Connected Communities Programme and Care for the Future Theme: Call for Co-ordinating Centres for Community Research and Engagement to Commemorate the Centenary of the First World War Executive Summary The AHRC, working in partnership with the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF), wishes to invite applications for a small number of co-ordinating centres to support community engagement activities to connect academic and public histories of the First World War and its legacy. The Co-ordinating Centres will be expected to act as beacons for community outreach, engagement and collaboration at a local/regional and a UK-wide scale between research organisations and researchers and community groups, including young people, who are interested in researching and commemorating the First World War, the broader historical and cultural context of the War and its legacy and impact. Over the longer term, these Centres are intended to lay the foundation for the creation of sustainable relationships and practices that systematically build dialogue between academic and public historical research. This is a joint initiative between the cross-council Connected Communities Programme and AHRC s Care for the Future: Thinking Forward through the Past Theme and the coordinating centres will be expected to contribute to relevant activities within both the Programme and the Theme. A key focus of the Co-ordinating Centres will be to provide support for community groups funded through a range of HLF funding programmes, particularly its new 6m First World War: Then and Now community grants scheme which will be launched in May 2013. Centres will also be encouraged to support other HLF-funded community projects with a First World War-related theme. Links to other AHRC activities associated with the centenary and to the broader national programme organised as a part of the First World War Centenary Partnership (led by Imperial War Museums) will be encouraged.
Co-ordinating Centres are expected to be highly collaborative, drawing together research expertise across research organisations and working in partnership with each other, with HLF (both nationally and locally) and a range of organisations in the cultural and community sectors and beyond. Each centre will be expected to co-ordinate an open and inclusive cross-institutional network of researchers, with a particular focus around areas of particular local/regional, methodological, thematic and/or subject areas of expertise. Through this call we seek to work in partnership with research organisations in opening up their resources to communities, in developing their strategies for supporting community engagement and partnerships, in developing skills and capacity for community engagement, including amongst early career researchers and in generating exiting collaborative research with communities that builds bridges between academic and public histories if the First World War. The roles of the centres are summarised in the following diagram and described in more detail below. AHRC funding of up to 2.5m is available to support 5-7 co-ordinating centres under the first three-year phase of this initiative. Applications for co-ordinating centres may seek funding of up to 500,000 on a full economic costs basis and the AHRC will fund 80% of the full economic costs. The closing date for research organisations to submit full applications for co-ordinating centres through the Je-s system is 16:00 hours on Tuesday 16 July 2013. An optional briefing meeting for potential applicants is being planned for June 2013. Please see AHRC s website for further information about this meeting if you are interested.
Summary of the Roles of Co-ordinating Centres G- Wider Connections Contributing to Connected Communities and Care for the Future; collaboration with HLF; Leadership Fellows & NCCPE, linking into the FWW Partnership; informing institutional strategies; collaboration across centres; broader partnerships. F - Building Capacity Training, development, mentoring & experience for researchers in community engagement and ethics; building sustainable resources, infrastructure and partnerships for the future. engagement A- Connecting with Communities Opening up, proactive outreach, brokerage and responsiveness. Co-ordinating Centres and Research Networks Cross-cutting activities such as Centre leadership, management and contact points; co-ordination of research network; website maintenance; communications; and other core centre resources B Access to Research Expertise Supporting engagement between communities and researchers with regional, subject or specialist expertise in relevant areas C- Supporting Community Research Providing training, advice and other support to HLF-funded community groups on methods, framing research questions or outputs and/or through access to institutional resources, archives or technical expertise E- Research Reflection Reflecting on the processes of commemoration and community engagement across funded activities D- Supporting collaborative research projects Supporting research network members to undertake collaborative or co-produced research projects to extend or follow-up HLF-funded community projects
Aims of this Initiative This initiative seeks to establish a small number of co-ordinating centres within research organisations to support community engagement activities that seek to connect academic and public histories around the First World War and its legacy. The overall objective is to catalyse and develop sustainable links between expertise in research organisations and relevant community groups to support, and critically reflect upon, the processes through which diverse communities commemorate the centenary and heritage of the First World War. The more detailed aims of the initiative are to: foster two way dialogue between academic and public historical research related to the First World War; encourage the development of innovative ideas for community heritage research projects involving a diverse range of communities and with potential links to academic researchers from a wide range of subject and disciplinary fields; open up a rich terrain for researchers to explore new lines of research enquiry relating to the First World War; provide responsive and high quality support to community groups funded by the HLF that would like assistance from research organisations in undertaking commemorative activities relating to the centenary of the First World War and its legacy and help these community groups to place their activities in a broader, sometimes contested, historical context and to produce high quality outputs and/or outcomes of long-term value to both communities and future research; exploit opportunities to extend and follow-up some HLF-funded projects through high quality and innovative supplementary collaborative or co-produced research activities with community groups; contribute to AHRC s Care for the Future Theme, for example through critical reflection on issues such as processes of commemoration, cross-cultural and contested perspectives on the past, the evolution and transmission of cultural memory and heritage; contribute to the development of the Connected Communities Programme, for example through promoting methodological innovation, critical reflection and learning in relation to processes and ethics of community engagement and broader engagement with the portfolio of research funded under the Programme; enhance skills and capacity for, and experience in, collaborative and co-produced research in research organisations, communities and the broader cultural heritage sector, including: training and support for researchers in community engagement (particularly within the arts and humanities); promoting the wider accessibility and
utilisation of resources and facilities within research organisations; and, the provision of development opportunities in community engagement for early career researchers; strengthen existing, and build new, partnerships and collaborations between research organisations, the cultural heritage sector, communities and community groups and other stakeholders; lay the foundations for a sustainable legacy of relationships, practices, resources and structures for building dialogue between academic and public historical research; facilitate connections between activities supported as a part of the centenary of the First World War and contribute to the First World War Centenary Partnership. Contribution to the Connected Communities Programme and Care for the Future: Thinking Forward through the Past Theme The Centres will be expected to make a significant contribution to both the cross-council Connected Communities Programme and AHRC s Care for the Future Theme and to critically reflect on their processes in the context of the research agendas they are exploring. Further details of the Programme and Theme, and potential areas in which the centres could contribute, are outlined in Appendix 1. However, as a joint initiative between the Programme and the Theme, the following three issues have been jointly highlighted as key areas for research investigation and for critical reflection: a) The history embedded in heritage. How the way the war is remembered and commemorated in a wider public sphere is influenced by (shifting) interpretations of the conflict itself why the war was fought as well as the ways in which it was fought. b) Whose voices are heard in commemoration and whose are not? The selectivity of cultural memory. The diversity of perspectives on the war from different types of community, including when and why commemoration can become difficult and divisive. c) How the impact of the war itself, as well as its longer-term legacies, are understood by the individuals and communities affected by it. Moreover, the Centres will be expected to demonstrate evidence of reflection on the processes involved in connecting public and academic historical research. The Centres will be expected to work with the Theme / Programme Leadership Fellows to support critical reflection, learning and the sharing of experiences and insights across the centres. We expect that the Centres will take part in several networking events per year to come together with the Leadership Fellows to reflect on their activities.
In addition, the Centres activities may be of relevance to other AHRC priorities, most notably AHRC s national capability building priority area of heritage, and Themes (such as Translating Cultures). Partnership with the Heritage Lottery Fund Through this partnership with AHRC, HLF seeks to enable community groups or smaller heritage organisations (e.g. volunteer-run museums) to have greater access to appropriate support from researchers and research organisations in ways that are responsive to their needs. The aim is to make support available to groups who are applying to HLF, or who have received funding from HLF, for First World War projects anywhere in the UK. HLF also wishes to encourage outreach to proactively seek to develop links with community groups, in order to ensure that a diverse range of community groups benefit from the support offered. The core role for the Co-ordinating Centres will be to provide support for community groups funded through HLF s funding programmes. These include the HLF s new First World War: Then and Now small grants programme which will provide grants of 3,000-10,000 for community projects to explore, conserve and share the heritage of the First World War. In particular, HLF wants to fund projects which involve young people in commemorating the First World War. The new programme, which will be launched in May 2013, has a budget of at least 1million per annum, and will be open for 6 years. Groups will be able to apply at any time, and applications will be assessed in 8 weeks. It is anticipated that at least 125 projects a year will be funded across the UK. In addition, HLF is keen to encourage the centres to support other HLF-funded community projects with a First World War-related theme funded through existing HLF grant programmes (Our Heritage; Young Roots; and Heritage Grants). Amongst the community groups and organisations funded through these programmes, the HLF is particularly keen that centres prioritise support to community groups and organisations that have less experience in managing projects of this kind and that have limited access to professional heritage expertise. The HLF hopes that some of the community groups in receipt of its funding will, in collaboration with researchers, go on to develop new research questions and ideas for supplementary activities which can be supported through the centres funds for collaborative research projects and/or through applications to other funding sources for larger projects. Further details about these HLF programmes and the types of organisation that are likely to receive funding are provided at Appendix 2.
Contribution to Broader Partnerships In addition to working with relevant HLF programmes and projects, the Co-ordinating Centres will also be expected to adopt a flexible approach to ensure that their activities complement, and contribute to, a range of activities being undertaken by the AHRC working with a range of partners. One partner with which the AHRC is currently working is the BBC and further details of the most recently announced collaboration are provided as a part of the appendix. We welcome suggestions from centres for other partnerships where it can be shown that these will support new rather than existing planned activities. More broadly Centres will be expected to play an active role in the national programme of commemorative activities organised as a part of the First World War Centenary Partnership (led by Imperial War Museums) and to promote connections and synergies between relevant activities and organisations within the Partnership. Centres will also be encouraged to consider the potential for international linkages, for example in extending or following-up HLF funded projects. In support of the centres activities to develop capacity for community engagement, including the provision of training, networking and development opportunities for early career researchers interested in engaging with community groups, we plan to work in partnership with the National Co-ordinating Centre for Public Engagement (NCCPE). This will build on the experience gained under the Connected Communities Research for Community Heritage Initiative in collaboration with HLF s All Our Stories Programme, where NCCPE helped to co-ordinate and supplement researcher training and networking activities across the projects. The precise scope of NCCPE s support for co-ordination, networking, training and learning activities will be finalised in consultation with the funded centres. Further details of how the centres will contribute to AHRC initiatives and of the partnerships in which they will play a key role are attached at Appendix 1. Role of Co-ordinating Centres Co-ordinating centres will be expected to act as a focal point for community engagement activities that seek to create two-way dialogue between academic and public historical research related to the centenary of the First World War. Centres will be expected to be open and responsive to ideas for research emerging from both communities and academics, helping to knit these ideas together, where appropriate. They will be expected to build on existing community connections and partnerships with heritage and other organisations across their research network but also to be highly proactive in
outreach and making connections, reaching out to diverse community groups with which they have not previously engaged. Co-ordinating Centres will be expected to act at both a local/regional scale bringing specialist local research knowledge to support community groups to explore their own heritage but also at a UK-wide scale to support groups across the UK through the provision of expertise and support activities around key identified areas of methodological, thematic or subject expertise. To support activities at the local/regional and national level, each centre will be expected to establish and co-ordinate a broad and inclusive cross-institutional and multidisciplinary network of researchers who are prepared to commit time to working with community groups. The network will be expected to involve researchers from within the research organisation(s) leading the centre application and researchers from other research organisations, with a particular focus on individuals with expertise relevant or complementary to the proposed local/regional and methodological/ thematic/subject areas of focus for the centre. The research networks will be expected to grow and develop over the life of the centre. Exceptionally proposals may propose to operate at only a UK level around a number of specific broad areas of expertise. Proposals to operate only at a local/regional level are unlikely to be accepted unless the proposed geographical focus is very large (e.g. all of Scotland, all of the North of England etc). As well as providing expert advice, training, access to facilities and resources and other support to meet the needs of community groups, centres will be expected to fund small, more in depth, follow-up collaborative research projects that have been agreed between members of the research network and HLF-funded community groups. This will support a range of small collaborative research projects requiring a higher level of time and resource input in order to extend, follow-on from and/or link the activities undertaken as a part of HLF-funded projects. A significant proportion of these activities should involve researchers and community groups in the co-production of research. Each centre will require a strong core leadership and co-ordination team, capable of inspiring engagement and sustaining relationships with a multi-disciplinary research community, diverse community groups and a range of partner organisations. Core teams will require: intellectual leadership to help stimulate new lines of enquiry, cross-cutting themes for reflection and a longer term research legacy; capacity to inspire and support the development of researchers and communities in community heritage research; and, an ability to handle the complex ethical issues and conflicts associated with the histories of a global war. They will also require excellent management and co-ordination skills to manage a wide range of contacts, interfaces, networks and relationships, diverse
programmes of resources and responsive activities and a large number of relationships with a wide range of partners. Further details of the role of centres are outlined below and summarised in the diagram above. Specific categories of activities to be conducted by each of the centres should include: a) Connecting with Communities: Community engagement, responsiveness and outreach. Co-ordinating centres will be expected to under-take a range of outreach activities to proactively seek to develop links with community groups with which they have not previously worked and to ensure that the centre operates in an inclusive way with a diverse range of community groups. This could include, for example, a programme of open days, road shows, visits, exhibitions, tours of facilities, public talks or debates and/or online or digital media activities. Centres should liaise with the relevant regional or country HLF office at an early stage of planning outreach activities so that opportunities for HLF participation in events are maximised given the limits on HLF staff availability. As well as being proactive in engaging with communities, centres will be expected to be open and responsive to enquiries and contacts initiated by community groups. As a part of this each co-ordinating centre will be expected to identify/ appoint a named co-ordinator or first contact point for community groups who wish to make contact with the centre or its research network to ensure that the centre can act in an open, inclusive and responsive way to enquiries from interested communities. It is of course appreciated that Centres may not always be able or best placed to offer the support sought by communities and that in some cases it may be more appropriate for a centre to sign-post links to other organisations or sources of support. Similarly it is recognised that not all of the relationships established with community groups by Centres will lead to ideas for collaboration or be suitable for development into applications to the HLF. The connections developed by the co-ordinating centres may lead to other applications to other funders and under different AHRC funding schemes (e.g. collaborative doctoral awards with community museums or local authorities, substantive research grant applications etc). b) Access to Research Expertise: Co-ordinating a Research Network. Each coordinating centre will be expected to co-ordinate a broad and inclusive crossinstitutional and multi-disciplinary network of researchers with research expertise relevant to the heritage of the First World War who are interested in working with community groups funded by the HLF and are willing, with support from their employing institution, to commit time to engaging with community groups. As with
the Co-ordinating Centre s overall activities, normally this network will be expected to combine both local / regional expertise and subject/thematic expertise offered on a UK-wide basis. The Centre will be expected to help facilitate links between community groups and network members with relevant research expertise, provide training and support to network members as required in engagement with community groups. The Centres may also draw on network members to support their broader outreach, training and other activities to support community groups. One core role for the Centre will be to link named researchers within the Centre s research network and/or early career researchers with relevant research interests and expertise to work in an advisory, critical friend or mentoring capacity with HLFfunded projects seeking to engage with academic researchers. An important aspect of this support is likely to include expert advice on the broader research and historic context for the activities and developing the heritage focus of projects. As well as helping to open up new lines of enquiry, advice might be provided on how to focus research questions and/or on research methodologies, approaches and resources. Network members may also provide a sounding board for project management issues which arise and related issues such as research ethics and may also help projects to make connections with other researchers, organisations or groups with relevant interests. They may also involve advice on the production of high quality research outputs, on the wider dissemination of research and/or on how to enhance the sustainability and legacy of outputs for future use by researchers and communities. This specific support may be identified as a result of researchers working with community groups from the outset in the co-design of applications to the HLF or may result from specific requests from funded HLF-funded projects which identify specific areas where they would like support or their project would benefit from wider research engagement. An element of face-to-face contact will be appropriate in many cases, although the importance of digital technologies to sustaining and developing on-going relationships, particularly given the desire to engage with young people, is acknowledged. A key part of research organisations support for the centre should be a commitment to enable network members to make some of their research time available to engage with community groups in this way. The time of research network members will not normally be funded through the AHRC grant to support the general forms of engagement and advisory roles outlined above. However, where the Centre is operating at a national level, some funding may be provided for travel and subsistence costs of network members to make face-to-face contact with more distant community groups and also to enable network members at more distant locations to contribute in person to the delivery of centre events (e.g. community
training) and communication activities. Where more effective or efficient for distant or potentially marginalised or excluded communities to travel to the research organisation, some funding may also be provided for community group travel costs. Where network members play a critical role in the delivery of key centre activities such as training events then consideration may be given to contributing to their time. In addition, members will be eligible to apply for funding under the ring-fenced allocation for supplementary collaborative / co-produced research activities designed to extend, follow-up or link HLF-funded projects (see (c) below). Separate provisions also apply for funding early career researchers, particularly those on short-term contracts (see (e) below). c) Supporting Community Research: Responsive provision of advice, training and access to facilities and resources. Based on an analysis of needs of both individual HLF-funded projects and across a broader range of community partner groups, centres will be expected to offer a responsive portfolio of high quality research support activities to a range of community groups. This might include, for example: training/support/peer learning in historical or other relevant research methods (perhaps linked to any specific thematic or expertise areas offered by the centre) or on project management or ethics; on-line support or learning materials; advice on the dissemination and archiving of research outcomes (e.g. advice on use of digital media or curating exhibitions); support in accessing archives, collections, museums, galleries, libraries, exhibition spaces and other facilities of relevance to the research; sign-posting to existing resources of potential relevance; and/or activities to help locate projects within broader historical contexts or debates. Some of this support may be tailored to meet the needs of individual projects whilst others might be focused around common areas identified across a number of projects. In allocating limited support capacity, particular priority should be given to the needs of those community groups and organisations with less experience of projects of this kind and with limited access to professional heritage expertise. Co-ordination with other centres will be expected to ensure complementarity of provision and avoid unnecessary duplication. Mechanisms for securing feedback from community participants and for formative self-evaluation of how well the centre is meeting community needs should be built into the centre s support activities and opportunities to promote learning and for improvement kept under regular review. Centres will be encouraged to explore ways in which some elements of this support may be sustained, or become self-sustaining, beyond the first phase of funding. Although it will not be possible to outline a full programme of support activities in applications as this will need to be responsive to the needs / demands of communities over time and to learning about areas for improvement, applicants
should outline the broad areas in which they expect to be able to provide support (linked to their expertise) and potential range of methods for delivery. Some examples or options that might be considered or an illustrative initial programme of activities is likely to be helpful in providing an indication of what forms of support are envisaged. d) Supporting collaborative and co-produced research projects. Each centre will be expected to set aside a proportion of its funding, not less than one third of the total costs of the centre application (100% fec), to a collaborative research project fund to support a wide range of small high quality collaborative or co-produced research projects. Each of these projects should involve one or more researchers within the co-ordinating centre s research network working collaboratively with one or more HLF-funded community group. The aim of this funding will be to support researchers to work more closely with funded HLF community groups where this would extend or follow-up, and add significant distinctive value to, the HLF funded activity through more substantial researcher community engagement and/or contributing to enhanced research outputs from the HLF-funded project. Activities supported under this fund will be expected to extend beyond the normal levels of advice and support that might be provided by research network members and the centre to the HLF-funded project during its lifetime. They should involve substantial engagement in additional research activities which require a significant input of time and/or other research resources. Approaches involving the co-production of additional research activities or outputs between the community group(s) and researchers should be particularly encouraged under this heading. Proposals which would seek to link across HLF projects or broaden the range of communities, community groups or cultural partnerships will also be welcomed. Funding for collaborative research projects may support a combination of researcher time/ research assistance or other directly incurred research costs, including support for community groups to contribute to additional research co-production activities. All such projects must address needs or opportunities identified and agreed with the community groups and provide evidence of the support of the relevant HLF-funded community group(s). This additional support may be identified as a result of researchers working with community groups from the outset in the development of their applications to the HLF and identifying opportunities to potentially extend or follow-up, the HLF-funded community project if funded. Alternatively it may result from discussions between researchers and projects already funded by HLF which identify ways in which working together could extend or follow-up the HLF funded activities. These additional activities should be stand-alone proposals in the sense that applications from communities to the HLF should not be contingent on these
additional research activities being funded and that they should be designed and scheduled to ensure that they do not impinge on the successful delivery of the HLFfunded project. In many cases these collaborative projects will extend beyond the life of the HLF-funded project or follow-on after the completion of the HLF-funded project. Each co-ordinating centre will be expected to establish a transparent process for allocating these funds within their research network, normally involving an element of light touch peer review of applications (this process should include appropriate handling of any conflicts of interest, for example where network members applying are from the same institutions as the centre principal or co-investigators). Prior to the launch of the centres we will expect them to discuss arrangements for allocating funds with each other with a view to ensuring an appropriate degree of consistency and exploring the potential for working together in the operation and peer review of the funds. The AHRC and HLF should also be consulted as a part of these discussions. We recognise that it will not be possible for applicants to specify in their proposals the content of research funded through this route but the proposed process and principles for allocating funding should be discussed. It is not expected that more than one collaborative research project would be funded linked to the same HLF project, but flexibility maybe exercised where proposals involve extending the work of several HLF-funded projects and/or would significantly extend the collaboration to other groups not involved in the initial proposal. It is also recognised that the small projects funded through the collaborative research fund may themselves lead onto other applications to other funding sources (e.g. for larger collaborative research grants). e) Critical Research Reflection -Co-ordinating centres will be expected to promote critical reflection upon the processes of connecting academic and public histories and how these processes operate in diverse community contexts. This should include reflection of the three research areas highlighted in the sections above agreed between the Connected Communities Programme and Care for the Future Theme. Applicants are encouraged to think creatively about how they could contribute to broader cross-cutting issues under the Care for the Future theme (for example around processes of commemoration; trauma, conflict and memory: transitions to new futures; and, inter- and cross-generational communication, justice and exchange) and under the Connected Communities Programme (for example around the processes and ethics of community engagement; inclusion/exclusion of different community voices and narratives; the places / spaces around which communities may come together; and, the temporal dynamics of communities). Centres will be expected to work closely with the Theme/Programme Leadership Fellows in
promoting critical reflection across the centres and linking in with other relevant research under the Theme / Programme, including contributing to several events per year to explore these issues with the Fellows. Centres will also be expected to encourage researchers to collect appropriate feedback on learning points and evidence on the value, benefits, dis-benefits and legacy of their engagement with community groups and to co-ordinate inputs to broader cross-initiative evaluation activities. It is anticipated that the focus on critical reflection, learning and evaluation will increase over time as the portfolio of activities grows and opportunities to reflect back on the legacy of, and learning from, past activities increase. f) Building Capacity: Developing infrastructure, skills and early career researchers for community engagement. Co-ordinating Centres will also be expected to enhance the capacities within research organisations and the research network for community engagement, through for example training, mentoring, confidence and experience building and developing sustainable practices, infrastructure, relationships and resources for linking public and academic histories. A key part of this capacity building should be support for early career researchers in community engagement. This could include support for post-graduate students and post-doctoral researchers with relevant research interests to work with community partners. Centres may use part of their funding to support the time of post-doctoral researchers to work with relevant community groups. Centres may also use part of their funding to meet the travel and subsistence expenses of post-graduate and postdoctoral researchers in attending meetings with/undertaking research with community groups or in undertaking training activities as well as the costs of providing appropriate targeted training opportunities linked to the aims of the centre. It is a requirement that the centre s support includes appropriate access to mentoring, advice and support for early career researchers through all stages of their community engagement activities. Centres will also be expected to identify a lead contact who will work with the NCCPE to ensure that early career researchers have access to initiative-wide activities aimed at providing appropriate training and guidance and to ensure that the Centre contributes to broader networking and learning activities across the initiative. Co-ordinating centres are also expected to take an overview of ethical issues of working with community groups on issues of commemoration, including providing support and guidance to researchers within its network to ensure that ethical issues associated with engaging with specific community groups (including young people) are adequately addressed (see Appendix 1 for links to the ethical guidance for community-based participative research being developed as a part of the Connected
Communities Programme). They will also be expected to ensure that any network researchers supported by the centre have put in place appropriate processes for securing access, clearance and permissions for engaging with the community partners / young people. g) Wider Connections: Connecting research and contributing to broader initiatives. As the work of each centre progresses and the portfolio of projects increases it is hoped that they will explore opportunities to link related projects and/or promote learning between community groups. Where appropriate centres are encouraged to explore broader linkages, for example internationally (e.g. through links to twinned communities or institutions or parallel commemorative activities, diasporic communities, digital networks, comparative projects, etc.) and/or broker links to other activities or resources (e.g. within the Centenary Partnership) to add value to community research activities. The centres will also be expected to work closely together. Each centre will be required to appoint or identify a co-ordinator who will be responsible to for engaging with other co-ordinating centres, the NCCPE, HLF and other Theme and Programme partners to ensure that opportunities for coordinating activities and enhancing synergies and collaboration across the initiative are maximised. Details of the funding that can be requested to support these activities are provided below. Research Organisation Commitment The Centres are seen as being a partnership with research organisations and as drawing on the complementary provisions for research funding provided through both sides of the Dual Support System. We will be looking for evidence of strong commitment to the Centres from Research Organisations and alignment with their strategies for community / public / civic engagement and the development of partnerships in the cultural, creative and heritage sectors (proposals including other aspects of strategic alignment for example in terms of promoting access to higher education, enhancing research impact and developing international collaborations will also be welcomed). Proposals should explain how the co-ordinating centre would build upon existing outreach activities and partnerships as well, where appropriate, to any specific activities they may already be planning around the First World War centenary, whilst also making it clear the added value that centre funding would bring to existing plans. In addition, to supporting members of the research network to commit some of their research to enable them to work with community groups, research organisations should outline in proposals what other relevant resources or facilities (e.g. museums, archives,
galleries, libraries, collections, exhibition spaces, remote campus sites, training facilities, etc) and expertise (e.g. in community engagement, training, events, digital resources, archiving, etc) that they will make available to community groups. A clear statement of the longer term vision for community engagement and a sustainable legacy from the centres beyond the end of AHRC funding and the centenary period is expected. Funding Available Applications for co-ordinating centres may seek funding of up to 500,000 on a full economic costs basis and the AHRC will fund 80% of the full economic costs. We anticipate funding 5-7 co-ordinating centres for an initial period of 3 years commencing on 1 January 2014 and ending on 31 December 2016. The diagram below gives an indication of the types of costs that could be requested in respect to the centre s various activities. Complementary support from research organisations for example in supporting research network members time to discuss the development of proposals with community groups and in opening up institutional resources to community groups will be essential. As outlined above a minimum of one third of the total budget requested should be set aside for a collaborative research project fund to support applications from members of the co-ordinating centre s research network to undertake small collaborative research projects involving community partners which seek to extend or follow-up HLF-funded projects. All such projects must provide evidence of the support of the relevant HLFfunded community group(s) although they may in addition involve community groups not funded by the HLF. Proposals proposing to link several HLF-funded projects through additional research activities will be welcomed. It is envisaged that applications to the collaborative research project fund will be made on a full economic basis with the fund contributing 80% of the fec and the research network applicant s institution contributing the remaining 20%. It is expected that individual collaborative projects funded through this route will be small (e.g. up to 10,000 or 15,000 fec), although a tiered approach allowing for slightly larger proposals (up to 20,000 fec) could be considered to support projects which link and extend multiple HLF-funded projects or significantly extend the collaboration to new community groups or internationally could be considered. Each coordinating centre will be expected to establish a transparent mechanism for allocating its collaborative research project fund within their research network, including appropriate management of any conflicts of interests. Applications for funding under this budget may include provision for funding research time, technical support as well as for direct costs such as travel and subsistence, dissemination activities and research materials; where the supplementary research involves, as an integral or co-produced component,
communities undertaking additional research-related activities, the costs associated with such additional community activities may also be included. Where it is proposed to extend or follow-up HLF projects in an international context, overseas travel and subsistence and research costs may also be included. The balance of funding between other aspects of the centre s role may vary over the life of the grant. For example, outreach activities are likely to be a higher proportion of activities at the outset and the opportunities for research reflection are likely to increase as the portfolio of activities grows. Nor are there firm boundaries between particular categories of activities; for example, leadership and co-ordination of the centre will cut across the various activities and early career development opportunities may be embedded in activities to support community research. However, alongside the provision for at least 30% of the budget to support collaborative research involving research network members, we would expect the largest proportion of the remaining funding to be directed towards the outreach and supporting community research aspects (A+C in the above diagram) of the centre s activities. Beyond the initial three years of AHRC funding (ending December 2016) we will expect some elements of the co-ordinating centre s activities to become embedded within Research Organisations and to be self-sustaining. Evidence of a strong commitment to the co-ordinating centres and their broader community engagement activity from Research Organisations will be an important consideration in the assessment of applications. However, following a review of the co-ordinating centres in early 2016, consideration will be given to funding for a further three year period to take forward some key activities and some continued support for collaborative research linked to HLFfunded projects up to the end of 2019. Any such continued funding would be subject to a peer review process which would consider both progress under the first phase of activities and the quality of plans for futures phase of activities.
Overview of Potential AHRC Funding for Centres G- Wider Connections: Largely included in core costs (e.g. investigator time) but some travel & subsistence costs to meetings / events should be included F - Building Capacity: Costs for some early career researcher (ECR) time to contribute to centre activities and their travel and subsistence. Costs for organising / attending training or development activities for researchers A- Connecting with Communities: Costs directly linked to organising /carrying out outreach activities such as open days, roadshows, exhibitions, printed materials etc Co-ordinating Centres Core Costs Principal and co-investigator time; other staff costs including for co-ordinator/contact point role(s); admin and support staff costs (e.g. for website maintenance, organisation of events); communication costs, core equipment (e.g. for coordinator). B Access to Research Expertise: Travel & subsistence costs for face to face meetings between research network members and community groups and participation in community events. C- Supporting Community Research: Costs of developing support materials and conducting and delivering training, events and other support activities for community groups E- Research Reflection: Largely included in core costs (e.g. investigator time) but may also involve ECRs and costs of activities such as workshops, travel to events etc D- Supporting collaborative research projects Applications to collaborative research projects fund (on an 80% fec basis). May include funding for investigator research time, research assistance, other staff costs, travel & subsistence, community research costs and other directly incurred research costs
Networking, Monitoring and Reporting The AHRC and HLF will establish a small oversight group to oversee the development of this initiative. Centres will be expected to submit an annual report at the end of the first year for consideration by this group. At the end of the second year a fuller interim report will be expected to feed into a review of options for a further phase of the initiative. Centres will also be expected to contribute to activities which the partners might arrange to support lessons learnt from, and the evaluation of, the initiative. It will therefore be important for centres to: incorporate appropriate evaluation procedures into their activities; to continuously reflect upon what has worked well and what has worked less well; and to keep track of the outcomes of their work with community groups. Centres will be expected to collaborate with the Care for the Future and Connected Communities Leadership Fellows and with their activities to support critical reflection, learning and exchange in the context of the research agendas being pursued under the Theme and Programme. This is likely to involve attendance at a couple of events each year bringing together the centres and the fellows to reflect on activities. In addition, as a part of its Care for the Future Theme AHRC is planning to set up a working group bringing together AHRC-funded researchers and other partners linked to the centenary of the First World War and all centres will be expected to be represented on this group. Centres will also be expected to collaborate with the NCCPE to support co-ordination of the centres community engagement and support activities and to enhance capacity building activities, for example in relation to issues around ethics, training and early career development. NCCPE s activities will be developed in consultation with the funded centres. The centres will be encouraged to also develop their own arrangements for working together with each other. AHRC will arrange an initial meeting in December 2013 to bring together the funded centres and to facilitate the development of collaborative working arrangement. Outline Timetable April 2013 Full call details published 16 July 2013 (16:00hrs) Closing date for full proposals. September / October 2013 By end of October 2013 November 2013 Assessment Panel Inform applicants Outcomes publicly announced
December 2013 Meeting between centre teams to share plans 1 January 2014 Co-ordinating centres start 31 January 2015 First Annual report from centres End of 2015 Interim report from co-ordinating centres First half 2016 Review progress & consider options for phase 2 End of 2016 First phase funding ends 2017-2019 Possible second phase activities. Eligibility Applications for coordinating centres are invited from research groups /teams at Research Organisations (ROs) eligible to receive funding from the AHRC (see the AHRC Research Funding Guide (opens in a new window)). Applications may be from teams at a single RO or from cross-institutional teams, but in either case must involve research networks open to researchers from outside the lead research organisations. However, The AHRC strongly encourages collaborative proposals from consortia of ROs, particularly where joint partnerships with heritage organisations or community groups already exist or where local, regional or national partnerships between ROs would support the proposed regional and national subject / thematic aims of the proposed centre. Only one application is permitted from each RO but individuals and research organisations may be involved in more than one centre application (e.g. as coinvestigators or collaborators). It is also hoped that there will be opportunities for applicants involved in unfunded centres to join the networks of funded centres at a later stage should they wish to do so. One applicant must be identified as Principal Investigator (see the AHRC Funding Guide for eligibility criteria) and to take the lead in directing, co-ordinating and managing the centre working with co-investigators and other appointed staff. The principal investigator should contribute a significant amount of time to leadership of the centre (normally as a minimum an average of 4 hours per week). We would normally expect a maximum of four co-investigators in addition to the principal investigator, but may exceptionally consider a larger number of investigators, for example where a proposal is from a large consortium of research organisations or where a case is made that it would be more effective to distribute leadership and management roles across a larger number of individuals. All investigators must make a significant contribution to the overall leadership and management of the centre and have clear roles in relation to the delivery