The Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), formerly Arts and Humanities Research Board (AHRB), is a British
research council, established in 1998, supporting research and postgraduate study in the
arts and
humanities
Humanities are academic disciplines that study aspects of human society and culture. In the Renaissance, the term contrasted with divinity and referred to what is now called classics, the main area of secular study in universities at t ...
.
History
The Arts and Humanities Research Board (AHRB) was founded in 1998 and became a Research Council in April 2005.
Description
The AHRC is a
non-departmental public body
In the United Kingdom, non-departmental public body (NDPB) is a classification applied by the Cabinet Office, Treasury, the Scottish Government and the Northern Ireland Executive to public sector organisations that have a role in the process o ...
that provides approximately £102 million from the
UK government to support
research
Research is "creative and systematic work undertaken to increase the stock of knowledge". It involves the collection, organization and analysis of evidence to increase understanding of a topic, characterized by a particular attentiveness ...
and postgraduate study in the arts and humanities, from languages and law, archaeology and English literature to design and creative and performing arts. In any one year, the AHRC makes approximately 700 research awards and around 1,350 postgraduate awards. Postgraduate funding is organised through
Doctoral Training Partnerships in 10 consortia that bring together a total of 72 higher education institutions throughout the UK. Awards are made after a rigorous
peer review process, to ensure that only applications of the highest quality are funded.
Governance
The AHRC is one of seven
research councils
Research funding is a term generally covering any funding for scientific research, in the areas of natural science, technology, and social science. Different methods can be used to disburse funding, but the term often connotes funding obtained ...
in the UK.
Professor Christopher Smith is the current Executive Chair of the AHRC. He succeeded Professor
Andrew S. Thompson who served as Interim Chief Executive from December 2015 until August 2020. His predecessor was Professor
Rick Rylance
Rick Rylance (born 1954) is a British literary scholar and academic who specialises in 19th-century and 20th-century literature.
He was the chief executive of the Arts and Humanities Research Council from 2009 to 2015. From 2016 to 2017, he was ...
who took up the post on 1 September 2009 and served until August 2017.
The current Council Chair is
Sir Drummond Bone who succeeded
Sir Alan Wilson who retired in December 2013.
Recently funded research
Stonehenge Riverside Project (2009–14)
The
Stonehenge Riverside Project
The Stonehenge Riverside Project was a major Arts and Humanities Research Council-funded archaeological research study of the development of the Stonehenge landscape in Neolithic and Bronze Age Britain. In particular, the project examined the rela ...
was a major five-year AHRC-funded archaeological research study, announced in 2009, focusing on the development of the
Stonehenge
Stonehenge is a prehistoric monument on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, England, west of Amesbury. It consists of an outer ring of vertical sarsen standing stones, each around high, wide, and weighing around 25 tons, topped by connec ...
landscape in
Neolithic
The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several pa ...
and
Bronze Age Britain. In particular, the project was interested in the relationship between the stones and surrounding monuments and features including; the River Avon,
Durrington Walls, the
Cursus
250px, Stonehenge Cursus, Wiltshire
250px, Dorset Cursus terminal on Thickthorn Down, Dorset
Cursuses are monumental Neolithic structures resembling ditches or trenches in the islands of Great Britain and Ireland. Relics found within them in ...
, the Avenue,
Woodhenge
Woodhenge is a Neolithic Class II henge and timber circle monument within the Stonehenge World Heritage Site in Wiltshire, England. It is north-east of Stonehenge, in Durrington parish, just north of the town of Amesbury.
Discovery
Woodhen ...
,
burial mounds, and nearby standing stones. In August 2009 the project discovered a new stone circle, which was named
Bluestonehenge by the research team, about one mile away from
Stonehenge
Stonehenge is a prehistoric monument on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, England, west of Amesbury. It consists of an outer ring of vertical sarsen standing stones, each around high, wide, and weighing around 25 tons, topped by connec ...
in
Wiltshire, England. The project is run by a consortium of university teams. It was directed by Mike Parker Pearson of
Sheffield University, with co-directors Josh Pollard (
University of Southampton), Julian Thomas (
Manchester University), Kate Welham (
Bournemouth University
Bournemouth University is a public university in Bournemouth, England, with its main campus situated in neighbouring Poole. The university was founded in 1992; however, the origins of its predecessor date back to the early 1900s.
The univer ...
) and Colin Richards (Manchester University).
Medieval Soldier Database
Researchers at the
University of Reading and
University of Southampton analysed historic sources such as
muster rolls records in the
National Archives at Kew and the
Bibliothèque nationale de France in Paris (for records of English
garrisons in France). The resulting Medieval Soldier online database was launched in 2009 which enables people to search for soldiers by surname, rank or year of service. The online database contains 250,000 service records of soldiers who saw active duty in the latter phases of the
Hundred Years' War (1369–1453).
British slave-ownership (2013–15)
Between 2013 and 2015, the AHRC co-funded a project known as the ''Structure and significance of British Caribbean slave-ownership 1763-1833'' project at the
, along with the
Economic and Social Research Council. This work continues to be built upon, creating Legacies of British Slave-ownership database, which is free for public use.
Old Bailey Proceedings Archive
An AHRC research grant enabled academics from the
University of Hertfordshire,
University of Sheffield and the
Open University to double in size the
Old Bailey trial proceedings available to view on the Old Bailey Proceedings Online website and provide access to the largest single source of searchable information about ordinary British lives and behaviour ever published.
The Old Bailey Proceedings Online makes available a fully searchable, digitised collection of all surviving editions of the Old Bailey Proceedings from 1674 to 1913, and of the
Ordinary of
Newgate's Accounts, 1679 to 1772. It allows access to over 197,000 trials and biographical details of approximately 2,500 men and women executed at
Tyburn
Tyburn was a Manorialism, manor (estate) in the county of Middlesex, one of two which were served by the parish of Marylebone.
The parish, probably therefore also the manor, was bounded by Roman roads to the west (modern Edgware Road) and sout ...
.
Publications
The AHRC publish reviews and reports on arts and humanities subjects, as well as corporate publications. Research news and findings are communicated in website features, press releases, and multimedia content such as podcasts.
Between 2005 and 2010, the AHRC published a magazine called ''Podium'' twice a year, which contained news and case studies based on research that they have funded.
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Arts And Humanities Research Council
Research councils
Cultural organisations based in the United Kingdom
Arts in the United Kingdom
Humanities organizations
Non-departmental public bodies of the United Kingdom government
Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
1998 establishments in the United Kingdom
Arts organizations established in 1998