Collaborative Doctoral Awards (also known as CASE awards) are intended to encourage and develop collaboration and partnerships between Higher Education Institution (HEI) departments and non-academic organisations and businesses.
These awards provide opportunities for doctoral students to gain first hand experience of work outside an academic environment. The support provided by both an academic and non-academic supervisor enhances the employment-related skills and training a research student gains during the course of their award.
The studentships also encourage and establish links that can have long-term benefits for both collaborating partners, providing access to resources and materials, knowledge and expertise that may not otherwise have been available and also provide social, cultural and economic benefits to wider society.
The AHRC are keen to see innovative applications that build diverse relationships with the non-academic sectors. There have been many CDA awards made for collaborations with larger museums and organisations however the AHRC would like to encourage further proposals to work with businesses, regional museums, regional arts organisations and community groups.
Any topic within the AHRC’s subject domain is eligible. Selection of successful applications will not be subject to quota systems and there are no priority areas, however, PhD proposals which address AHRC’s research themes are encouraged.
Changes to the scheme for 2013
Collaborative Doctoral Partnerships (CDP)
The AHRC has introduced a new route for supporting Collaborative Doctoral Awards. In addition to the existing Open call the AHRC has now made awards for Collaborative Doctoral Partnerships (CDP). Through this route Non-HEI Organisations with a strong track record in the CDA scheme, are allocated a cohort of CDA studentships for the next three academic years for which they will then be able to nominate projects with academic partners. The AHRC have made 55 studentships per year available through this route with the intention of giving partners greater autonomy and the ability to develop strong programmes of PhD study.
Applications prepared in collaboration with Collaborative Doctoral Partnership award holders should be submitted directly to the partner organisation as they will not be eligible to the open call.
The following attachment shows the organisations successful in gaining a CDP award, the number of studentships they have been allocated in their annual cohort and contact details for enquires.
CDP Outcomes 2012 with contact details (PDF 72KB) (opens in a new window)
The CDA Open call has now closed for applications to start in the 2013 academic year and outcomes are due to be announced in late May 2013. The CDA Open call will continue to run in parallel with the CDP awards and a new call for projects starting in 2014 will be announced here later in the year.
The AHRC plan to fund approximately 40 studentships via the CDA 2013 Open Call.