The AHRC provides a number of funding opportunities that encourage existing or new partnerships, from large research grants, networking awards, knowledge transfer schemes and collaborative doctoral awards (see below). These partnerships benefit researchers by providing the opportunity to exchange ideas across disciplines and sectors, by encouraging innovative approaches to research, and by initiating longer-term relationships that continue well beyond the life of a single research project.
What is the AHRC doing to facilitate partnership working?
The AHRC has organised some events to promote the benefits of collaborative working and provide advice on building successful partnerships with a range of partners, including academic institutions, commercial organisations and museums, libraries and archives. The events include presentations from AHRC award holders, detailing their experiences of how real partnerships work.
We are often asked if the AHRC can act as a broker to help organsiations find appropriate partners. These events are operating as a first step, and other ways in which we might fulfil a brokerage role are being explored. In the meantime, however, please do contact the AHRC with any questions or ideas, and we will try to offer advice.
The Events
We have run four events this year, one at the Science Museum in Birmingham, one at the RIBA in London, one at Paintworks in Bristol and finally one at the Thackray Museum in Leeds. We hope everyone who attended these events found them useful, and met a potential new partner!
The events involved a round table discussion where participants could add their comments on paper table cloths. We’ve been busy collating the information from the events, which can be found in note form (100kb). This is a work-in-progress summary of the comments received; these will feed into a good practice guide for partnership working which we are aiming to produce this year.
Presentation (368kb)(tips, examples, ideas of partnership working) – Karen Buchanan and Robert Keegan, AHRC.
Previous Speakers’ Presentations
Birmingham
User Generated Content: Understanding its Impact Upon Contributors, Non-Contributors and the BBC (402kb)- Dr Claire Wardle, Cardiff University/BBC (AHRC/BBC Knowledge Exchange Programme)
Suburban Birmingham: Spaces and Places: 1880-1960 (301kb)- Dr Richard Clay, University of Birmingham (Museums & Galleries Large Research Grant)
The Drawings of Ford Madox Brown (1746kb)- Laura MacCulloch, University of Birmingham, partnership with Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery (Collaborative Doctoral Award)
London
Heritage in Hospitals: An Investigation of the Therapeutic and Enrichment Potential of Object Handling in Hospitals and Other Healthcare Organisations (364kb)- Dr Helen Chatterjee, University College London, and Guy Noble, UCL Hospitals Trust (Museums & Galleries Large Research Grant)
Redesigned Futures: Creating New Models for Utilising Surplus and Waste Resources in Design Practice (142kb)– Rosie Hornbuckle, Kingston University (Collaborative Doctoral Award Holder) and Professor David Cottington, Kingston University (Collaborative Doctoral Award Co-ordinator)
Bristol
Connecting Cornwall: Telecommunications, Locality and Work in West Britain 1870-1918 (4522kb)– Dr Richard Noakes, University of Exeter and Ms Libby Buckley, Director of Porthcurno Telegraph Museum (Museums & Galleries Large Research Grant)
Developing and Testing a Model for the Treatment and Storage of Archaeological Iron (1133kb)– Melanie Rimmer, Cardiff University (Collaborative Doctoral Award student), partnership between Cardiff University and the British Museum
Leeds
Admission All Classes: Entertainment for the Masses 1850 – 1950 (12483kb)– Professor Vanessa Toulmin, University of Sheffield (Knowledge Transfer Fellowship), partnership between the National Fairground Archive at University of Sheffield and Blackpool Council
Dr Kara McKechnie, Leeds University (64kb)- (Collaborative Doctoral Awards supervisor), partnership between Leeds University and Opera North
Art on Tyneside: Redeveloping a Permanent Display about Art, Place and Identity at the Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle (547kb)– Dr Chris Whitehead and Dr Rhiannon Mason, University of Newcastle, and partner from Tyne and Wear Museums (Museums & Galleries Large Research Grant)
Funding Opportunities
AHRC schemes which particularly lend themselves to collaborative working:
Research Networking - Funding to bring together a group or researchers, experts and students, to discuss questions related to a subject area, develop potential partnerships, pool ideas for potential future research projects, etc.
Collaborative Doctoral Awards - Funding to support a student to complete a PhD based at a UK university but in collaboration with a non-academic partner. The student might conduct research on a particular collection, conduct conservation work, or produce an exhibition.
Research Grants - Funding for a project to investigate particular questions, potentially involving several different universities, partner organisations and PhD students, for up to 3 years and £1 million.
Knowledge Transfer – Funding to support the co-production of knowledge through interactions between academic and non-academic individuals and communities.
Specific information on AHRC’s support for museums, galleries, libraries and archives.
Contacts
Karen Buchanan – Portfolio Manager, Museums and Galleries Research Programme
(Queries relating to the museums sector and Independent Research Organisations)
(k.buchanan@ahrc.ac.uk, 01793 416083)
Robert Keegan – Portfolio Manager
(r.keegan@ahrc.ac.uk, 01793 416043)
Joanna Pollock – Strategy and Development Manager, Knowledge Transfer
(Queries on Knowledge Transfer schemes and work involving a variety of non-academic organisations)
(j.pollock@ahrc.ac.uk, 01793 416041)
Sam Lambshead – Programmes Coordinator
(Queries on Collaborative Doctoral Awards scheme and other postgraduate funding)
(s.lambshead@ahrc.ac.uk, 01793 416072)