ARTS & HUMANITIES RESEARCH COUNCIL Annual Report & Accounts 2011-12 ARTS & HUMANITIES RESEARCH COUNCIL Annual Report & Accounts 2011-12 Presented to Parliament Pursuant to Section 4 of the Higher Education Act 2004 Ordered by the House of Commons to be printed 10 July 2012 HC 223 LONDON: The Stationery Office £21.25 © Arts and Humanities Research Council (2012) The text of this document (this excludes, where present, the Royal Arms and all departmental and agency logos) may be reproduced free of charge in any format or medium providing that it is reproduced accurately and not in a misleading context. The material must be acknowledged as Arts and Humanities Research Council copyright and the document title specified. Where third party material has been identified, permission from the respective copyright holder must be sought. Any enquiries regarding this publication should be sent to us at Arts and Humanities Research Council Polaris House, North Star Avenue, Swindon SN2 1FL This publication is also for download at www.official-documents.gov.uk and from our website at www.ahrc.ac.uk ISBN: 9780102979107 Printed in the UK by The Stationery Office Limited on behalf of the Controller of Her Majesty’s Stationery Office ID 2495558 07/12 Printed on paper containing 75% recycled fibre content minimum Contents Chairman’s Foreword 2 Statement of Comprehensive Net Expenditure 52 Statement of Financial Position 53 Chief Executive’s Statement 3 Statement of Cash Flows 54 Management Commentary 4 Statement of Changes in Taxpayers’ Equity 55 World-Class Research and its Impact 6 Notes to the Accounts 56 Research Programmes 15 Appendices 77 Postgraduate 19 Appendix 1 Creative Economy 21 Research Programme: Applications and awards 2011 International 23 for England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland 78 Public Policy 25 Appendix 2 Research Programme: Location of applicants and award Public Engagement 27 holders 2011-12 – Responsive Mode 81 Corporate Activities 29 Appendix 3 Block Grant Partnership (BGP) Studentships 2011-12 85 AHRC Structure 32 Appendix 4 Organisational Plan and Structure 34 Block Grant Partnership: Capacity Building awards 2011-12 86 AHRC Council Members 35 AHRC Committee Members 36 Appendix 5 Collaborative Doctoral Awards 2011-12 88 Peer Review 37 Appendix 6 Knowledge Transfer Fellowships 2011-12 91 Accounts 40 Remuneration Report 42 Appendix 7 Follow-on Funding scheme 2011-12 92 AHRC Governance Statement 46 Appendix 8 The Certificate and Report of the Comptroller and Knowledge Exchange Hubs for the Creative Economy Auditor General to the Houses of Parliament 50 2011-2016 93 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 AHRB’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. Arts and Humanities Research Council, Polaris House, North Star Avenue, Swindon SN2 1FL Chairman’s Foreword Diversity and Dialogue Two features jump out at me as I read this report: the diversity of what we do and the range of dialogues that support our activities. The diversity has to be embedded in a framework so that we can plan effectively and allocate our funds. We present this in our Delivery Plan, in Strategic Plans and papers for Comprehensive Spending Reviews. It is not straightforward to build an adequate vocabulary to distinction then becomes blurred: everything is responsive – encompass the range of our activities and the dialogues that based on consultation; and everything is strategic – based on a support them. I look back to our not-very-modestly titled clearly articulated rationale! Leading the World report of 2009 for help in this respect. The Council has at least two kinds of challenge. First, being able We showed there the role of the AHRC in a wider cultural to interpret the range of advice it receives and to convert this ecosystem and how different kinds of research – positioned on into continuing commitments and new priorities for funding. a ‘maintenance’ to ‘development’ spectrum – had various types Second, to make the difficult decisions that are unavoidable of impact, both economic and civic. I think I would now refer because, while we were well supported in the last Spending to ‘maintenance’ as ‘scholarship’, while the ‘development’ end Review, we do not have the resources to do everything we would of the spectrum might better be seen as representing major like to do. At the broad level, this involves deciding the balance, discovery at the research front line. All points on this spectrum for instance, between research, postgraduate support and represent valuable research. Cumulatively, we build an inventory knowledge exchange and the Council takes responsibility for this. of knowledge that represents the heart of our ‘impact’. It is the At the finer scales, the decision-making falls on our peer review existence of this inventory that underpins much of the cultural machinery – researchers and stakeholders from our Peer Review ecosystem, and also explains the attractiveness of the UK for College and various panels. We are particularly grateful to the international students and inward investment alike. large numbers of colleagues who support us in this enterprise; The Council has its own direct glimpse of the diversity of what and as ever, I would add my thanks to the Council itself and to we fund. We have at least one presentation of a project in all the staff of the AHRC. each meeting. This year, we had Professor Hamish Frye from As I write, we begin to discuss our next strategic plan and to Glamorgan University on the creative economy; the leaders of think about our case for the next CSR. We will continue to fund a two of the four Knowledge Exchange Hubs – Professors Evelyn diverse range of projects and schemes and we will consult widely. Welch from Queen Mary, Jonathan Dovey from UWE and Nick We welcome the help of all our communities and stakeholders in Kaye from Exeter; Professor Simon Keay from Southampton, this endeavour. leading a major archaeological excavation in Italy – the Portus Project; and Professor Robin Aizlewood of UCL describing the work of LBAS – the Language-Based Area Studies consortia, which embrace a range of universities around five centres. We never fail to be impressed! Support for high-quality research has to be at the core of what we do. Its dissemination (and hence its impact) through the ecosystem is a secondary but important activity – a two-way process characterised as knowledge exchange. This is dialogue about what we have funded. The report also captures the variety of dialogues that helps the Council determine what we will fund: future research priorities. We sometimes refer to responsive or strategic modes of funding, but this should now be seen as unhelpful: what is demonstrated in this report is that virtually everything we do is based on consultation. We, as a Council, are not in a position to articulate research frontiers: we need to root what we do in consultation with researchers – the academic community, and users – a wide variety of stakeholders. We need to ensure that we have effective dialogue so that we can be Professor Sir Alan Wilson confident in our judgements. The ‘responsive versus strategic’ Chairman, June 2012 2 AHRC Annual Report & Accounts 2011-12 Chairman’s Foreword Chief Executive’s Statement Sustaining World-Leading Research 2011-12 marked the first year of the new spending period for the AHRC following the Comprehensive Spending Review of 2010. Therefore the implementation of the Delivery Plan 2011-15 submitted for that review has been paramount. Alongside the AHRC’s historic mission to sustain world-leading heritage sites that are such a crucial part of the UK’s creative arts and humanities research through its established mechanisms and cultural achievements. of grants and fellowships, the new Delivery Plan includes several fresh initiatives. Establishing a strong basis for delivering these Partnerships and collaborative working are a major thread has been a priority during the year, and the AHRC is now in an in AHRC’s current work and planning for the future. We will excellent position to sustain its new as well as its traditional continue to look towards sharing expertise with other funding commitments. However, though what follows will emphasise organisations and helping to develop consortia-based activity the new, it is important not to lose sight of the AHRC’s role amongst the institutions we support. Postgraduate work in responding to the current work of excellent researchers continues to be funded through the Block Grant Partnership, and supporting it appropriately, and in continuing to develop which, in its second iteration, emphasises more strongly the the next generation of researchers through our postgraduate advantages of consortia development to pool skills, facilities schemes. Together these comprise about three-quarters of the and expertise. Internationally, too, for schemes such as those AHRC’s spend and are central to core research across the many under the Humanities in the European Research Area (HERA) disciplines in AHRC’s extensive remit. call, collaboration is essential and we have expanded our International Placement Scheme to include new institutions By all accounts, the Creative Economy is one of the fastest- in the United States and India to give postgraduates and early growing and most dynamic sectors of the UK’s overall economy, career researchers the opportunity to work in major international and much of the work supported by the AHRC engages with it centres.