Connected Communities Programme/ Care for the Future / HLF

Co-ordinating Centres for Community Engagement in the Centenary of the

First World War

Briefing Meeting for Funding Call

Welcome and Introduction from AHRC

Gary GrubbAssociate Director of Programmes AHRC

Timetable for the Day9.30am Registration/coffee 10.00am Welcome, AHRC context and fit to the Connected

Communities Programme (Gary Grubb, AHRC)10.20–10.40 Contribution to the Care for the Future Theme

(Prof. Andrew Thompson, Theme Leadership Fellow)10.40-11.00 Overview of HLF WW1 Centenary activities & the

‘WW1: Then and Now’ Programme (Karen Brookfield & Anna Jarvis, HLF)

10.50–11.20 Key Features of Co-ordinating Centres Call (Gary Grubb)11.20-12.00 Co-ordinating Centres - Discussion / Q&A Session12.00-12.30 Overview of AHRC-BBC WW1 partnership and Q&A

(Philip Pothen, AHRC)12.30-2.00pm Networking Lunch & Informal

Discussions and Questions

AHRC Strategy 2013-2018• Through themes fund transformative

research that takes a wider perspective, develops cross-disciplinary and cross-cutting enquiry, draws on multiple perspectives and stimulates challenge and exchange

• Public engagement – making explicit the contribution of A&H research to understanding national life in an international context

• Developing partnerships (e.g. in civic, cultural and heritage sectors)

• Themes- Digital Transformations- Translating Cultures- Care for the Future- Science in Culture

• Cross- Council Programmes- Leadership of Connected Communities Programme

• National Capability Areas- Design - Heritage - Languages

• Responsive Mode Funding – over 70% of research funding

AHRC’s Priority Areas

Introduction to the Connected Communities Programme

Gary GrubbAssociate Director of Programmes AHRC

Connected Communities Programme:Connecting Research for Flourishing Communities

Programme Vision

To mobilise the potential for increasingly inter-connected, culturally diverse, communities to enhance participation, prosperity, sustainability, health & well-being by better connecting research, stakeholders and communities.

Evolving Understandings of CommunityEvolving approach but see communities as:

“dynamic processes through which groups come together, through choice or necessity, to share some common bonds or values or to co-operate and interact over a sustained period of time in pursuit

of a collective need or interest in particular issues or outcomes. Communities may be real or imagined, may share a virtual or

physical environment and/or may share aspects of identity (such as location, race, ethnicity, age, history, practice), culture, belief or

other common bonds, connections or interests but may also transform over time, be culturally diverse and involve significant

dissent and conflict”.

Evolving Understandings of Community• Importance of temporal as well as spatial dimensions• Interest in the processes which constitute and ‘connect’

communities and the ways that they are enacted, ‘performed’, experienced and change

• Recognise that there are many forms of community (e.g. ascribed, elective, imagined, transient, etc.) & many different forms of connection (language, place, virtual, practice, cultural activity, etc)

• Consider both the positive and negative aspects• Interested both in the relationships within communities and the

interactions between communities (past and present) and their outcomes for broader society and economy.

• Applicants expected to explain the ways in which they are using the term community and thinking about issues of connectedness and to justify why this is appropriate for their proposed research

Examples of Current Activities • 10 community co-creation and co-production projects where the

research teams are working with community partners in the first stage to determine the research ideas to be explored in the second phase

• 2 large grants with ESRC on Community Engagement and Mobilisation

• Large grants on communities, cultures and creative economy (3) and communities, cultures, health and well-being (3)

• 2013 Summit exploring project legacies & support for early career researchers

• 2014 international conference planned

Researching Community Heritage• As a part of the second phase of our collaboration with

the Heritage Lottery Fund’s All Our Stories Programme we are supporting 18 research teams across the UK to support hundreds of community groups that are undertaking small projects to explore their community heritage as a part of the All Our Stories Programme.

• We are also funding 11 new research projects to support the co-production of cultural heritage research with community groups.

Current CallCommunities & the Centenary of the First World War• Builds on research for community heritage & partnership

with HLF but different structure reflecting the more focused subject remit and on-going nature of activities over 6 years

• Capacity building, working with NCCPE and cross-disciplinary aspects continue

• Opportunities for a more critically reflective approach linking into Care for the Future and Connected Communities issues and other centenary activities

Leadership Fellowships

• Prof George McKay (Salford Univ.) plays a leadership role in relation to the Programme’s cross-cutting theme on “Understanding changing community cultures and histories and patterns of connectivity within and between communities”.

• Prof Keri Facer (Bristol Univ.) plays a leadership role in relation to the cross-cutting theme on: “Connecting research with communities and other stakeholders”

Helping to bring together this large portfolio and map out future directions and connections for the Programme we have appointed 2 Leadership Fellows:

Current CallsResearch Grants Highlight for Design & Communities• Highlight notice to stimulate innovative

applications to explore the contributions that design can make to the Connected Communities Programme and encourage proposals that connect communities, designers and arts & humanities researchers in the co-design & co-production of research

• Stimulus materials including case studies and films of Connected Communities ‘design’ projects

• Applications £50k- £1.5m (fEC)• Highlight ends 15 January 2014

www.ahrc.ac.uk/cchighlight

Current CallsDigital Community Research Co-Production in the

Arts and Humanities £4m ‘capital funding’ for projects to harness the power of digital technologies to engage communities in the digital co-production of research. It aims to develop cultural and creative digital research ‘assets’ (e.g. as new or enhanced databases, archives, galleries and creative outputs) which will be a sustainable resource and legacy for both future research and for communities.Closing date 27 June 2013.