Current Funding Opportunities
- Research Networking
- Fellowships
Please see below for details.
Theme overview
Arts and humanities research is critical to understanding societal views about science, the role of scientific advances in our cultural life and how this shapes our broader world views. Research on the historical, cultural, legal and ethical context is critical for the future development of many leading edge areas of science and for anticipating future public and policy debates and controversies. There is growing recognition of the interconnections between science and the arts and humanities, the potential for creativity and innovation that these connections can generate and the limits of using scientific approaches in isolation to tackle societal challenges which broader insights from across the research base can help to address.
Arts and humanities research contributes to our understanding of the nature, value and limits of scientific knowledge and the roles of imagination, argumentation, creativity, discovery and curiosity in scientific enquiry. It also deepens engagement with science as a system of knowledge from the perspective of its cultural context, development and impact which can be used to enhance public understanding, educational approaches and inform policy debate about science. There is significant potential for research on the representation of scientific ideas and progress (for example in language, literature, visual media and the performing arts) and on the role of narrative, imagery, artefacts and cultural institutions (including museums and galleries) to inform ways of enhancing public engagement with science and technology or the transmission of scientific ideas internationally. Understanding of cultural values, rights, religions and systems of belief is essential to address the complex legal, ethical and regulatory policy issues raised by some emerging areas of science and technology.
Theme development
Our central focus is on science as a subject of study and on the inter-relationships between science and the arts and humanities. Research might include: the role of experts and expertise; authority, integrity and trust in science; scientific and medical ethics; rights and ownership in scientific enquiry; what science and humanities have learnt, and might learn, from each other; and conflicting values and the relationships between scientific, religious and other world views. Another major area for research is how developments in science are influencing, and are being influenced by, cultural change. For example, how are advances in genetics, neuroscience and artificial intelligence affecting, and being affected by, our conceptions of what it is to be human? How have arts and humanities perspectives on, and representations of, science, through for example science fiction, film, exhibitions, media coverage, histories of science and technology, legal, theological and philosophical debates, shaped public views and how might their capacity to inform, educate and engage be utilised more effectively in the future? How have the natural sciences affected our perceptions of nature and the ‘natural world’, and influenced our beliefs about human relationships, roles and responsibilities with respect to the environment?
By building on existing strengths in areas such as the history and philosophy of science, innovative collaborations between scientists and artists and emerging cross-disciplinary fields such as medical humanities, we will be able to open up new opportunities for collaboration and learning between the arts and humanities and the sciences. In addition to working across the Research Councils and with the TSB, academies, learned societies, other funders, science educators, museums, regulators and policy-makers, there will be collaborative opportunities with research-led businesses and high technology companies. There are opportunities for research under this theme to contribute to inter-disciplinary collaboration across all of the RCUK’s research challenges, including ’Lifelong Health and Well-being’ and ‘Living with Environmental Change’, as well as in ‘breakthrough’ research areas.
Current funding opportunities
Research Networking and Fellowships
The AHRC’s Research Networking and Fellowships schemes currently have highlight notices for Science in Culture. Initially, these highlight notices will remain in place until April 2011. Proposals should have arts and humanities research at their core, although collaboration with disciplines or organisations outside the arts and humanities will be welcomed where appropriate.
Whilst the criteria for the Research Networking scheme remains the same, the highlight notice builds on the flexibility of the Fellowships scheme to encourage collaboration. We are specifically seeking to encourage proposals which involve arts and humanities researchers spending time conducting research collaboratively with scientists. Researchers could, for example, spend time embedded in or with a team of scientists and/or provide new arts and humanities perspectives to an existing project funded as a part of one of the RCUK cross-Council research programmes or by another Research Council. Research proposals involving an element of research-based creative interpretation or critical reflection of science, based on the collaboration, will also be welcomed.
Further information is available on the highlight notices page.
Updated 5th August 2010