The Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), on behalf of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), is pleased to announce the call for the Discovery Projects of Towards a National Collection: Opening UK Heritage to the World.
Towards a National Collection represents a major investment (£19 million in total) in the UK’s world-leading cultural and heritage sector.
Funded from UKRI’s Strategic Priorities Fund, Towards a National Collection addresses the lack of coordination between different online collections and catalogues, which constitutes a major barrier to research and public access.
Forging new and deeper partnerships between Independent Research Organisations and Higher Education Institutions, and using the catalytic potential of new technology, the programme will begin to dissolve barriers between different collections, opening them up to new cross-disciplinary and cross-collection lines of research, and at the same time diversifying their visitor base and the ways in which the public access them.
The aim is to begin to realise the full, combined potential of the collections not only for research but for the heritage economy and the wider social good, and to take the first important steps towards creating a virtual ‘national collection’.
The Discovery Projects form the major part of this investment, and this call aims to fund up to five projects over a maximum of 36 months within a total funding envelope of up to £14.5 million. The indicative limit for each project is £2.9 million.
For the full call specification please see the Towards a National Collection call guidance (PDF, 380KB)
Full stage proposals
Following the webinars held in June 2020 and the workshop for shortlisted candidates in February 2020, we have collated a document answering frequently asked questions and providing guidance for the submission of full stage proposals. Read the Discovery Projects Call FAQ (PDF, 273KB).
The deadline for full stage proposals is: 29th April 2021, 16:00 BST.
Only candidates shortlisted from the outline proposal stage are eligible to submit a full stage proposal.
JISC Mail Group
To help organisations form partnerships for the proposals, AHRC has set up a discussion mailing list with JISC for use as a partner matching tool.
How to make an application
This call will have a two-stage application process: an outline stage followed by a full proposal stage.
Outline proposals must be submitted by 17 November 2020, 16:00 GMT.
Outline proposals will be reviewed and shortlisted, and will be invited to attend a workshop on 17 February 2021 where advice and guidance on the full proposal stage will be given.
Only those who are shortlisted and attend the workshop will be invited to submit at the full proposal stage.
Applicants must submit an outline proposal in order to be invited to submit a full proposal.
Submit your proposals using the joint electronic submission (Je-S) system.
For further details, see the ‘Application Process’ section of the Towards a National Collection call guidance (PDF, 380KB).
Further information
Further information about the programme as a whole can be found at Towards a National Collection: Opening UK Heritage to the World programme.
Contacts
Enquiries regarding this call should be directed by email: national.collection@ahrc.ukri.org
Consultation with the Programme Director on proposal ideas is encouraged. Please contact Rebecca Bailey, email: rebecca.bailey@hes.scot