Monday 1 February 2010

Important information for applicants to AHRC funding scheme

The Arts and Humanities Research Council [AHRC] supports world-class research that furthers our understanding of human culture and creativity. Important information for applicants to AHRC funding schemes

In 2010 the AHRC, along with the other Research Councils, will be transferring its grants processing activities to the new RCUK Shared Services Centre. This important change is being made in order to harmonise common processes across all Councils and to secure efficiency savings for the research budget which will be channelled into further investment in research. It will also allow for greater consistency across the Councils in the application procedure as well as the operation of peer review.

In addition, the AHRC office will be moving from Bristol to Swindon in June. Together, these changes will impact significantly on the AHRC's planned schedule of activities over the coming nine months or so. While the AHRC will do its utmost to minimise the disruption to applicants and others, normal timescales for assessing grant applications will have to be changed to enable these changes to take place as smoothly as possible and for normal business to resume after the new systems are in place.

In particular, AHRC applicants should be aware of the following changes:

*Research Grants and Fellowships Schemes* – We will not be accepting applications between 19 March 2010 – 31 May 2010. In addition, Fellowship applicants are strongly advised to submit their applications before the end of February as the outcomes of some applications submitted in March are unlikely to be announced until spring 2011. We are also rescheduling our panel meetings during 2010 which may mean that applicants will not receive outcomes when they would have been expecting them.

*Research Networking Scheme*

– We will not be accepting applications between 26 February and 31 May 2010.

*Knowledge Transfer Fellowships*

- The planned closing date in May will not occur. The scheme will re-open later in 2010 on an open deadline basis on a date to be confirmed.

*Knowledge Catalysts*

– We will not be accepting applications between 26 February 2010 and 31 August 2010. This will give time to consider the outcomes of the current review of the scheme due to be completed by end of March and implement any changes in the light of the review.

Applicants are advised to allow as much time as possible between submitting applications and the suggested start date for projects. Applicants should also bear in mind when submitting proposals that award announcements may be delayed by a number of months, and successful applicants may be required to change the start date of their projects to take this into account.

All schemes not mentioned above, including all postgraduate programmes, will continue as planned, and we will be processing all applications already submitted before the dates outlined above. It should also be noted that the overall AHRC budget will not be affected by these changes.

Professor Rick Rylance, Chief Executive of the AHRC, said: "The AHRC has a demanding year ahead with very considerable organisational upheaval. We hope that you will bear with us during this period. We will of course do everything we can to minimise disruption and to ensure everyone in the arts and humanities research community is kept fully up to date with progress in a timely way."

Further measures may need to be taken by the AHRC in the autumn of 2010, but these will be communicated in good time and through the normal channels.

For further information, please go to: www.ahrc.ac.uk http://www.ahrc.ac.uk

If you would like to discuss any issues you might have about these changes or their implications, please contact: p.pothen@ahrc.ac.uk

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