Annual Report & Accounts AHRC 2008-09 The Arts and Humanities Research Council Annual Report and Accounts 2008-2009 Presented to Parliament Pursuant to Section 4 of the Higher Education Act 2004 Ordered by the House of Commons to be printed on 15th July 2009 HC 780 LONDON: The Stationery Office £19.15 AHRC Annual Report and Accounts 2008-09 The Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) is incorporated by Royal Charter and came into existence on 1 April 2005 under the terms of the Higher Education Act 2004. It took over the responsibilities of the Arts and Humanities Research Board. On that date all of the AHRC’s activities, assets and liabilities transferred to the AHRC. The AHRC is a non-departmental public body (NDPB) sponsored by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, along with the other six Research Councils. It is governed by its Council, which is responsible for the overall strategic direction of the organisation. The Arts and Humanities Research Council aims: • To promote and support the production of world-class research in the arts and humanities • To promote and support world-class postgraduate training designed to equip graduates for research or other professional careers • To strengthen the impact of arts and humanities research by encouraging researchers to disseminate and transfer knowledge to other contexts where it can make a difference • To raise the profile of arts and humanities research and to be an effective advocate for its social, cultural and economic significance. Arts & Humanities Research Council, Whitefriars, Lewins Mead, Bristol, BS1 2AE © Crown Copyright 2009 The text in this document (excluding the Royal Arms and other departmental or agency logos) may be reproduced free of charge in any format or medium providing it is reproduced accurately and not used in a misleading context. 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For any other use of this material please write to Office of Public Sector Information, Information Policy Team, Kew, Richmond, Surrey TW9 4DU or e-mail: [email protected] ISBN: 9780102961379 AHRC Annual Report and Accounts 2008-09 Contents Chairman’s Statement 2 Appendices Chief Executive’s Statement 3 Appendix 1 79 Research Programme: applications and Management Commentary 5 awards 2008-09 England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland World-Class Research and its Impact 7 Responding to Challenges 15 Appendix 2 82 Research Programme: location of Sustaining People and Careers 23 applicants and award holders 2008-09 Building Partnerships 33 Responsive Mode and Strategic Mode Corporate Activities 41 Appendix 3 90 Postgraduate Programme: applications AHRC Structure 45 and awards 2008-09 by subject area AHRC Organisational Plan and Structure 45 Appendix 4 91 Council and Committee Members 46 Postgraduate Competition 2008 – AHRC’s Committees 47 Distribution of Applicants and Awards by Institution Research Peer Review Panels 48 Postgraduate Peer Review Panels 49 Appendix 5 96 Collaborative Postgraduate Schemes Remuneration Report 52 Appendix 6 97 Accounts 56 Results of the 2008 Doctoral Submission Survey Accounts Direction and Statement of Council’s and Chief Executive’s Responsibilities 56 Appendix 7 100 Statement on Internal Control for 2008-09 57 Knowledge Transfer: applications and awards 2008-09 The Certificate and Report of the Comptroller and Auditor Appendix 8 102 General to the House of Commons 60 What our awards deliver Statement of Net Expenditure for the Year Ended 31 March 2009 62 Balance Sheet as at 31 March 2009 63 Cash Flow Statement for the Year Ended 31 March 2009 64 Notes to the Accounts 65 1 AHRC Annual Report and Accounts 2008-09 Chairman’s Statement This has been a good A new Fellowships programme has been year for the AHRC. announced which will absorb – among other I am very grateful to things – the Research Leave scheme into a more my Council colleagues flexible framework. The Block Grant Partnerships and to Philip Esler and have been implemented giving many institutions all the AHRC’s staff secure funding for postgraduate students for the for the hard work they next five years. The open competition is still there have contributed. We for those universities and colleges that are not have all been conscious part of this. Research programmes are working of the debates around well – both AHRC and cross-council programmes. ‘responsive vs directed’ and ‘individual vs I know there are those who would like to see the collective’ research AHRC as essentially funding individual research, and we have sought mainly through Research Leave, but a review of to move beyond these what we have been funding, whether through to focus on our prime programmes or in the open competition, reveals objectives and to engage our stakeholders in a very impressive set of projects that between discussions on future strategy. We have also made them represent the core of what we expect considerable progress in formulating our view of the arts and humanities to be. This is achieved ‘impact’ by broadening the notion of ‘economic through the work of our peer reviewers and the impact’ in the arts and humanities’ context. The associated panels and I can only applaud the Treasury guidelines have always included ‘quality collective outcome of what is a series of particular of life’ as an important dimension of impact and judgements. This machinery has been further we have now elaborated what we believe to refined and I am sure that the new panels and the be a framework to make ourselves effectively Peer Review College will continue to be effective. accountable in this respect. This is rooted in We are all very grateful for the hard work that academic excellence and embraces cultural, so many in the arts and humanities community social and policy impacts as well as monetary. commit to this enterprise. A detailed report on this will be published in the early summer. We have thought long and hard Council took one other important decision at about how to articulate the distinctive role of its December meeting: that the headquarters the AHRC in relation to other sources and arts should move from Bristol to Swindon as soon and humanities funding. The Council has had as possible. The consequences of this will be two awaydays in addition to the usual quarterly important for our staff but should be largely meetings and has worked closely with Philip and unseen by our stakeholders. However, there his colleagues to drive the agenda forward. This are not only efficiency gains from the move has culminated in the recently-published Future but, more importantly, there will be new Directions consultation paper and responses to opportunities for closer working with other the questions raised there will be absorbed into Research Councils in overlapping territories. Council discussions. So, a good year and a feeling of forward The Future Directions consultation is focussed momentum. We look forward to working with all on research strategy and priorities though also our stakeholders to build on these foundations. inviting comment on other parts of AHRC business. Meanwhile, substantive progress has been made on a number of fronts. Deadlines have been Sir Alan Wilson removed from the Research Grant scheme. Chairman, June 2009 2 AHRC Annual Report and Accounts 2008-09 Chief Executive’s Statement The year 2008-09 has research, as seen in our recent announcement of seen the AHRC continue the new and highly flexible Research Fellowships to refine its distinctive scheme, which has been broadly welcomed across mission in the light of our community in spite of the popularity of the our rapidly changing scheme it will replace. environment, to push on with the thorough During the last year we have re-doubled our overhaul of its activities efforts to communicate with the academic now in progress community we serve, beginning with a well- for three years and attended Subject Associations event in London in to begin unrolling May 2008, continuing with a number of regional the programmes events and an array of web and media releases that implement our and targeted messages to our lengthy list of successful result in CSR contacts in universities and colleges. Finally, 2007, where we shared we have under way as this report goes to press with the other Research an extensive consultation with our community Councils the benefits of the Government’s focusing on our Future Directions document. continually growing support for science and Responses from this consultation will strongly research pursuant to its Ten-Year Science and influence the way our strategy develops. Innovation Investment Framework (2004-2014). The year past has also brought the announcement The AHRC is required by its 2005 Royal Charter of the results of our Block Grant Partnerships to support research (pure and applied) and process which, together with the Open postgraduate training, but also to contribute to Competition, represent a much more strategic the economic competitiveness of the UK and to approach to postgraduate provision. HEIs have its public services and policy, quality of life and developed institutional arts and humanities creative output. That was the task the AHRC was research strategies aligned to their priorities and charged with pursuing and it was both a necessary those in our CSR 2007 settlement and systems and a desirable task; necessary, because for the of postgraduate provision integrated with these first time it fully acknowledged the central role strategies. Numerous contacts in the HEIs have the arts and humanities played in the economic told us how helpful this process has been in and cultural life of the nation, and desirable raising the profile and status of the arts and because the extra funding that followed this humanities in their institutions.