Renewed investment in UK-Germany arts and humanities partnership

Top of the Reichstag building with dome and national flag of Germany at sunset in city of Berlin, Germany.

A further £5.5 million has been invested as part of the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and German Research Foundation (DFG) partnership.

The 2 funders signed a new memorandum of understanding in 2018 and the programme has since seen over £20 million invested by AHRC and matched by DFG across a total of 76 projects.

This is the fourth round of funding delivered by this collaboration, which will see a further 20 collaborative research projects combine international expertise to tackle pressing global challenges.

Supporting diverse research

The projects funded this year explore topics including:

  • artificial intelligence and its evolving role in art and culture
  • how ecology can inform modern architecture
  • the importance of taking love and care into account in conflict studies

This is the largest investment, and the highest number of funded projects in any 1 round of funding through this partnership.

Value adding partnerships

All research funded as part of this collaboration partners arts and humanities researchers based in the UK and Germany to pursue academic research of the highest quality.

Successful proposals have all demonstrated the added value which cross-national collaboration will make to advancing their area of research.

This forms an important part of AHRC’s commitment to taking a global approach to create opportunities for funded researchers and to set international standards for arts and humanities research.

Renewed support and investment

Professor Christopher Smith, Executive Chair of AHRC and UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) International Champion said:

This flagship collaboration is a prime example of the benefits of taking an international approach to research; introducing new ideas and perspectives to maximise global impact.

Collaborative UK-European projects such as these provide important opportunities for UK researchers to develop their networks and career opportunities, as well as helping to tackle key societal issues.

This year, AHRC and the DFG have increased our investment and the number of funded projects to build on the success we have had so far and stimulate even more shared expertise, skills and tools.

We look forward to continuing our partnership with the DFG and developing new ways to combine our research efforts for the good of society not just at AHRC but across UKRI.

The current bilateral funding agreement covers a total of 8 opportunities. The fifth opportunity is open for applications until 15 February 2022.

Further information

Full list of successful funded projects as part of this latest round of funding

A different kind of war story: centring love and care in peace and conflict studies

Dr Roxani Krystalli (University of St Andrews)

Dr Philipp Schulz (Universität Bremen)

Discipline: political science

Comparative legacies of human land use in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest

Dr Philip Riris (University of Bournemouth)

Professor Hermann Behling (Georg-August-Universität Göttingen)

Dr Patrick Roberts (Max-Planck-Institut für Geoanthropologie)

Discipline: archaeology

Connecting late antiquities

Professor Richard Flower (University of Exeter)

Professor Julia Hillner (Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn)

Dr Charlotte Tupman (University of Exeter)

Dr Gabriel Bodard (University of London)

Discipline: history

Crafting documents, c.500 to c. 800 CE

Professor Julia M H Smith (University of Oxford)

Professor Ira Rabin (Bundesanstalt für Materialforschung und -prüfung BAM and Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing)

Discipline: history

Cross-modal perspectives on grammaticalisation: aspect markers in creoles and sign languages

Dr Nicholas Palfreyman (University of Central Lancashire)

Dr Susanne Maria Michaelis (Universität Leipzig)

Discipline: linguistics

Cultural dynamics: museums and democracy in motion

Dr Susannah Eckersley (Newcastle University)

Professor Guido Fackler (Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg)

Discipline: cultural and museum studies

Divergent discourses: processes of narrative construction in Tibet, 1955 to 1962

Dr Robert Barnett (SOAS University of London)

Dr Franz Xaver Erhard (Universität Leipzig)

Dr Nathan Hill (Trinity College Dublin)

Discipline: area studies

Embodied agents in contemporary visual art: how robotics and artificial intelligence could influence creativity

Professor Frederic Leymarie (Goldsmiths College)

Dr Caterina Moruzzi (Universität Konstanz)

Dr Rebecca Chamberlain (Goldsmiths College)

Dr Tomoko Tamari (Goldsmiths College)

Discipline: philosophy

Enacting Gregory Bateson’s ecological aesthetics in architecture and design

Dr Ben Sweeting (University of Brighton)

Dr Dulmini Perera (Bauhaus-Universität Weimar)

Dr Joanna Boehnert (Loughborough University)

Dr Jon Goodbun (Royal College of Art)

Dr Marie Davidova (Universität Stuttgart)

Discipline: design

Global bible: British and German bible societies translating colonialism, 1800 to 1914

Professor Hilary Carey (University of Bristol)

Dr Felicity Jensz (Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster)

Discipline: history

Good citizens, terrible times: community, courage and compliance in and beyond the Holocaust

Professor Mary Fulbrook (University College London)

Professor Christina Morina (Universität Bielefeld)

Discipline: history

Hindu-Muslim-Jewish origin legends in circulation between the Malabar Coast and the Mediterranean, 1400s to 1800s

Dr Ophira Gamliel (University of Glasgow)

Dr Ines Weinrich (Rheinische Wilhelms-Universität Münster)

Discipline: languages and literature

Just futures? An interdisciplinary approach to cultural climate models

Professor David Higgins (University of Leeds)

Dr Julia Hoydis (Universität zu Köln)

Dr Warren Pearce (The University of Sheffield)

Professor Jens Gurr (Universität Duisburg-Essen)

Professor Roman Bartosch (Universität zu Köln)

Dr Carolin Schwegler (Universität zu Köln)

Discipline: languages and literature

Rabbinic civil law in the context of ancient legal history: a legal compendium to the Bavot tractates of the Talmud Yerushalmi

Professor Catherine Hezser (SOAS University of London)

Professor Matthias Armgardt (Universität Hamburg)

Discipline: law and legal studies

Reading concordances in the 21st century (RC21)

Professor Michaela Mahlberg (University of Birmingham)

Professor Stephanie Evert (Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, FAU

Discipline: Languages and Literature

Reading post-postmodernist fictions of the digital: literature, technology, and cognition in the twenty-first century

Professor Alice Bell (Sheffield Hallam University)

Professor Jan Alber (RWTH Aachen)

Discipline: languages and literature

Songwriting camps in the 21st century (SC21)

Dr Jan-Peter Herbst (University of Huddersfield)

Professor Michael Ahlers (Leuphana Universität Lüneburg)
Dr Simon Barber (Birmingham City University)

Discipline: music

States of clay: integrated scientific approaches to clay bureaucratic objects from early Mesopotamia, 3700 to 2700 BCE

Professor Roger Matthews (University of Reading)

Professor Barbara Helwing (Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz – Vorderasiatisches Museum)

Dr Amy Richardson (University of Reading)

Discipline: archaeology

The seven sages of Rome: editing and reappraising a forgotten premodern classic from global and gendered perspectives

Professor Bettina Bildhauer (University of St Andrews)

Professor Jutta Eming (Freie Universität Berlin)

Discipline: languages and literature

Using people well, treating people badly: towards a Kantian realm of ends and means

Dr Martin Sticker (University of Bristol)

Professor Corinna Mieth (Ruhr-Universität Bochum)

Dr Garrath Williams (Lancaster University)

Dr Ewa Wyrebska-Dermanovic (Ruhr-Universität Bochum)

Discipline: philosophy

Top image:  Credit: Artur Bogacki, iStock, Getty Images Plus via Getty Images

This is the website for UKRI: our seven research councils, Research England and Innovate UK. Let us know if you have feedback or would like to help improve our online products and services.