HEIs involved, these awards represent a diversity of institution, discipline and geography.
Lles: a Welsh Hub for Doctoral Focal Awards in the Arts and Humanities
Led by Swansea University
Crafting Care for People, Place and Planet (Doctoral Focal Awards in the Arts and Humanities)
Led by University of Liverpool
ADAPT-AI: Analysing and Diversifying Audience Participation with Creative Technologies and AI, Doctoral Focal Awards in the Arts and Humanities
Led by King’s College London
AD[A]PT: Architectural Design and Humanities Promoting Transformation: Doctoral Focal Awards in the Arts and Humanities
Led by Oxford Brookes University
Living Well with Water Doctoral Focal Awards in the Arts and Humanities
Led by University of Hull
Consortium for Researching Inclusive Cultures in the Arts, Doctoral Focal Awards in the Arts and Humanities
Led by University of Roehampton
Creative Bridges: Connecting Diversity and Sustainability for UK Screen Industries
Led by University of Leeds
Doctoral Focal Awards in the Arts and Humanities: East Midlands SLAM
Led by Loughborough University
Celtic Crescent Creative Economy Doctoral Focal Awards in the Arts and Humanities
Led by Bangor University
Doctoral Focal Awards in the Arts and Humanities: ‘A Golden Thread: Crafting the Creative Economy from Scotland’s Highlands, Lowlands and Islands’
Led by The Glasgow School of Art