The Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) is deeply committed to doctoral training and securing the future of the next generation of arts and humanities researchers.
AHRC has been developing our provision for students who will commence from October 2026. In 2021 AHRC commissioned the Careers Research and Advisory Centre (CRAC)/Vitae to undertake a community engagement exercise to help inform our thinking around the future of doctoral provision in the arts and humanities.
In February 2023 we published CRAC/Vitae’s report of the key findings.
We have considered the findings in the wider and complex context of UK Research and Innovation’s (UKRI) move towards collective talent funding, UKRI’s New Deal for Postgraduate Researchers and AHRC’s commitment to rebalancing our research portfolio. Further details of this context are available in Professor Christopher Smith’s blog released alongside the report.
We have developed a set of principles for our Future Doctoral Provision Programme:
- widening opportunities and welcoming innovative and diverse routes to doctoral training
- enabling collaborative learning and peer support
- enabling professional development and expand skills capacity reducing bureaucracy
- supporting and advocating for arts and humanities doctoral students within UKRI’s Collective Talent Fund to deliver doctoral training in accordance with the AHRC vision
The principles have formed the basis for our new funding mechanisms for doctoral training (see Student experience is at the heart of our new doctoral awards for more context).
These opportunities will be supporting studentships from October 2026. They align with the UKRI doctoral investment framework and fall into the broader categories of doctoral landscape awards and doctoral focal awards.
The programme comprises:
-
- doctoral focal awards
- doctoral landscape awards
These are in addition to our existing Collaborative Doctoral Partnership awards.
Doctoral focal awards
Doctoral focal awards in the arts and humanities support postgraduate studentships focused on strategically important areas of research skills needs, closely linked to the AHRC vision, mission, and theory of change.
We will provide them as block grant awards to consortia of higher education institutions (HEIs). There will be mandatory inclusion of partner organisations beyond academia, to enable the students to acquire skills for a wide range of careers. We are looking for equitable partnerships between HEIs and non-HEIs. We will award these grants on a competitive basis.
There are two strategic areas in the 2023 funding opportunity:
- the arts and humanities for a healthy planet, people and place
- the arts and humanities for creative economy
See the current funding opportunity which had a closing date of 2 July 2024.
It is expected that, across UKRI, further focal award opportunities will be available and we encourage the community to check the funding finder on a regular basis.
Doctoral landscape awards
The doctoral landscape awards will support postgraduate studentships across the breadth of AHRC’s subject remit. We will provide them as block grant awards to higher education institutions (HEIs).
There will be two elements to the doctoral landscape awards:
- allocation of studentships to individual HEIs
- landscape award hubs
HEI allocation of studentships
We will be making an allocation to 50 UK HEIs, providing funding for 15 studentships (three studentships per year for five years). The first students will start in October 2026.
AHRC landscape awards will have widening participation brief which will be based on evidence available for individual HEIs and each HEI will have responsibility to ensure that the students will be recruited accordingly.
HEIs will be expected to deliver training in line with UKRI’s core offer for students and recruit in line with UKRI good practice principles in recruitment and training at doctoral level.
Funding formula
A funding formula approach will determine which HEIs are offered an allocation of studentships. This funding formula has been designed to ensure good regional coverage across the UK and to identify HEIs which have strong research environments and the capacity to provide high quality support to AHRC-funded students. AHRC will run the formula every five years.
Landscape awards will be responsive in nature and we believe the scheme is not best served by a competition approach. Instead, we will be using a funding formula approach as it enables us to ensure regional diversity through a repeatable and sustainable mechanism that also offers reduced bureaucracy.
The funding formula has two parts to it. The first determines how many HEIs in each region are supported. The second determines which HEIs in each region are supported.
The formula will provide an allocation to HEIs in all 12 UK International Territorial Level (ITL) regions. The number of HEIs supported in each ITL region will be determined by the number of arts and humanities research students in that ITL as a proportion of all the arts and humanities research students in the UK.
For example, if an ITL region contains 10% of the arts and humanities research students in the UK it would receive 10% of the HEI allocations, meaning, five HEIs (10% of 50) would be supported. The number of research students will be determined using the most recent Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) data, using HESA cost centres to identify arts and humanities students, available at the time we run the formula.
To determine which HEI or HEIs in each ITL region are supported, all the HEIs in an ITL region will be ranked by their formula score (see formula score below) with the highest ranked HEIs being supported. For example, if the first part of the formula allocates five HEIs to an ITL region then the top five ranked HEIs in that region will be offered a landscape award.
Each HEI’s formula score is determined by two variables:
- research staff (within arts and humanities), this is a proxy for research capacity
- AHRC grant income, this is a proxy for research quality
The research staff variable will be drawn from the most recent HESA data for research staff full-time equivalent (‘research’ or ‘teaching and research’). AHRC will use HESA cost centres to identify the research staff in the arts and humanities.
The AHRC grant income variable will be drawn from AHRC funding awarded competitively from AHRC’s core resource baseline. It uses grants that have started in the previous four years. The process will exclude the following:
- non-competitively won grants
- capital funding
- training grants
- grants awarded on behalf of UKRI
- non-core funding
The two variables for each HEI are given equal weighting, through a normalisation of ratings, so that they are on a common scale, and added together to create the HEI’s formula score. Only HEIs with a ‘score’ from both variables will receive a final formula score.
HEI allocation assurance process
We have now run the funding formula and at the end of July 2024 we wrote to the 50 HEIs identified through this process. These HEIs will need to successfully complete an assurance process for the HEI studentship allocation to be confirmed.
The invited HEIs will need to submit an assurance proposal, by 25 October 2024, that outlines how they plan to encourage widening participation, recruit to their studentship allocation, equitably support students during their funded period and engage with the hub.
These proposals will be reviewed by an expert panel to assess whether they have passed assurance. Those passing the assurance process will have their funding confirmed by December 2024.
Doctoral landscape award hubs
Alongside the landscape awards, we will be supporting a number of regional hubs. AHRC perceives the hubs as a long-term investment linked to our long-term goals to support doctoral training.
We expect the hubs to be collectively owned by the region as this will aid the transition when we re-run the formula every five years. We expect that, over time, AHRC funding will act as a catalyst for wider investment in the region’s doctoral training infrastructure.
Each hub will be formed from a group of HEIs with landscape awards. The hub will cover HEIs within one or more ITL regions but whole ITL regions will be kept together.
The Landscape award holders within the hub region will work together to ensure that their AHRC-funded students receive a high quality training and development experience that includes access to cohort training and development activities.
The hub will receive funding to facilitate these activities as well as a contribution to the administration and management costs of the hub. The AHRC’s objectives for the hub are:
- to provide opportunities for AHRC-funded students to undertake cohort training and development activities where there is additional value and it is complementary to that provided by HEIs
- to build on and learn from previous training grant experience and knowledge to optimise provision and connect student cohorts to increase engagement and networking opportunities.
Doctoral landscape award hub application process
The landscape award holders in each hub region will need to work together to submit an application that outlines their plan to deliver the hub objectives. This will need to include:
- a regional plan to deliver collective outcomes
- details of how they will manage and administer the hub and allocate hub funding to support cohort training and student development activities
- an outline of how they will ensure all students within the hub have equal access to opportunities
- hubs are encouraged to engage with non-academic partners in the region, as part of the regional focus. Where there are plans in place, hubs should provide an outline of the opportunities this will provide for the student cohort
- an outline of how they will provide opportunities for engagement with non-HEIs. For example, through placements or cohort activities, such as collective training or networking opportunities, facilitating opportunities for landscape award-funded students coordinated by the hub lead
The hub application process will be outlined to HEIs alongside the notification of the funding formula outcomes in July 2024. The formal invitation to submit a hub application will occur in December when the outcome of the landscape assurance process is confirmed.
The landscape award holders within each hub will then need to work together to submit an application to a deadline around May 2025. The applications will be assessed by a panel and outcomes sent in October 2025.
AHRC has completed the following equality impact assessment.
Collaborative Doctoral Partnerships (CDP)
The awards scheme enables non-higher education institutions to support collaborative doctoral projects aligned to their strategy.
These studentships give students opportunities to acquire skills for a wide range of careers by undertaking a joint research project with a university and non-university partner, including a period working in the CDP award-holding organisation, gaining direct experience in the sector.
We will continue our support for collaborative doctoral projects under the Future Doctoral Provision programme, within the Collective Talent Fund framework. Further information will be available in due course.
Read about the history of Collaborative Doctoral Partnerships, student feedback and CDP partners before the commencement of the Future Doctoral Provision programme.
Last updated: 30 July 2024