In 2023, the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) outlined our new approach to funding doctoral study.
In the context of rising costs to support doctoral study, we needed to provide stable investment that ensures the sector continues to enable outstanding students to engage with the highest quality of collaborative, cohort-based and interdisciplinary research training for arts and humanities.
AHRC’s funding of landscape awards will support the equivalent of at least 150 discovery-led student projects per year, in higher education institutions (HEIs) across all regions and nations of the UK.
This is intended to provide a baseline of funding to underpin the UK’s overall doctoral capability and capacity needs for the arts and humanities disciplines.
Flexible funding
By deploying flexible funding, to allow for HEIs to adopt approaches that are shaped to fit their needs and strategies, our expectation is that studentships will encompass a breadth of knowledge.
This will create new opportunities for innovation in research career development and routes to impact.
As identified in the CRAC/Vitae report on the future of AHRC’s doctoral funding, one area where our limited funding can most effectively be deployed is in enabling wider participation in doctoral study across the sector.
In landscape awards, this opportunity will be realised by giving HEIs the flexibility to align the allocation of studentships with their individual participation, inclusion and diversity strategies.
Collaboration to improve training support and offer further opportunities for cohort development both across and between geographic regions will be facilitated by the establishment of regional ’hubs’.
The ’hub’ core members will be the recipients of landscape funding in a given region. However, hubs are intended to be responsive to regional needs and we hope that over time an extended diverse group of partners will emerge for the mutual benefit of members and students.
The landscape formula process
A key driver for the introduction of doctoral landscape awards, using a formula approach, is, in line with the principles of UK Research and Innovation’s (UKRI) approach to collective talent funding, to make our talent funding easier to manage for grant holders and to reduce bureaucracy.
Drawing on expertise from across UKRI, we developed a formula approach to the allocation of funding that we believe is both fair and transparent, avoiding the need for a competitive application process.
Although using a formula to identify potential recipients is not a competitive process, recipients of funding will still be required to deliver against UKRI’s expectations for the provision of doctoral training and training grant terms and conditions, ensuring a consistently high quality of student experience is provided.
Once HEIs were identified through the formula as potentially eligible to receive landscape funding, they were invited to submit a proposal which was subject to a robust assurance process by an expert panel.
The panel particularly considered evidence provided by HEIs on their intended approach to widening participation.
Following this process, we are confident that the 50 HEIs who have been confirmed as hosts of the landscape awards will provide research training environments of the highest calibre for their students.
Part of a system of funding for doctoral training
While the regional ‘hubs’ are intended to provide a continuing infrastructure to support collaboration in doctoral training provision, we recognise that the distribution of research staff, students and funding between institutions will change over time.
The landscape formula allocation process will be re-run every five years, allowing for the recipients of funding to be updated in line with HEIs’ changing strengths and strategic priorities.
Focal awards
We expect to announce in the first half of 2025 the first grant holders of AHRC’s new doctoral focal award funding.
Where landscape provides a broad base of adaptable funding, focal awards are designed to respond to specific strategic opportunities.
They will develop a critical mass of doctoral training in thematic areas where we believe the arts and humanities disciplines can drive significant positive impact.
Subject to future availability of funding, we intend to invite applications for new focal awards every two years, on a continuous cycle.
Community engagement
We very much welcome engagement from the community on where you believe the opportunities of the highest potential lie.
As we continue to move towards greater harmonisation of our funding schemes across UKRI, we are also looking forward to announcing more interdisciplinary focal opportunities.
These will bring the research community together to deliver innovative new training and skills development for the next generation of PhD researchers.
We are also pleased to continue our commitment to funding collaborative doctoral partnerships (which will be re-launched as collaborative doctoral landscape awards, to align with the UKRI collective talent framework).
Greater autonomy
This funding is designed to provide non-HEI organisations with greater autonomy in the selection of doctoral projects, in line with their organisation’s strategy, which they then support and co-supervise.
Partnering with HEIs who provide additional expert supervision and support, these awards enable innovation and knowledge exchange across sector boundaries.
All award types will ensure the development of talented people and contribute to a vibrant, diverse and internationally attractive research and innovation system.
Taken collectively, they represent a system of doctoral training that will retain the best elements of current provision, collaboration, innovation and community, while establishing a platform for the continued evolution of the arts and humanities disciplines.
This funding will help to sustain both the foundational capacity of our world-class arts and humanities disciplines, and the promotion of new socially engaged research and innovation for the benefit of society.
Inaugural AHRC landscape formula funding recipients
Full list of AHRC doctoral landscape award allocations.
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