We will use successful ideas to inform future strategic activity. For example, we could use Where Next ideas:
- as new areas of research funding by AHRC or other UKRI councils
- to create new themes for current programmes, such as for the doctoral focal awards
- as evidence of need in a future UKRI spending review submission
- to shape earlier stage development activities, such as community building
Please note, once you submit a Where Next idea you are giving AHRC permission to develop the idea in any way we see appropriate. We will work closely with you but this may include further development by AHRC staff and we may invite other people to be involved in the development of the idea.
Not every idea can be taken forward and not everything that is taken forward will lead to a large-scale programme of work. We will work closely with those whose ideas do progress.
Success pilot scheme ideas
In 2020 we launched the original Where Next pilot scheme, inviting applicants to apply for funding to support interdisciplinary scoping studies which would form part of the AHRC ideas pipeline.
The projects funded through this pilot, which finished in early 2022, reflected some of the most forward-thinking and innovative research within and between disciplines.
Their findings have informed our work through:
- helping to frame funding opportunities
- contributing to internal analysis and planning
- supporting our engagement with government departments
- securing further funding through other programmes of work
Plant humanities: where arts, humanities and plants meet
Led by Professor Felix Driver at Royal Holloway, this project scopes the potential of the ‘Plant Humanities’. This is a relatively recent term which covers a wide variety of research addressing questions relating to plants and plant-based knowledge, particularly questions of ecology, environment, and nature, often in collaboration with the sciences and social sciences.
Plant humanities: where arts, humanities and plants meet. Scoping report to AHRC
Towns and the cultural economies of recovery: a new multidisciplinary mapping
Led by Professor Nicky Marsh at the University of Southampton, this project identifies the future research priorities which enhance our understanding of the contributions that culture can make to the economic recovery, renewal and resilience of towns.
Towns and the cultural economies of recovery: a multidisciplinary mapping report
Cultural heritage 360
Led by Professor Stephen Taylor at Durham University, this project brings together scientists and social scientists with arts and humanities researchers to identify the future potential and direction of arts and humanities-led interdisciplinary research into cultural heritage and its record.
Cultural heritage 360 – a report for the AHRC programme: Where Next?
Sustainable materials in the creative industries
Led by Dr Peter Oakley at the Royal College of Art, this project scopes current and immanent sustainable practice around the sourcing, use, disposal, recycling and reuse of materials, to help understand the creative sector’s ongoing responses.
Sustainable Materials in the Creative Industries: a scoping report for AHRC
Performing arts and social violence: innovating research approaches to sexual and gender-based violence in the global south
Led by Professor Susan Fitzmaurice at the University of Sheffield, this project scopes to what extent the performing arts – from theatre and dance to comedy – can be used to understand and address social violence, particularly everyday forms of violence, including sexual and gender-based violence.
The future of the Rights of Nature: an interdisciplinary scoping analysis
Led by Professor Jeremie Gilbert at Roehampton University, this project reviews the current application of Earth Law, the movement to grant rights to nature often grounded in indigenous peoples’ cosmologies and culture, across disciplines.
The future of the Rights of Nature: an interdisciplinary scoping analysis report