Funding opportunity

Funding opportunity: Collaborative doctoral landscape award in the arts and humanities

Opportunity status:: Open
Funders:: Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC)
Funding type:: Grant
Publication date:: 26 March 2025
Opening date:: 10 April 2025 9:00am UK time
Closing date:: 20 November 2025 4:00pm UK time

UK non-higher education institutions (non-HEI), individual organisations or consortia, can apply to become arts and humanities collaborative doctoral landscape award grant holders to support and provide high-quality doctoral training.

AHRC will support up to 50 doctoral studentships per year, for four years through this scheme. You can apply for a minimum of three students per year (two in exceptional circumstances). Doctoral projects must align with the organisation’s priorities and are undertaken with a university partner.

The first cohort of students will start in October 2027.

Who can apply

To apply to this funding opportunity, as a project lead (PL), you must be based at a UK organisation eligible for this scheme.

Who is eligible to apply

Non-HEIs can be any type of organisation in the UK that has the research capacity to host doctoral students. This would include a wide range of creative and cultural organisations contributing to arts and humanities research, for example:

galleries
libraries
museums and archives
the creative industries
public and third sector organisations

The application must be from a non-HEI organisation either:

as an individual organisation
as a consortia of non-HEI organisations
with a university partner, in specific circumstances

Non-HEIs do not need to have held awards under the Collaborative Doctoral Partnership (CDP) scheme to be eligible to apply or have independent research organisation status. However, you must be able to demonstrate that you have the capacity to manage at least three studentships per year.

Non-HEIs, which do not have capacity to host three students per year, may wish to submit a joint application as a consortium. If successful, the consortium would be the collaborative doctoral landscape award grant holder.

Organisations applying as a consortium should ensure that there is a clear strategic rationale for holding a single allocation between them. One of the organisations will need to be nominated as the lead organisation. We will liaise with the lead throughout the application process and in managing the award if the application is successful.

Another option for less experienced non-HEIs is to apply to become a collaborative doctoral landscape award grant holder by partnering with a higher education institution (HEI) in their application. This option is open to smaller non-HEIs, or those with less experience of supporting doctoral students. You will need to demonstrate why this arrangement will enable you to participate in the scheme in a way that applying alone or as part of a non-HEI consortium would not. The non-HEI must be the lead partner, and they must be able to demonstrate an existing commitment to supporting postgraduate research, for example within organisational research strategies and policies.

The non-HEI will work in partnership with the HEI and draw on the HEI’s expertise in postgraduate support. The HEI will need to state their commitment and how they intend to support their non-HEI partner.

The HEI partner will be permitted to host up to 50% of the studentships awarded to this partnership. The non-HEI partner will be expected to partner with other HEIs to develop and support research proposals. A university museum and gallery can partner with their parent HEI to form a collaborative doctoral landscape award.

University museums and galleries, or other HEI-managed organisations, are eligible to apply for a collaborative doctoral landscape award. Should they be successful, up to 50% of the doctoral projects that are subsequently selected for nomination to AHRC would be permitted to be in collaboration with the parent HEI.

Consortium collaborative doctoral landscape partners may be thematically focused or regionally or geographically focused. It is permitted for a non–HEI to be part of more than one consortium, for example, where a department wishes to be part of a different thematic consortium to the rest of the organisation.

A single department may be part of only one consortium. In all cases, proposals should include a strong rationale for the partnership, and the choice of partners involved. In cases where a non-HEI does include departments in different proposals, it would not be permissible for a department which was included in an unsuccessful proposal to access studentships from a successful bid with which their organisation was involved.

Who is not eligible to apply

This scheme is not open to universities or individual researchers or academics.

Equality, diversity and inclusion

We are committed to achieving equality of opportunity for all funding applicants. We encourage applications from a diverse range of researchers.

We support people to work in a way that suits their personal circumstances. This includes:

career breaks
support for people with caring responsibilities
flexible working
alternative working patterns

UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) can offer disability and accessibility support for UKRI applicants and grant holders during the application and assessment process.

What we're looking for

Aim

Our aspiration is to support non-HEI organisations to deliver doctoral training in partnership with higher education institutions (HEIs) for the next generation of arts and humanities researchers. These training partnerships aim to identify and address short and long-term skills challenges and foster interdisciplinarity between the cultural, creative, and heritage sectors with academia and other employers.

The overall aim of the collaborative doctoral landscape award scheme is to support a high standard of collaborative research training through:

giving non-HEIs greater autonomy in the selection of doctoral projects they would like to support and supervise
providing non-HEIs, individual organisations and consortia with a firm funding horizon of collaborative doctoral awards to support their research training strategy, and the development of enhanced programmes of doctoral study that provide students with career development opportunities outside the standard academic route
fostering collaboration between collaborative doctoral landscape award holding organisations and consortia in the development of wider training and development opportunities for the doctoral students they support

Scope

In May 2022, UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) announced its transition to collective talent funding across talent initiatives, with the UKRI Doctoral Investment Framework launching in November 2023. From January 2024, all UKRI doctoral support have been framed around two types of awards: doctoral landscape awards and doctoral focal awards.

Doctoral landscape awards provide:

broad, flexible funding to support talented doctoral students to contribute to a vibrant, internationally attractive and world-leading research and innovation system
breadth and diversity in the research supported to ensure that as a community we are rapidly responsive to new and emerging research ideas and areas
opportunities for a variety of engagement with non-academic partners

We are looking for innovative and inclusive doctoral programmes designed to train students to undertake research and gain the core skills needed for a variety of careers.

You will be expected to deliver pioneering research and innovative training across AHRC’s remit and address strategic challenges faced in relevant sectors, such as, the cultural, heritage and creative sectors. Your application must demonstrate that the collaborative doctoral landscape training programme offers a high-quality research training environment and sufficient research capacity to deliver that training.

Training remit

Applications must outline a coherent training programme which demonstrates how students will undertake individual research projects in collaboration with both the non-HEI and HEI organisations. We will need to understand how you will support collaborative doctoral research training, ensuring that:

individual student needs are considered and met
students are given appropriate supervisory support, access to resources, and unique training and development opportunities to deliver their studies effectively

It is important that organisations offer more than access to resources, collections or archives. Assessors will be looking for commitment to enable students to undertake additional development opportunities, such as, placement activities and the chance students to be involved in the organisation on a wider scale.

Collaborative doctoral landscape award grant holders are expected to work together to deliver a programme of cohort training and we will need to understand how you will contribute to the programme and facilitate your students’ engagement with it.

You are advised to identify where you have world-class expertise and infrastructures to develop their doctoral candidates including:

demonstrating an existing commitment to supporting postgraduate research, such as through organisation research and strategies, previous experience in supporting collaborative doctoral research or both
how becoming a collaborative doctoral landscape award grant holder will support wider research strategies within your organisations
how you intend to manage this award effectively (for example, by ensuring clear and robust arrangements are in place for project and supervisor selection and ongoing review)

Collaborative doctoral landscape awards should provide doctoral training in areas of research relevant to AHRC’s remit and priority research areas. These are covered in AHRC’s strategic delivery plan.

Training delivered by these collaborative doctoral landscape awards may build on existing infrastructure where applicable. We encourage engagement with relevant sector networks and other AHRC and UKRI doctoral training investments.

We support interdisciplinary research (for example, heritage science) proposals but ask that applications demonstrate how interdisciplinary research will be immersed in an environment where the students will understand the impact of their research on the arts and humanities research landscape.

Note that, while the call for studentship projects can outline broad priority areas, it is not possible to ring-fence awards for specific projects or organisations.

Alignment with UKRI core offer

Our expectations for research organisations, supervisors and students are set out in the statement of expectations for doctoral training.

The UKRI core offer sets out the expectations for all UKRI studentships, including support and student experience, research skills and methods, and professional and career development. This information has been used to define the assessment criteria for this funding opportunity. See the section ‘How we will assess your application’ for further details. All applications must clearly state how the requirements outlined within the core offer will be delivered as part of their application.

UKRI good practice principles in recruitment and training at a doctoral level

You should also demonstrate how you will deliver UKRI good practice principles in recruitment and training at a doctoral level. These principles aim to make the doctoral pathway accessible and attractive to a diversity of potential applicants and outline good practice principles in equality, diversity and inclusion across the following four key stages of the doctoral recruitment and training process:

finding talent: to make the doctoral pathway accessible and attract potential applicants who may not currently view a doctoral study as accessible to them
shortlisting and interviews: to ensure the applicant shortlisting and interview process is fair and transparent
nurturing talent: to make the student training experience as inclusive as possible
monitoring and reporting: to be used effectively to foster a diverse and inclusive environment

Defining an excellent collaborative studentship

All collaborative doctoral landscape studentship projects must be delivered in partnership with HEIs. Applications can also include additional project co-leads and project partners. These collaborative projects should be characterised by:

excellent research: challenging, feasible and realistically achievable doctoral projects that stimulate excellent research, providing tangible benefits to all partners through a truly collaborative approach
a high-quality training environment: access to distinctive but complementary high-quality training environments across the partnership stimulates collaboration and encourages students to acquire novel skills and expertise
a focus on student experience: partners will enrich the integrated training experience through joint supervision of students, wherein the student gains a greater understanding of their research impact and is supported throughout their research journey

Collaborating with HEIs

A key component of the collaborative doctoral landscape opportunity is the collaboration and partnership between the non-HEI, as the overall grant holder, and the HEIs with which they choose to partner, to develop different research proposals. The HEI will become the training grant holder for individual studentships (collaborative doctoral awards).

Non-HEIs will work closely with a range of HEIs to develop proposals, recruit, supervise and support students, and manage the collaborative doctoral studentships. The studentships are student career focused, with the student spending up to half of their time in the non-HEI organisation and benefitting from the support of two supervisors, one within and beyond academia.

This collaboration, and the development of these partnerships, is one of equality, where one partner is not simply a support for another. Ongoing decision-making, support for students and management of awards is a joint process with both partners contributing on an equal basis.

Coordination Group and collaborating with other grant holders

The coordination group is a central component of the collaborative doctoral landscape awards. Its purpose is to enhance the training and development opportunities available to students and to share good practice among grant holders. We expect all successful non-HEIs and consortia to work together within this group.

We will provide additional funding to support student cohort development and the coordination group’s activities via an individual and separate award. Collaborative doctoral landscape award grant holders must commit to participating and contributing to the group, including providing in-kind contributions. For example, use of time, space and expertise.

The coordination group will deliver cohort development and training to students, enabling them to develop their research, build their careers, network, and support partner organisations, and shape the future of the UK’s sectors in which they work. It aims to build a community of students from across the different collaborative doctoral landscape cohorts and the diverse organisations involved in this scheme.

By participating in the coordination group, grant holders contribute to a collaborative environment that benefits both the students and the broader research community.

Project development and supervisor selection

An important element of collaborative landscape awards is the development of collaborative projects and the selection of supervisors. Non-HEIs must outline how they will engage university researchers to develop projects and collaborations, ensuring a broad range of applicants and studentship projects.

This engagement is crucial for fostering diverse and academically robust projects.

Non-HEIs will work closely with university researchers to develop proposals, recruit, supervise and support students. The projects should be collaborative in nature, jointly conceived, and structured to be delivered as a joint programme of work. This collaboration ensures that students benefit from the expertise and support of both the non-HEI and HEI supervisors.

For interdisciplinary research proposals, it is essential that students receive supervisory support from supervisors covering the different disciplines involved. This approach ensures comprehensive guidance for students and fosters interdisciplinary learning.

If the application involves a consortium of non-HEI organisations, it is important to explain how the project and supervisor selection process will be managed across the consortium.

Additionally, include details of any advisory bodies or external input into your selection processes. This external input can provide valuable perspectives and enhance the quality of the selection process.

Management and governance

You are expected to explain how governance, monitoring, and student progress will be managed within the partnership.

The management of the award needs to align with the principles of responsible innovation, trusted research, and environmental sustainability, to create value for society in an ethical and responsible way.

Equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI)

EDI is a core feature of this funding opportunity. In line with UKRI’s principles on EDI, we want to work with our partners to shape a dynamic, diverse, and inclusive system of research and innovation that is an integral part of society.

You will need to explain how your EDI action plan will embed the core principles of EDI at all levels and across all aspects of the collaborative doctoral landscape award.

You will need to ensure that:

students from diverse backgrounds are recruited in a fair, open and transparent way
any barriers to engagement are mitigated
all students receive ongoing support, according to their needs, to deliver the best research they can

We will require collaborative doctoral landscape award grant holders to put in place monitoring of these arrangements, across the consortium partners, if applicable, to enable it to review the effectiveness and openness of its recruitment process and strategies for student support.

This will be an ongoing process of review and analysis. Where this process identifies concerns, responsive changes should be implemented.

Your collaborative doctoral landscape programme should work to provide everyone involved with an opportunity to participate in, and benefit from, the award.

Through the EDI action plan, you must demonstrate how your EDI strategy will embed the core principles of EDI at all levels and across all aspect of the doctoral programme, including:

increasing PhD access, including recruitment practices
working practices, including individualised student support
wellbeing support, including mental health
monitoring and evaluation, including a baseline and plans for improvement

We would expect the EDI strategy outlined in the plan to describe how your doctoral programme is accessible to a diverse range of people and needs, and how you will be removing barriers to participation across your doctoral programme and associated processes. Your application should demonstrate how you will create and maintain a positive, inclusive, and supportive environment for all students and staff.

You should refer to equality, diversity and inclusion at UKRI and AHRC’s equality, diversity and inclusion action plan. As a mandatory requirement, the EDI plan, including strategies, activities and commitments stated by successful applicants will be regularly reviewed by AHRC. This data will be collected on at least a yearly basis via annual reports , and we will reserve the right to access these data across the lifetime of the award. See the UKRI data collection policy for more information.

Reporting requirements and monitoring

The monitoring and evidencing of progress toward the vision and objectives of these partnerships, as well as their impact, is an important component of this award. Information gathered from training grant holders will be used by AHRC to review the success of our training investments, to provide assurance that the awards are being managed appropriately and are progressing in accordance with the original funding application. This will be conducted in various ways, including:

mandatory annual reports
hosting regular visits by AHRC staff, in meetings or in person

We will request key information from collaborative doctoral landscape award grant holders, such as doctoral candidate recruitment, collaborative partner engagement, training and development activities offered, and examples of doctoral achievements.

Successful applicants will be expected to respond to other reporting requirements when requested.

Duration

This award will support four years worth of student intake, starting in October 2027. Each studentship will last four years, meaning the total duration of the grant will be seven years (84 months).

Funding available

AHRC is intending to offer up to 50 studentships per year, for four years, through collaborative doctoral landscape awards. We reserve the right to adjust these numbers to meet the requirements of the funding opportunity and to balance our overall studentship portfolio.

You can apply for a minimum of three students per year. Smaller, less experienced non-HEIs have the flexibility to apply for two students per year, provided they offer a clear rationale for doing so within their application. Doctoral projects would be aligned to the non-HEI organisation’s priorities and undertaken with a university partner.

All doctoral projects will need to be within AHRC’s remit. The first cohort would start in October 2027.

You should state in your application the number of studentships per year that you are bidding for. This will need to be justified in relation to your track record of engagement with postgraduate research and training. Please bear in mind the total number of awards available for the scheme; to achieve a balanced portfolio, it may be necessary for AHRC to award fewer studentships than requested.

Organisations that are successful in their application to become collaborative doctoral landscape award grant holders will be allocated a ‘notional’ number of studentships per year. The collaborative doctoral landscape award organisation or consortium has the autonomy, within AHRC guidelines, to select the collaborative doctoral projects it wishes to support in collaboration with a UK HEI partner. It then nominates these to AHRC for funding. The allocation is notional in the sense that the funding for each doctoral studentship is paid to the academic partner involved, rather than to the non-HEI organisation.

Studentships will include sufficient funds to meet the annual UKRI minimum stipend and fee levels and research costs in the form of a research training support grant. Collaborative doctoral landscape studentships will also include a stipend uplift to reflect the collaborative nature of their award and the costs this can incur, for example, travelling between the HEI and non-HEI.

Financial support for students

The collaborative doctoral landscape award holding organisation is expected to make a financial commitment to the students recruited, recognising the higher costs which doctoral students may incur in undertaking a collaborative project (especially where the HEI and non-HEI are geographically distant).

In-kind support from the collaborative doctoral landscape award grant holder and HEI partners is mandatory. This includes in enabling engagement with the cohort programme.

Supporting skills and talent

If applicable to your application, we encourage you to follow the principles of the Concordat to Support the Career Development of Researchers and the Technician Commitment.

Trusted Research and Innovation (TR&I)

UKRI is committed in ensuring that effective international collaboration in research and innovation takes place with integrity and within strong ethical frameworks. Trusted Research and Innovation (TR&I) is a UKRI work programme designed to help protect all those working in our thriving and collaborative international sector by enabling partnerships to be as open as possible, and as secure as necessary. Our TR&I Principles set out UKRI’s expectations of organisations funded by UKRI in relation to due diligence for international collaboration.

As such, applicants for UKRI funding may be asked to demonstrate how their proposed projects will comply with our approach and expectation towards TR&I, identifying potential risks and the relevant controls you will put in place to help proportionately reduce these risks.

See further guidance and information about TR&I, including where applicants can find additional support.

How to apply

We are running this funding opportunity on the new UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) Funding Service so please ensure that your organisation is registered. You cannot apply on the Joint Electronic Submissions (Je-S) system.

The project lead is responsible for completing the application process on the Funding Service, but we expect all team members and project partners to contribute to the application.

Only the lead research organisation can submit an application to UKRI.

To apply

Select ‘Start application’ near the beginning of this Funding finder page.

Confirm you are the project lead.
Sign in or create a Funding Service account. To create an account, select your organisation, verify your email address, and set a password. If your organisation is not listed, email support@funding-service.ukri.org
Please allow at least 10 working days for your organisation to be added to the Funding Service. We strongly suggest that if you are asking UKRI to add your organisation to the Funding Service to enable you to apply to this opportunity, you also create an organisation Administration Account. This will be needed to allow the acceptance and management of any grant that might be offered to you.
Answer questions directly in the text boxes. You can save your answers and come back to complete them or work offline and return to copy and paste your answers. If we need you to upload a document, follow the upload instructions in the Funding Service. All questions and assessment criteria are listed in the How to apply section on this Funding finder page.
Allow enough time to check your application in ‘read-only’ view before sending to your research office.
Send the completed application to your research office for checking. They will return it to you if it needs editing.
Your research office will submit the completed and checked application to UKRI.

Where indicated, you can also demonstrate elements of your responses in visual form if relevant.

When including images, you must:

provide a descriptive caption or legend for each image immediately underneath it in the text box (this must be outside the image and counts towards your word limit)
insert each new image on a new line
use files smaller than 5MB and in JPEG, JPG, JPE, JFI, JIF, JFIF, PNG, GIF, BMP or WEBP format

Images should only be used to convey important visual information that cannot easily be put into words. The following are not permitted, and your application may be rejected if you include:

sentences or paragraphs of text
tables
excessive quantities of images

A few words are permitted where the image would lack clarity without the contextual words, such as a diagram, where text labels are required for an axis or graph column.

For more guidance on the Funding Service, see:

References

References should be included within the word count of the appropriate question section. You should use your discretion when including references and prioritise those most pertinent to the application.

Hyperlinks can be used in reference information. When including references, you should consider how your references will be viewed and used by the assessors, ensuring that:

references are easily identifiable by the assessors
references are formatted as appropriate to your research
persistent identifiers are used where possible

General use of hyperlinks

Applications should be self-contained. You should only use hyperlinks to link directly to reference information. You must not include links to web resources to extend your application. Assessors are not required to access links to conduct assessment or recommend a funding decision.

Generative artificial intelligence (AI)

Use of generative AI tools to prepare funding applications is permitted, however, caution should be applied.

For more information see our policy on the use of generative AI in application and assessment.

Deadline

AHRC must receive your application by 20 November 2025 at 4:00pm UK time.

You will not be able to apply after this time.

Make sure you are aware of and follow any internal institutional deadlines.

Following the submission of your application to the funding opportunity, your application cannot be changed, and applications will not be returned for amendment. If your application does not follow the guidance, it may be rejected.

Personal data

Processing personal data

AHRC, as part of UKRI, will need to collect some personal information to manage your Funding Service account and the registration of your funding applications.

We will handle personal data in line with UK data protection legislation and manage it securely. For more information, including how to exercise your rights, read our privacy notice.

Sensitive information

If you or a core team member need to tell us something you wish to remain confidential, email skills@ahrc.ukri.org

Include in the subject line: [the funding opportunity title; sensitive information; your Funding Service application number].

Typical examples of confidential information include:

individual is unavailable until a certain date (for example due to parental leave)
declaration of interest
additional information about eligibility to apply that would not be appropriately shared in the ‘Applicant and team capability’ section
conflict of interest for UKRI to consider in reviewer or panel participant selection
the application is an invited resubmission

For information about how UKRI handles personal data, read UKRI’s privacy notice.

Publication of outcomes

AHRC, as part of UKRI, will publish the outcomes of this funding opportunity on our Panel Outcomes and Attendance Tableau site.

If your application is successful, we will publish some personal information on the UKRI Gateway to Research.

Summary

Word limit: 550

In plain English, provide a summary we can use to identify the most suitable experts to assess your application.

We usually make this summary publicly available on external-facing websites, therefore do not include any confidential or sensitive information. Make it suitable for a variety of readers, for example:

opinion-formers
policymakers
the public
the wider research community

Core team

List the key members of your team and assign them roles from the following:

project lead (PL)
project co-lead (UK) (PcL)
project co-lead (international) (PcL (I))
specialist
grant manager
professional enabling staff
technician

Only list one individual as project lead. The project lead is responsible for setting up and completing the application on the Funding Service.

Where non-higher education institution (non-HEI) organisations are collaborating in a single proposal, please list all the partners involved . It will be necessary for one partner to be clearly identified as the project lead for the partnership.

You can list multiple project co-leads. Any organisation that will host students in addition to the project lead should be listed as a project co-lead on the application.

If a non-HEI and HEI are collaborating, the non-HEI partner will be the project-lead. However, please list an individual from the HEI who will act as the lead contact at the HEI as a project co-lead.

UKRI has introduced a new addition to the ‘Specialist’ role type. Public contributors such as people with lived experience can now be added to an application.

Find out more about UKRI’s core team roles in funding applications.

Vision

Word limit: 1,500

What is the training grant going to achieve? How will this support UK capability and capacity needs and why is it important that UKRI supports this activity?

What the assessors are looking for in your response

You must:

outline a clear vision and objectives that will make a positive contribution to the scope of this investment opportunity and deliver high quality doctoral education, with tracking measures
describe the positive outcomes and impact for society and the economy that the investment will deliver, outlining the strategies to achieve them which will be grounded in a model that results in highly skilled doctoral graduates, employable across a range of sectors and careers
explain how your vision aligns and will positively contribute to relevant wider strategies and priorities, including national capability and capacity needs. If relevant, describe how it will provide additionality to your existing doctoral provision

Guidance for applicants

Please be aware that:

the Vision section should demonstrate a commitment to supporting postgraduate research, ensuring potential studentships fit into the organisation’s research strategy
you should outline any priority research areas that may be addressed by the doctoral students over the period of the collaborative landscape award, and explain clearly what additional benefits will arise for the organisations, their mission and the world-class research they support
if you are a consortia of non-higher education institutions (non-HEIs), you need to outline your rationale for holding a single allocation
if you are a non-HEI applying in partnership with a higher education institution (HEI), you need to outline your rationale for applying in partnership
you should specify the number of studentships being requested in this section

You may demonstrate elements of your responses in visual form if relevant. Further details are provided in the Funding Service.

References may be included within this section.

Approach

Word limit: 1,500

How will the doctoral training programme that you propose to deliver through this grant support your vision and align with UKRI’s ambitions for doctoral investments?

What the assessors are looking for in your response

Explain how your training programme will:

deliver the vision outlined for this doctoral training programme and any specific requirements set out in the opportunity documentation as well as why this approach is necessary to achieve your expected outcomes

In addition, explain how you will embed the delivery of UKRI’s Statement of Expectations for your students so that the programme:

provides a holistic approach that delivers high quality doctoral research, integrating in-depth subject knowledge, research and methodological skills, and wider skills development opportunities
supports students’ understanding of what conducting high quality research involves
prepares globally competitive researchers, able to use their skills to thrive in a range of sectors and careers and operate across interdisciplinary, collaborative and challenge-led environments

Guidance for applicants

You should demonstrate how your student-centred training programme will:

deliver a programme of student training and development in line with the Statement of Expectations and the requirements set out in this funding opportunity
deliver a suitable approach to managing both the doctoral training programme and the individual studentships
deliver an approach to recruitment, in collaboration with a range of university partners, that ensures the recruitment and selection of students will be organised to ensure fairness and equality
catalyse student research of excellent quality and importance
deliver appropriate, tailored and innovation training, guidance and opportunities to enhance students’ wider research skills development
identify the needs of individual students and cohorts to enable tailored training to be provided
provide high-quality professional development opportunities and advice to students throughout their training which recognises and promotes a diversity of careers
enable students to actively manage and direct their research and project training as well as their own professional and career development
enable students to work with and beyond their supervisory team, leading to improved awareness of the skills and experiences that would benefit their careers in a range of working environments across different sectors
contribute to and benefit from the input you will be able to make to the cohort development programme
have established a clear governance structure for the training grant award, with responsibilities outlined, and processes in place to ensure the training grant is well governed and all relevant partners as well as the student community are engaged
have established an approach to risk management, continuous improvement, monitoring and evaluation
support students in understanding responsible research and innovation, ethics, reproducibility, research integrity and open research methodology
maintain links with your doctoral graduates, utilising the network of alumni to track career pathways and to benefit current and future student cohorts

References may be included within this section.

You may demonstrate elements of your responses in visual form if relevant. Further details are provided in the Funding Service.

Project development and supervisor selection

Word limit: 1,000

How will you ensure effective project development and supervisor selection for the studentships?

What the assessors are looking for in your response

You must:

outline how you will engage university researchers to develop projects and collaborations, ensuring a broad range of applicants and studentship projects
describe the process and criteria for selecting appropriate projects, ensuring they have a robust academic focus and provide students with wider development opportunities
provide comprehensive supervisory support
explain how the project and supervisor selection process will be managed across the consortium if you are applying as a consortium of non-HEIs or with a HEI partner

Guidance for applicants

You should demonstrate how your project development and supervisor selection process will:

ensure projects are collaborative in nature and jointly conceived by the non-HEI and academic supervisors, and structured to be delivered as a joint programme of work
ensure supervisory support for interdisciplinary research covers the different disciplines
include details of any advisory bodies or external input into your selection processes

You may demonstrate elements of your responses in visual form if relevant. Further details are provided in the Funding Service.

Positive culture and environment

Word limit: 1,500

How will you create and maintain an inclusive and supportive culture and environment for all those involved?

What the assessors are looking for in your response

Explain how your choice of training programme will:

create and maintain a positive, inclusive, and supportive environment for all students and staff involved, addressing a variety of needs and supporting good wellbeing, including relevant, specific support and training for supervisors where needed
champion and embed equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) for students and staff, across all aspects of the training grant, including supervision, training design and approaches, and flexible student support
achieve any specific EDI requirements detailed within the funding opportunity documentation or that you are proposing

You should provide evidence for the specific need and impact of the proposed EDI activities to achieve its intended aim, including baseline information. Explain how you will undertake subsequent updates and reviews across the lifetime of the award.

Guidance for applicants

You should demonstrate how you will embed evidence-based EDI principles and practices at all levels and in all aspects of your research and training practice across the lifetime of the award, attending to the points described in this section.

EDI action plan

Ensure that your EDI action plan is clearly identified within your overall response. We encourage you to use the following headings to structure your plan.

Increasing PhD access

Detail how you will ensure that your programme will attract a wide range of applicants from underrepresented or different social, cultural and educational backgrounds, and how will you make this process open and transparent.

Outline how you will work with the HEI partners and any other collaborators to ensure all recruited students have equitable access to opportunities and receive the support they need to successfully complete their studies.

Working practices

Discuss how you will support students and supervisors who require a flexible working pattern.

Supervision and supervisory teams

Detail how you will deliver comprehensive inductions for new supervisors and support development for supervisory teams in line with an inclusive culture of excellent research supervision.

Detail how you will ensure that all staff involved in recruitment are skilled in reducing bias and using inclusive, evidence-based processes.

Wellbeing support

Propose a strategy for the provision and support of good health and wellbeing practices for students and supervisors during the time students are working within the non-HEI organisation. Detail how you will collaborate with the HEIs to ensure health and wellbeing practices will be maintained consistently.

Additionally, explain how you will promote a positive culture of listening and responding to student and supervisors’ feedback.

Monitoring and evaluation

Detail what progress indicators you will use to measure improvement in your EDI strategy and why these are the most appropriate.

Detail how you will provide evidence for your proposed EDI actions, including baseline and subsequent updated throughout the lifetime of the grant.

Additionally, describe any governance, reporting, or advice structures in place to support EDI, and how you will draw on these structures.

References may be included within this section.

You may demonstrate elements of your responses in visual form if relevant. Further details are provided in the Funding Service.

Applicant and team capability to deliver

Word limit: 1,500

Who will lead and drive delivery of this training grant’s vision?

What the assessors are looking for in your response

Provide evidence that those leading the delivery of the award:

have appropriate research and pastoral capacity to support the number of studentships that you expect to deliver through this award
have the experience and skills (for example, project management, leadership, stakeholder management, administration, and supervision) to deliver the proposed vision and training programme, appropriate to the scale of the award
have a well-evidenced track record of contributing to a positive research culture and the wider community
have a well-evidenced track record of supporting the training and development of others, particularly previous involvement in delivering doctoral training successfully
if you are applying as a non-HEI in partnership with a HEI, outline how the HEI partner will support the non-HEI partner in supporting postgraduate research training
if you are applying as a consortia of non-HEIs, including both experienced and less experienced institutions, explain how the consortium will collectively support postgraduate research

You may demonstrate elements of your responses in visual form if relevant. Further details are provided in the Funding Service.

Your organisation’s support

Provide details of support from your research organisation.

What the assessors are looking for in your response

Provide a Statement of Support from your research organisation detailing how they will support you, as the applicant, and your proposed activities. This should demonstrate the organisation’s commitment to postgraduate research, its commitment to supporting the staff involved in student supervision, and any specific additional support or resources not otherwise mentioned in the application.

If your application is from a consortium, you must provide such a letter from each consortium member. Each letter should be no more than two pages A4, font size 11. Assessors and panel members will be advised to disregard information that goes beyond the page limit.

Assessors will be looking for a strong statement of support from your research organisation. This information should have been approved for submission by an appropriate institutional authority.

You must also include the following details:

a significant person’s name , their position and office or department, or all
office address or web link
what funding will be made to students and how this will be managed
outline your commitment and input to the cohort development programme

Upload details are provided within the Funding Service on the actual application.

Trusted Research and Innovation (TR&I)

Word limit: 100

Does the proposed work involve international collaboration in a sensitive research or technology area?

What the assessors are looking for in your response

Demonstrate how your proposed international collaboration relates to Trusted Research and Innovation, including:

list the countries your international project co-leads, project partners and visiting researchers, or other collaborators are based in
if international collaboration is involved, explain whether this project is relevant to one or more of the 17 areas of the UK National Security and Investment (NSI) Act
if one or more of the 17 areas of the UK National Security and Investment (NSI) Act are involved list the areas

If your proposed work does not involve international collaboration, you will be able to indicate this in the Funding Service.

We may contact you following submission of your application to provide additional information about how your proposed project will comply with our approach and expectation towards TR&I, identifying potential risks and the relevant controls you will put in place to help manage these risks.

How we will assess your application

Assessment process

We will assess your application using the following process.

Expert review

There is no written expert review stage for the collaborative landscape awards funding opportunity.

Panel

We will invite a panel of experts to review your application independently, against the specified criteria for this funding opportunity. All applicants will be provided with an opportunity to respond to reviewers’ comments.

Panel members will ask questions where they require clarity on your application and you will be able to respond to these questions, as well as provide the panel with any updates relating to your application. This will not be an opportunity for applicants to expand upon their original applications in relation to the assessment criteria and applicants are encouraged to make their best case in the first instance.

You will have 10 working days to respond to the panel’s questions via the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) Funding Service in February 2026.

Find out more about AHRC’s assessment process.

The Panel meeting is expected to be held in late March or early April 2026 but this is to be confirmed.

Following the question and response stage, the panel of experts will use your initial application and your responses to assess the quality of your application and rank it alongside other applications. The panel will then make a funding recommendation to AHRC.

AHRC will make the final funding decision.

Timescale

We aim to complete the assessment process within six months of receiving your application.

Feedback

We will give feedback with the outcome of your application.

Principles of assessment

We support the San Francisco declaration on research assessment and recognise the relationship between research assessment and research integrity.

Find out about the UKRI principles of assessment and decision making.

Using generative artificial intelligence (AI) in peer review

Reviewers and panellists are not permitted to use generative AI tools to develop their assessment. Using these tools can potentially compromise the confidentiality of the ideas that applicants have entrusted to UKRI to safeguard.

For more detail see our policy on the use of generative AI.

We reserve the right to modify the assessment process as needed.

Assessment areas

The assessment areas we will use are:

vision
approach
project development and supervisory selection
positive culture and environment
capability to deliver
organisational support

Find details of assessment questions and criteria under the ‘Application questions’ heading in the ‘How to apply’ section.

Contact details

Get help with your application

If you have a question and the answers aren’t provided on this page

IMPORTANT NOTE: The Helpdesk is committed to helping users of the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) Funding Service as effectively and as quickly as possible. In order to manage cases at peak volume times, the Helpdesk will triage and prioritise those queries with an imminent opportunity deadline or a technical issue. Enquiries raised where information is available on the Funding Finder opportunity page and should be understood early in the application process (for example, regarding eligibility or content/remit of an opportunity) will not constitute a priority case and will be addressed as soon as possible.

Contact details

For help and advice on costings and writing your application please contact your research office in the first instance, allowing sufficient time for your organisation’s submission process.

For questions related to this specific funding opportunity please contact skills@ahrc.ukri.org

Any queries regarding the system or the submission of applications through the Funding Service should be directed to the helpdesk.

Email: support@funding-service.ukri.org
Phone: 01793 547490

Our phone lines are open:

Monday to Thursday 8:30am to 5:00pm
Friday 8:30am to 4:30pm

To help us process queries quicker, we request that users highlight the council and opportunity name in the subject title of their email query, include the application reference number, and refrain from contacting more than one mailbox at a time.

For further information on submitting an application read How applicants use the Funding Service.

Additional info

Background

This opportunity is part of the AHRC Future Doctoral Provision Programme. Find out more about the programme.

The scheme is based on previous rounds of Collaborative Doctoral Partnerships. The opportunity has been developed in line with the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) doctoral framework.

Find out more about UKRI doctoral provision:

Webinar for potential applicants

We will hold a webinar on 8 May 2025. This will provide more information about the funding opportunity and a chance to ask questions.

Research disruption due to COVID-19

We recognise that the COVID-19 pandemic has caused major interruptions and disruptions across our communities. We are committed to ensuring that individual applicants and their wider team, including partners and networks, are not penalised for any disruption to their career, such as:

breaks and delays
disruptive working patterns and conditions
the loss of ongoing work
role changes that may have been caused by the pandemic

Reviewers and panel members will be advised to consider the unequal impacts that COVID-19 related disruption might have had on the capability to deliver and career development of those individuals included in the application. They will be asked to consider the capability of the applicant and their wider team to deliver the research they are proposing.

Where disruptions have occurred, you can highlight this within your application if you wish, but there is no requirement to detail the specific circumstances that caused the disruption.

Supporting documents

Equality impact assessment (PDF, 245KB)

Timeline

10 April 2025 9:00am: Opening date
8 May 2025: Webinar
20 November 2025 4:00pm: Closing date