Three Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) Mission Awards will explore climate research and cultural heritage through a team-based approach that seeks to transform the way research is conducted.
UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) writes:
AHRC Mission Awards programme has funded three projects to explore the possibilities of research piloting a new approach that emphasises the team over leadership by an individual researcher. Team convening aims to provide an alternative to the traditional principal investigator-led model and identify the steps that need to be taken to increase the diversity of leadership voices in research. In turn, this leads to better research underpinned by a more positive research culture.
Pilot projects
The three projects receiving funding will see how different groups from across academia, the private sector and communities can drive research to deliver societal benefit. For example, turning an old Woolworths store in Swansea into sustainable social housing, offices and community facilities. Other projects will explore how museums can better reflect the history of slavery and train local residents to become custodians of the natural landscape around them through oral histories. This funding opportunity has been developed in partnership with Thrive, a two-year project funded through the Research England Development Fund. Thrive is led by the University of Liverpool and is being run in partnership with AHRC and Advance HE. The opportunity aims to transform arts and humanities research agendas, research leadership and research teams, at scale, through the pilot approach to team convening.
Principles of team convening
Team convening is supported by five key principles for research teams to follow:
- emphasising and enabling collective capability
- shared leadership
- inclusive governance
- team development
- reflexive practice
Exploring team convening through these large grant awards furthers AHRC’s commitment to inclusion and to taking a people-centred approach that broadens the diversity of whom and what AHRC funds. This has underpinned the approach to all new responsive mode funding opportunities as part of AHRC’s ongoing transformation of its applicant-led mode. Mission Awards will fund team-led projects between £2 million and £3 million for up to four years.
Highly topical and pragmatic issues
AHRC Executive Chair Professor Christopher Smith said: ‘The Mission Awards take an innovative approach to supporting research. The goal of the award is to encourage and trial radically team-based research behaviours. The projects, on highly topical and pragmatic issues, will need to succeed not just through the quality of their research, but by the example they set of how to work as teams. The interest in this award shows that arts and humanities researchers are embracing new ways of working and setting their own rules for teamwork. AHRC is proud to support the transformations in the sector and I am sure that lessons will be learnt that apply far more widely than the disciplines supported here.’
Professor Georgina Endfield, Project Lead at Thrive said: ‘I am thrilled to see such a wonderful set of ambitious and transformative projects being supported through AHRC’s Mission call. Each of the project teams are embracing our Thrive Team-Convening Principles in exciting ways to support their research missions, emphasising and enabling collective capability and leadership, inclusive governance, team development and reflexive practice. Piloting our principles through these projects will provide us with a strong evidence base which will inform and guide research teams and organisations in new, inclusive ways of working. I wish all the Mission teams the greatest success!’
