The UK is leading the world in the impact of its publicly funded arts and humanities research, says a new report published today by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC).
 
The report, Leading the World: the economic impact of UK arts and humanities research (848kb), highlights the international pre-eminence of the UK’s arts and humanities research community and the outstanding impact of its research. It summarises why the £110 million that the UK Government allocates annually to the AHRC represents an excellent investment for the nation.

Arts and humanities research is a vital part of the UK’s economy and society, the report argues, underpinning the UK’s rich store of cultural heritage traditions and practices, popular engagement with that culture and popular reflection on that culture. It is research that generates wealth, improves public policy and helps to maintain quality of life, the report suggests.

Evidence cited in the report from a survey of 80 leading journals shows that the UK's arts and humanities community produces nearly as many scholarly articles as their US colleagues (over three years, the UK produced 33% and the USA 37%), even though the US has five times the UK’s population.

As part of the study the AHRC also commissioned 34 senior researchers, representing a large cross-section of disciplines, to write on the value of an area of arts and humanities research of their choosing. Their work helped to generate a model that illustrates ‘economic impact’ by embracing economic capital and civic capital and their place in UK society.

Professor Philip Esler, Chief Executive of the AHRC said: “This new study shows that the UK should be proud of the huge impact its arts and humanities research community have in a global arena. If the UK is to increase its innovative capacity, it must harness the full capabilities of the research community. The solutions to social problems and to creating high-quality goods and services are to be found in the exploitation of knowledge from the entire spectrum of an integrated research base where the UK's world-leading arts and humanities researchers represent 27 per cent of the total.”               

Chair of the AHRC, Sir Alan Wilson said: “At a time when the UK is facing unprecedented challenges to the economy, quality of life, environment and security, the AHRC believes that the arts and humanities can make a decisive contribution in all these areas. Meeting these challenges requires innovative and creative ways of thinking and processes of knowledge generation, transfer and exchange that are distinctive of the arts and humanities.”

For further information please contact Philip Pothen, Head of Communications 0117 987 6771.