Cambridge University Reporter


Arts and Humanities Research Council

POSTGRADUATE AWARDS IN THE ARTS AND HUMANITIES

There are three types of AHRC Postgraduate Studentships:

(a) Research Preparation Master's Scheme - this scheme will support students undertaking Master's courses that focus on advanced study and research training explicitly intended to provide a foundation for further research at doctoral level. Awards will normally be for one year full-time or two years part-time.
(b) Professional Preparation Master's Scheme - this scheme will support students undertaking Master's or Postgraduate Diploma courses that focus on developing high-level skills and competencies for professional practice. Awards will normally be for one year for full-time study or two years for part-time study.
(c) Doctoral Competition - for doctoral study up to three years full-time or five years part-time. Exceptionally, support will be provided for up to four years full-time or up to seven years part-time study.

Awards in all three schemes are allocated in open competition. Applications should be submitted through the department at which you wish to study, before the closing date of 1 May 2008.

RESEARCH AWARDS IN THE ARTS AND HUMANITIES

Research Grants

The Research Grants scheme has four routes of application: standard route; route for speculative research; route for early career researchers; and route for practice-led and applied research. The first three of these routes are intended to support well-defined research projects enabling individual researchers to collaborate with, and bring benefits to, other individuals and organisations through the conduct of research. These routes of the scheme are not intended to support individual scholarship.

The Research Grants: Practice-led and Applied Route has replaced the former Small Grants in Creative and Performing Arts scheme. This route is intended to provide funding for research projects where practice is an integral component; or where it is specifically undertaken with a view to generating outputs and outcomes with a defined application beyond the higher education sector; and/or where it theorises contemporary practice. It accepts proposals with full economic costs of up to £20,000 for up to one year.

Research Leave

Provides salary and associated costs for periods of three or four months, to enable an individual researcher to complete a significant research project by the end of the award period. The employing institution is expected to offer relief from teaching and other duties both in this period and an equivalent period in the term or semester immediately preceding.

Fellowships in the Creative and Performing Arts

Provides support to artists as research fellows within a higher education environment. It provides for the salary of the fellow, who can be appointed on a salary of between £25,000 and £42,000 pro-rata according to their experience, and associated costs. The scheme aims to develop research cultures, collaborations and capacity in the Creative and Performing Arts, and is open only to artists carrying out research in the creative and performing arts where their practice is integral to the research process.

Resource Enhancement

Provided support for projects aiming to improve access to, and use of, research resources and materials. The scheme has been discontinued now and the AHRC are consulting about its future approach to supporting research resources.

Interdisciplinary Research Networks and Workshops

This scheme is designed to encourage and enable the discussion and development of ideas by researchers across and between disciplines, either through establishing new research networks or by running a series of workshops, seminars or similar events. It accepts proposals with full economic costs of up to £15,000 over one year for workshops and up to £30,000 over two years for networks. For proposals involving participants from countries/regions targeted in the AHRC's International Strategy the upper limit is £30,000 for workshops applications and £60,000 for networks applications.

Strategic Initiatives

Strategic Initiatives address issues of intellectual and wider cultural, social or economic urgency that the Council considers are best supported by concentrated investments.

For more detailed information on schemes, strategic initiatives, and financial arrangements please see the AHRC website: http://www.ahrc.ac.uk/ or contact the Arts and Humanities Research Council at Whitefriars, Lewins Mead, Bristol, BS1 2AE (tel. 0117 987 6500, fax 0117 987 6600).