DaDa is proud to be part of one of two University of Liverpool projects that have received funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) Doctoral Focal Awards, announced this month.
Crafting Care
Liverpool will lead the Crafting Care for People, Place and Planet Doctoral College, in partnership with the University of Central Lancashire, Royal Northern College of Music, and ten regional organisations. Aligned with AHRC’s theme of ‘arts and humanities for a healthy planet, people, and place,’ the College will train a new, inclusive generation of interdisciplinary researchers.
Building on over a decade of work from the University’s Centre for Health, Arts, Society & Environment (CHASE), the College explores how care is co-produced across human and non-human communities, with “craft” defined as broad expertise shaping interdisciplinary research for real-world impact.
Regional partners include leaders in health (Alder Hey, Liverpool Heart and Chest Hospital, Mersey Care, Wirral Public Health), environment (Canal and River Trust, The Mersey Forest), and the arts (DaDa, Liverpool Biennial, Liverpool Philharmonic, National Museums Liverpool), offering expertise, training, and placements.
Principal Investigator the University of Liverpool’s Professor Josie Billington said:
“Crafting Care is driven by co-production and collaboration. It builds on CHASE’s long-standing regional partnerships to support innovative, interdisciplinary research with real-world value. This is a tremendously exciting opportunity for the University, future PhD students and arts and humanities research at UoL to shape research agendas which respond to complex emergent challenges. We are looking forward to building the collaboration with our HEI and non-HEI partners to fulfil our vision of transformative societal impact.”
DaDa is excited to be supporting PhD research, offering opportunities for DaDa to both share expertise and to have some of our own research aims supported by the project participants.
About AHRC
The Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) Doctoral Focal Awards will champion the next generation of researchers, offering future-facing training in areas vital to the UK’s creative economy and societal wellbeing.
The awards will foster the strategic skills needed in arts and humanities research which align closely with AHRC’s vision, mission, and theory of change.
Focal Awards is a UK wide programme with strong emphasis on collaborative working, with at least two higher education institutions (HEIs) and at least one non-higher education institution (non-HEIs) partner included in each application.
With over 25 HEIs and over 100 non-HEIs involved, these awards represent a diversity of institution, discipline and geography.
Focal Awards ambitions
The Focal Awards will deliver UK-leading doctoral training and development to:
- provide opportunities for students, preparing them to follow a diversity of career paths within and beyond academia
- focus on supporting research capacity in specific strategic areas, addressing societal challenges through arts and humanities doctoral research and involving interdisciplinary approaches
- advance current understanding, generate new knowledge, and develop the breadth of expertise for the future of the research and innovation workforce
- address underrepresentation in the AHRC-funded doctoral community
- address skills gaps identified across specific research areas within and beyond academia
- enhance collaboration and knowledge exchange within and between academia and other sectors for the benefit of the students, consortia members, and wider society