Opportunity status:
Open
Funders:
Funding type:
Grant
Publication date:
26 March 2025
Opening date:
10 April 2025 9:00am UK time
Closing date:
20 November 2025 4:00pm UK time
Last updated: 29 May 2025 -
UK non-higher education institutions (non-HEI), individual organisations or consortia, can apply to become arts and humanities collaborative doctoral landscape award grant holders to support and provide high-quality doctoral training.
AHRC will support up to 50 doctoral studentships per year, for four years through this scheme. You can apply for a minimum of three students per year (two in exceptional circumstances). Doctoral projects must align with the organisation’s priorities and are undertaken with a university partner.
The first cohort of students will start in October 2027.
To apply to this funding opportunity, as a project lead (PL), you must be based at a UK organisation eligible for this scheme.
Who is eligible to apply
Non-HEIs can be any type of organisation in the UK that has the research capacity to host doctoral students. This would include a wide range of creative and cultural organisations contributing to arts and humanities research, for example:
* galleries
* libraries
* museums and archives
* the creative industries
* public and third sector organisations
The application must be from a non-HEI organisation either:
* as an individual organisation
* as a consortia of non-HEI organisations
* with a university partner, in specific circumstances
Non-HEIs do not need to have held awards under the Collaborative Doctoral Partnership (CDP) scheme to be eligible to apply or have independent research organisation status. However, you must be able to demonstrate that you have the capacity to manage at least three studentships per year.
Non-HEIs, which do not have capacity to host three students per year, may wish to submit a joint application as a consortium. If successful, the consortium would be the collaborative doctoral landscape award grant holder.
Organisations applying as a consortium should ensure that there is a clear strategic rationale for holding a single allocation between them. One of the organisations will need to be nominated as the lead organisation. We will liaise with the lead throughout the application process and in managing the award if the application is successful.
Another option for less experienced non-HEIs is to apply to become a collaborative doctoral landscape award grant holder by partnering with a higher education institution (HEI) in their application. This option is open to smaller non-HEIs, or those with less experience of supporting doctoral students. You will need to demonstrate why this arrangement will enable you to participate in the scheme in a way that applying alone or as part of a non-HEI consortium would not. The non-HEI must be the lead partner, and they must be able to demonstrate an existing commitment to supporting postgraduate research, for example within organisational research strategies and policies.
The non-HEI will work in partnership with the HEI and draw on the HEI’s expertise in postgraduate support. The HEI will need to state their commitment and how they intend to support their non-HEI partner.
The HEI partner will be permitted to host up to 50% of the studentships awarded to this partnership. The non-HEI partner will be expected to partner with other HEIs to develop and support research proposals. A university museum and gallery can partner with their parent HEI to form a collaborative doctoral landscape award.
University museums and galleries, or other HEI-managed organisations, are eligible to apply for a collaborative doctoral landscape award. Should they be successful, up to 50% of the doctoral projects that are subsequently selected for nomination to AHRC would be permitted to be in collaboration with the parent HEI.
Consortium collaborative doctoral landscape partners may be thematically focused or regionally or geographically focused. It is permitted for a non–HEI to be part of more than one consortium, for example, where a department wishes to be part of a different thematic consortium to the rest of the organisation.
A single department may be part of only one consortium. In all cases, proposals should include a strong rationale for the partnership, and the choice of partners involved. In cases where a non-HEI does include departments in different proposals, it would not be permissible for a department which was included in an unsuccessful proposal to access studentships from a successful bid with which their organisation was involved.
Who is not eligible to apply
This scheme is not open to universities or individual researchers or academics.
Equality, diversity and inclusion
We are for all funding applicants. We encourage applications from a diverse range of researchers.
We support people to work in a way that suits their personal circumstances. This includes:
* career breaks
* support for people with caring responsibilities
* flexible working
* alternative working patterns
UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) can during the application and assessment process.
Aim
Our aspiration is to support non-HEI organisations to deliver doctoral training in partnership with higher education institutions (HEIs) for the next generation of arts and humanities researchers. These training partnerships aim to identify and address short and long-term skills challenges and foster interdisciplinarity between the cultural, creative, and heritage sectors with academia and other employers.
The overall aim of the collaborative doctoral landscape award scheme is to support a high standard of collaborative research training through:
* giving non-HEIs greater autonomy in the selection of doctoral projects they would like to support and supervise
* providing non-HEIs, individual organisations and consortia with a firm funding horizon of collaborative doctoral awards to support their research training strategy, and the development of enhanced programmes of doctoral study that provide students with career development opportunities outside the standard academic route
* fostering collaboration between collaborative doctoral landscape award holding organisations and consortia in the development of wider training and development opportunities for the doctoral students they support
AHRC may undertake portfolio balancing to enable regional and institutional diversity of awards
Scope
In May 2022, UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) announced its transition to collective talent funding across talent initiatives, with the launching in November 2023. From January 2024, all UKRI doctoral support have been framed around two types of awards: doctoral landscape awards and doctoral focal awards.
Doctoral landscape awards provide:
* broad, flexible funding to support talented doctoral students to contribute to a vibrant, internationally attractive and world-leading research and innovation system
* breadth and diversity in the research supported to ensure that as a community we are rapidly responsive to new and emerging research ideas and areas
* opportunities for a variety of engagement with non-academic partners
We are looking for innovative and inclusive doctoral programmes designed to train students to undertake research and gain the core skills needed for a variety of careers.
You will be expected to deliver pioneering research and innovative training across AHRC’s remit and address strategic challenges faced in relevant sectors, such as, the cultural, heritage and creative sectors. Your application must demonstrate that the collaborative doctoral landscape training programme offers a high-quality research training environment and sufficient research capacity to deliver that training.
Training remit
Applications must outline a coherent training programme which demonstrates how students will undertake individual research projects in collaboration with both the non-HEI and HEI organisations. We will need to understand how you will support collaborative doctoral research training, ensuring that:
* individual student needs are considered and met
* students are given appropriate supervisory support, access to resources, and unique training and development opportunities to deliver their studies effectively
It is important that organisations offer more than access to resources, collections or archives. Assessors will be looking for commitment to enable students to undertake additional development opportunities, such as, placement activities and the chance students to be involved in the organisation on a wider scale.
Collaborative doctoral landscape award grant holders are expected to work together to deliver a programme of cohort training and we will need to understand how you will contribute to the programme and facilitate your students’ engagement with it.
You are advised to identify where you have world-class expertise and infrastructures to develop their doctoral candidates including:
* demonstrating an existing commitment to supporting postgraduate research, such as through organisation research and strategies, previous experience in supporting collaborative doctoral research or both
* how becoming a collaborative doctoral landscape award grant holder will support wider research strategies within your organisations
* how you intend to manage this award effectively (for example, by ensuring clear and robust arrangements are in place for project and supervisor selection and ongoing review)
Collaborative doctoral landscape awards should provide doctoral training in areas of research relevant to. These are covered in .
Training delivered by these collaborative doctoral landscape awards may build on existing infrastructure where applicable. We encourage engagement with relevant sector networks and other AHRC and UKRI doctoral training investments.
We support interdisciplinary research (for example, heritage science) proposals but ask that applications demonstrate how interdisciplinary research will be immersed in an environment where the students will understand the impact of their research on the arts and humanities research landscape.
Note that, while the call for studentship projects can outline broad priority areas, it is not possible to ring-fence awards for specific projects or organisations.
Alignment with UKRI core offer
Our expectations for research organisations, supervisors and students are set out in the .
The UKRI core offer sets out the expectations for all UKRI studentships, including support and student experience, research skills and methods, and professional and career development. This information has been used to define the assessment criteria for this funding opportunity. See the section ‘How we will assess your application’ for further details. All applications must clearly state how the requirements outlined within the core offer will be delivered as part of their application.
UKRI good practice principles in recruitment and training at a doctoral level
You should also demonstrate how you will deliver. These principles aim to make the doctoral pathway accessible and attractive to a diversity of potential applicants and outline good practice principles in equality, diversity and inclusion across the following four key stages of the doctoral recruitment and training process:
* finding talent: to make the doctoral pathway accessible and attract potential applicants who may not currently view a doctoral study as accessible to them
* shortlisting and interviews: to ensure the applicant shortlisting and interview process is fair and transparent
* nurturing talent: to make the student training experience as inclusive as possible
* monitoring and reporting: to be used effectively to foster a diverse and inclusive environment
Defining an excellent collaborative studentship
All collaborative doctoral landscape studentship projects must be delivered in partnership with HEIs. Applications can also include additional project co-leads and project partners. These collaborative projects should be characterised by:
* excellent research: challenging, feasible and realistically achievable doctoral projects that stimulate excellent research, providing tangible benefits to all partners through a truly collaborative approach
* a high-quality training environment: access to distinctive but complementary high-quality training environments across the partnership stimulates collaboration and encourages students to acquire novel skills and expertise
* a focus on student experience: partners will enrich the integrated training experience through joint supervision of students, wherein the student gains a greater understanding of their research impact and is supported throughout their research journey
Collaborating with HEIs
A key component of the collaborative doctoral landscape opportunity is the collaboration and partnership between the non-HEI, as the overall grant holder, and the HEIs with which they choose to partner, to develop different research proposals. The HEI will become the training grant holder for individual studentships (collaborative doctoral awards).
Non-HEIs will work closely with a range of HEIs to develop proposals, recruit, supervise and support students, and manage the collaborative doctoral studentships. The studentships are student career focused, with the student spending up to half of their time in the non-HEI organisation and benefitting from the support of two supervisors, one within and beyond academia.
This collaboration, and the development of these partnerships, is one of equality, where one partner is not simply a support for another. Ongoing decision-making, support for students and management of awards is a joint process with both partners contributing on an equal basis.
Coordination Group and collaborating with other grant holders
The coordination group is a central component of the collaborative doctoral landscape awards. Its purpose is to enhance the training and development opportunities available to students and to share good practice among grant holders. We expect all successful non-HEIs and consortia to work together within this group.
We will provide additional funding to support student cohort development and the coordination group’s activities via an individual and separate award. Collaborative doctoral landscape award grant holders must commit to participating and contributing to the group, including providing in-kind contributions. For example, use of time, space and expertise.
The coordination group will deliver cohort development and training to students, enabling them to develop their research, build their careers, network, and support partner organisations, and shape the future of the UK’s sectors in which they work. It aims to build a community of students from across the different collaborative doctoral landscape cohorts and the diverse organisations involved in this scheme.
By participating in the coordination group, grant holders contribute to a collaborative environment that benefits both the students and the broader research community.
Project development and supervisor selection
An important element of collaborative landscape awards is the development of collaborative projects and the selection of supervisors. Non-HEIs must outline how they will engage university researchers to develop projects and collaborations, ensuring a broad range of applicants and studentship projects.
This engagement is crucial for fostering diverse and academically robust projects.
Non-HEIs will work closely with university researchers to develop proposals, recruit, supervise and support students. The projects should be collaborative in nature, jointly conceived, and structured to be delivered as a joint programme of work. This collaboration ensures that students benefit from the expertise and support of both the non-HEI and HEI supervisors.
For interdisciplinary research proposals, it is essential that students receive supervisory support from supervisors covering the different disciplines involved. This approach ensures comprehensive guidance for students and fosters interdisciplinary learning.
If the application involves a consortium of non-HEI organisations, it is important to explain how the project and supervisor selection process will be managed across the consortium.
Additionally, include details of any advisory bodies or external input into your selection processes. This external input can provide valuable perspectives and enhance the quality of the selection process.
Management and governance
You are expected to explain how governance, monitoring, and student progress will be managed within the partnership.
The management of the award needs to align with the principles of responsible innovation, trusted research, and environmental sustainability, to create value for society in an ethical and responsible way.
Equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI)
EDI is a core feature of this funding opportunity. In line with UKRI’s principles on EDI, we want to work with our partners to shape a dynamic, diverse, and inclusive system of research and innovation that is an integral part of society.
You will need to explain how your EDI action plan will embed the core principles of EDI at all levels and across all aspects of the collaborative doctoral landscape award.
You will need to ensure that:
* students from diverse backgrounds are recruited in a fair, open and transparent way
* any barriers to engagement are mitigated
* all students receive ongoing support, according to their needs, to deliver the best research they can
We will require collaborative doctoral landscape award grant holders to put in place monitoring of these arrangements, across the consortium partners, if applicable, to enable it to review the effectiveness and openness of its recruitment process and strategies for student support.
This will be an ongoing process of review and analysis. Where this process identifies concerns, responsive changes should be implemented.
Your collaborative doctoral landscape programme should work to provide everyone involved with an opportunity to participate in, and benefit from, the award.
Through the EDI action plan, you must demonstrate how your EDI strategy will embed the core principles of EDI at all levels and across all aspect of the doctoral programme, including:
* increasing PhD access, including recruitment practices
* working practices, including individualised student support
* wellbeing support, including mental health
* monitoring and evaluation, including a baseline and plans for improvement
We would expect the EDI strategy outlined in the plan to describe how your doctoral programme is accessible to a diverse range of people and needs, and how you will be removing barriers to participation across your doctoral programme and associated processes. Your application should demonstrate how you will create and maintain a positive, inclusive, and supportive environment for all students and staff.
You should refer to and. As a mandatory requirement, the EDI plan, including strategies, activities and commitments stated by successful applicants will be regularly reviewed by AHRC. This data will be collected on at least a yearly basis via annual reports, and we will reserve the right to access these data across the lifetime of the award. See the for more information.
Reporting requirements and monitoring
The monitoring and evidencing of progress toward the vision and objectives of these partnerships, as well as their impact, is an important component of this award. Information gathered from training grant holders will be used by AHRC to review the success of our training investments, to provide assurance that the awards are being managed appropriately and are progressing in accordance with the original funding application. This will be conducted in various ways, including:
* mandatory annual reports
* hosting regular visits by AHRC staff, in meetings or in person
We will request key information from collaborative doctoral landscape award grant holders, such as doctoral candidate recruitment, collaborative partner engagement, training and development activities offered, and examples of doctoral achievements.
Successful applicants will be expected to respond to other reporting requirements when requested.
Duration
This award will support four years worth of student intake, starting in October 2027. Each studentship will last four years, meaning the total duration of the grant will be seven years (84 months).
Funding available
AHRC is intending to offer up to 50 studentships per year, for four years, through collaborative doctoral landscape awards. We reserve the right to adjust these numbers to meet the requirements of the funding opportunity and to balance our overall studentship portfolio.
You can apply for a minimum of three students per year. Smaller, less experienced non-HEIs have the flexibility to apply for two students per year, provided they offer a clear rationale for doing so within their application. Doctoral projects would be aligned to the non-HEI organisation’s priorities and undertaken with a university partner.
All doctoral projects will need to be within AHRC’s remit. The first cohort would start in October 2027.
You should state in your application the number of studentships per year that you are bidding for. This will need to be justified in relation to your track record of engagement with postgraduate research and training. Please bear in mind the total number of awards available for the scheme; to achieve a balanced portfolio, it may be necessary for AHRC to award fewer studentships than requested.
Organisations that are successful in their application to become collaborative doctoral landscape award grant holders will be allocated a ‘notional’ number of studentships per year. The collaborative doctoral landscape award organisation or consortium has the autonomy, within AHRC guidelines, to select the collaborative doctoral projects it wishes to support in collaboration with a UK HEI partner. It then nominates these to AHRC for funding. The allocation is notional in the sense that the funding for each doctoral studentship is paid to the academic partner involved, rather than to the non-HEI organisation.
Studentships will include sufficient funds to meet the annual UKRI minimum stipend and fee levels and research costs in the form of a research training support grant. Collaborative doctoral landscape studentships will also include a stipend uplift to reflect the collaborative nature of their award and the costs this can incur, for example, travelling between the HEI and non-HEI.
Financial support for students
The collaborative doctoral landscape award holding organisation is expected to make a financial commitment to the students recruited, recognising the higher costs which doctoral students may incur in undertaking a collaborative project (especially where the HEI and non-HEI are geographically distant).
In-kind support from the collaborative doctoral landscape award grant holder and HEI partners is mandatory. This includes in enabling engagement with the cohort programme.
Supporting skills and talent
If applicable to your application, we encourage you to follow the principles of the and the .
Trusted Research and Innovation (TR&I)
UKRI is committed in ensuring that effective international collaboration in research and innovation takes place with integrity and within strong ethical frameworks. Trusted Research and Innovation (TR&I) is a UKRI work programme designed to help protect all those working in our thriving and collaborative international sector by enabling partnerships to be as open as possible, and as secure as necessary. Our set out UKRI’s expectations of organisations funded by UKRI in relation to due diligence for international collaboration.
As such, applicants for UKRI funding may be asked to demonstrate how their proposed projects will comply with our approach and expectation towards TR&I, identifying potential risks and the relevant controls you will put in place to help proportionately reduce these risks.
See, including where applicants can find additional support.
We are running this funding opportunity on the new UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) Funding Service so please ensure that your organisation is registered. You cannot apply on the Joint Electronic Submissions (Je-S) system.
The project lead is responsible for completing the application process on the Funding Service, but we expect all team members and project partners to contribute to the application.
Only the lead research organisation can submit an application to UKRI.
To apply
Select ‘Start application’ near the beginning of this Funding finder page.
1. Confirm you are the project lead.
2. Sign in or create a Funding Service account. To create an account, select your organisation, verify your email address, and set a password. If your organisation is not listed, email
Please allow at least 10 working days for your organisation to be added to the Funding Service. We strongly suggest that if you are asking UKRI to add your organisation to the Funding Service to enable you to apply to this opportunity, you also create an organisation Administration Account. This will be needed to allow the acceptance and management of any grant that might be offered to you.
3. Answer questions directly in the text boxes. You can save your answers and come back to complete them or work offline and return to copy and paste your answers. If we need you to upload a document, follow the upload instructions in the Funding Service. All questions and assessment criteria are listed in the How to apply section on this Funding finder page.
4. Allow enough time to check your application in ‘read-only’ view before sending to your research office.
5. Send the completed application to your research office for checking. They will return it to you if it needs editing.
6. Your research office will submit the completed and checked application to UKRI.
Where indicated, you can also demonstrate elements of your responses in visual form if relevant.
When including images, you must:
* provide a descriptive caption or legend for each image immediately underneath it in the text box (this must be outside the image and counts towards your word limit)
* insert each new image on a new line
* use files smaller than 5MB and in JPEG, JPG, JPE, JFI, JIF, JFIF, PNG, GIF, BMP or WEBP format
Images should only be used to convey important visual information that cannot easily be put into words. The following are not permitted, and your application may be rejected if you include:
* sentences or paragraphs of text
* tables
* excessive quantities of images
A few words are permitted where the image would lack clarity without the contextual words, such as a diagram, where text labels are required for an axis or graph column.
For more guidance on the Funding Service, see:
* * *
References
References should be included within the word count of the appropriate question section. You should use your discretion when including references and prioritise those most pertinent to the application.
Hyperlinks can be used in reference information. When including references, you should consider how your references will be viewed and used by the assessors, ensuring that:
* references are easily identifiable by the assessors
* references are formatted as appropriate to your research
* persistent identifiers are used where possible
General use of hyperlinks
Applications should be self-contained. You should only use hyperlinks to link directly to reference information. You must not include links to web resources to extend your application. Assessors are not required to access links to conduct assessment or recommend a funding decision.
Generative artificial intelligence (AI)
Use of generative AI tools to prepare funding applications is permitted, however, caution should be applied.
For more information see our .
Deadline
AHRC must receive your application by 20 November 2025 at 4:00pm UK time.
You will not be able to apply after this time.
Make sure you are aware of and follow any internal institutional deadlines.
Following the submission of your application to the funding opportunity, your application cannot be changed, and applications will not be returned for amendment. If your application does not follow the guidance, it may be rejected.
Personal data
Processing personal data
AHRC, as part of UKRI, will need to collect some personal information to manage your Funding Service account and the registration of your funding applications.
We will handle personal data in line with UK data protection legislation and manage it securely. For more information, including how to exercise your rights, read our .
Sensitive information
If you or a core team member need to tell us something you wish to remain confidential, email
Include in the subject line: [the funding opportunity title; sensitive information; your Funding Service application number].
Typical examples of confidential information include:
* individual is unavailable until a certain date (for example due to parental leave)
* declaration of interest
* additional information about eligibility to apply that would not be appropriately shared in the ‘Applicant and team capability’ section
* conflict of interest for UKRI to consider in reviewer or panel participant selection
* the application is an invited resubmission
For information about how UKRI handles personal data, read .
Publication of outcomes
AHRC, as part of UKRI, will publish the outcomes of this funding opportunity on our .
If your application is successful, we will publish some personal information on the .
Summary
Word limit: 550
In plain English, provide a summary we can use to identify the most suitable experts to assess your application.
We usually make this summary publicly available on external-facing websites, therefore do not include any confidential or sensitive information. Make it suitable for a variety of readers, for example:
* opinion-formers
* policymakers
* the public
* the wider research community
Core team
List the key members of your team and assign them roles from the following:
* project lead (PL)
* project co-lead (UK) (PcL)
* project co-lead (international) (PcL (I))
* specialist
* grant manager
* professional enabling staff
* technician
Only list one individual as project lead. The project lead is responsible for setting up and completing the application on the Funding Service.
Where non-higher education institution (non-HEI) organisations are collaborating in a single proposal, please list all the partners involved. It will be necessary for one partner to be clearly identified as the project lead for the partnership.
You can list multiple project co-leads. Any organisation that will host students in addition to the project lead should be listed as a project co-lead on the application.
If a non-HEI and HEI are collaborating, the non-HEI partner will be the project-lead. However, please list an individual from the HEI who will act as the lead contact at the HEI as a project co-lead.
UKRI has introduced a new addition to the ‘Specialist’ role type. Public contributors such as people with lived experience can now be added to an application.