AHRC Strategy, Programmes and Future Directions

Professor Shearer WestDirector of Research

Political Contexts: Department of Innovation, Universities and Skills

• Gordon Brown’s formation of the Department of Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS) in autumn 2007 (combining OST and university and skills sectors of Department for Education and Skills)

• Scrutiny of dual support (85% of a + h funding from QR)

Political Contexts: Recession • Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) announcement about

science ring-fence (STEM also ring-fenced in other parts of the UK)

• Brown April budget very tight for higher education but Research Council ring-fence retained

• Will put greater demand on Research Council resources

Political Contexts: Recession • Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) announcement about science

ring-fence (STEM also ring-fenced in other parts of the UK• Brown April budget very tight for higher education but Research Council ring-fence

retained• HEFCE agreed that, as a contribution to the overall efficiency saving of £180 million

required in the 2010-11 financial year, a £65 million saving would be applied to teaching grant in the 2009-10 academic year.

• Research allocations will be unaffected in 2009-10. • The HEFCE Board has provisionally agreed that £16 million of efficiency savings will be

sought from the quality-related (QR) element of research funding in 2010-11.

Contexts: Academic Perspective

• Arts and humanities had 5 ‘RAEs’ before they had a research council

• RAE apparently pulling in different direction than Research Councils

• REF to bridge the gap through impact assessment

AHRC in these Contexts

History:• AHRB (splinter of British Academy) formed

1998• AHRC Royal Charter April 2005• Over the last four years the AHRC has

benefited from a 35% uplift in funding, from £80.5 million in 2005/06 to £109 million announced for 2010/11

AHRC in these Contexts

Scope:• 27% of research-active academic community

within AHRC remit• Over 14,000 academics• Approximately 50 disciplines/sub-disciplines• AHRC receives 2.8% of the science and research

budget

AHRC in these Contexts

Quality:

Arts and humanities research received the highest percentage of 4* ratings in the 2008 RAE

Principal Schemes

Research Grants

Fellowships

Networks

Studentships

Changes to funding schemes in January 2009:

• Open deadlines for RGs in place• First awards being processed

under new peer review structure

• Research Networks and Workshops changed to Research Networking Scheme, with greater support for international collaboration

Research Careers – Fellowships

• Plans for the new Fellowships scheme were announced in January 2009

• Following Future Directions consultation, further consideration will be given to the support offered to early career researchers

• Development of Impact Fellowships for Strategic Programme Directors for follow-on activities

Studentships• Through BGP £199 million

investment to create over six thousand new MA and PhD places over the next five years

• BGPs have stimulated HEIs to generate integrated research and PG strategies and encouraged further investment in PGs

• Open studentship scheme in process• Collaborative doctoral awards

fostering new partnerships with non-HEI sector

Strategic Programmes

• Digital Economy: 6 Doctoral Training Centres supported, 3 include arts and humanities

• 7 multi-disciplinary Large Grants funded under ‘Beyond Text’ programme, call for Small Grants launched

Global Uncertainties

• ‘Ideas and Beliefs’: 14 awards made, 6 in arts and humanities

• 3 Networking, 7 Small Grants funded under R&S ‘Youth Call’

LWEC workshop• Workshop jointly organised by

Landscape & Environment and Science & Heritage programmes to consider what the arts and humanities can contribute to the LWEC programme

• As part of our contribution to LWEC, we are developing a supplementary call under the L&E programme for Networks and/or small exploratory awards

Digital Economy/British Library Sandpit

• AHRC initiative led to scoping workshop held 18 March 2009

• Three-day ‘sandpit’ to be held in July looking at interactions between digital technologies, research and physical environments

• Development of new digital research centre for BL

Connected Communities• Analysis of outcomes of AHRC

Future Directions consultation for Connected Communities

• Consultation to be held with Local Authority Cross-Council Institute, 1st June 2009

• Consultation with key cross-Council stakeholders, 2nd June

• International links are being developed, as this is a priority area for other countries as well (Australia, USA)

International• Humanities in European Research

Area call for ‘Cultural Dynamics’ and ‘Creativity and Innovation’ has received approximately 250 applications: 2/3 have UK partners

• AHRC co-funding awards under ESF’s ‘Eurobabel’ programme to address Endangered Languages

• Net-Heritage project progressing well. A new MoU has been signed with the Italian Research Council

• International Strategy agreed• 40 applications for Library of

Congress studentships: 35 AHRC, 5 ESRC

Knowledge Transfer•KT Strategy launched February 2009•7 KT Fellowships awards made in fifth round•31 KT Partnerships currently funded, 27 in partnership with TSB/EPSRC•BT Network scheme announced•4 co-funded awards agreed under TSB Creative Industiries call – Creative Economy programme

BBC/KT Launch Event• AHRC evaluation to inform future co-funding calls &

approaches to partnership working• AHRC/BBC event on 27 April 2009 to showcase

innovative outcomes and impacts of projects• High profile academics, BBC policymakers &

production staff, leaders in creative industries, Government figures will attend the event.

Technology Strategy Board

• AHRC-led workshop with co-funding from TSB in June 2009, bringing together leading technologists and AHRC Strategic Programme Directors & researchers

• TSB is publishing a new strategy for the CI sector. The Head of KT will be a member of the TSB steering board to implement the strategy

• AHRC will sponsor the next collaborative call for CIs: ‘Accessing and commercialising content in a digitally networked world’

Impact• Impact Task Force report completed• Innovation report launched and policy briefing

developed• Launch of British Museum review• Impact Workshops

What ‘Economic’ Impact Encompasses

• monetary impacts• improvement of public

services• contribution to public

policy• ‘human capital’• contribution to quality of

life

How Arts and Humanities Research Demonstrates Impact

monetary impacts e.g. creation of new products involving fine artists and designers, such as ‘Design against Crime’, used by pubs and coffee shops

How Arts and Humanities Research Demonstrates Impact

improvement of public services e.g. research feeding into museums, galleries, and other public sector organisations through CDA awards; the Shah Abbas exhibition at the British Museum; Cambridge philosophers working with BT on ‘trust in public life’, etc.

How Arts and Humanities Research Demonstrates Impact

contribution to public policye.g. House of Commons Select Committee use of findings from Edinburgh Centre for Intellectual Property; Home Office use of research from ‘Religion and Society’ programme

Increasing policy influence

• Developing evidence base of awards with policy influence

• Raising profile of arts and humanities research with policymakers

• Brokering connections between researchers and policymakers

• Developing Policy Fellowships in partnership with ESRC

How Arts and Humanities Research Demonstrates Impact

‘human capital’• 535,000 undergraduates and postgraduates

studying arts and humanities subjects at any one time

• 145,000 arts and humanities graduates per year• 75% of AHRC-funded Ph.D.s are in academic posts• Overseas research students bring in £2 billion per

annum to the UK economy

How Arts and Humanities Research Demonstrates Impact

Quality of life• indirect economic impact• enhancing intellectual life,

divergent thinking and tolerance; building on centuries of heritage, maintenance and growth of UK cultural richness

• Encourages inward investment and tourism

Ways of Achieving Impact: ‘Knowledge Transfer’

The processes by which new knowledge is co-produced through interactions between academic and non-academic individuals and communities.

Recognition that this is often a process of exchange

Ways of Achieving Impact: Dissemination

The processes by which knowledge that is generated through academic research is made available to audiences beyond the immediate peer community.

New Section of Grants Forms• Impact summaries and statements introduced

in all applications as of March 2009• Training of Peer Reviewers in progress• FAQ document and Guide for applicants on

AHRC website• Letter sent to 2,000 contacts• Currently developing supplementary guidance

and examples of potential impact for applicants, supported by case studies of good practice

Impact: Beneficiaries and Impact section of grants

• Recognition that impacts cannot always be predicted• Opportunity to engage with community to grow capacity

for non-academic benefits• Intended to boost the profile of arts and humanities

research with other stakeholders and the public• Not intended to be used as a sanction but to encourage

academics to engage with others outside the academic community

• World-class research without non-academic impact not to be disadvantaged

Future Directions• Consultation launched

February 2009• Closing date 11 May• Advisory Board and Council

to discuss outcomes in June

Future Directions: Areas open for consultation

What broad research themes do you consider should attract specific funding from the AHRC, both those lying within the arts and humanities research domain, and those that extend beyond it?

Future Directions: Consultation

• What more could the AHRC do to ensure arts and humanities research and researchers are more central and influential in cross-Council programmes?

• What types of national capital facilities do you consider the AHRC should support?

Future Directions: Consultation

• How should the AHRC develop its brokerage role to support academics in realising the full range of the impact of their research?

• Do you have specific proposals for how Knowledge Transfer could be embedded more fully in AHRC-funded research?

Future Directions: Consultation

• In what ways can the AHRC use its new Fellowship scheme more effectively to support early career researchers?

• What do you see as the key training needs of postgraduate students in your field, and by what mechanisms could the AHRC help meet these?

Future Directions: Consultation

What do you see as potentially vulnerable subject areas or areas of national importance in which the AHRC should be supporting postgraduate research and training?

Future Directions: Consultation

• With which organisations do you consider the AHRC should have partnerships and why?

• What else could the AHRC be doing to facilitate international research cooperation in the arts and humanities?