Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC)

Please see our new Research Councils: major changes and budget announcements page for the latest updates about changes to grant programmes, grant administration, financial management of awards, and the impact of moves to the Shared Services Centre.

Background information on the AHRC

Areas supported

Basic, strategic and applied research and related postgraduate training in the arts and humanities
See subjects covered by AHRC panels
Please also see our Notes on ARMA Study Tour to AHRC Offices, 20 January 2012 (137kb)
Types of funding Research Grants, Knowledge Transfer, International, Museums & Galleries, Postgraduate Training
Funding Guide See Research Funding Guide (PDF)
AHRC funding opportunities On the AHRC website
On ResearchProfessional.com. You will need to log in or click on Campus Access to view these
AHRC Research Income at Oxford 2010/11: Oxford received £3.6M (19th largest  research funder of the University)
Applications and Award Activity at Oxford 2010/11: 52 applications submitted to the value of £9.0M. 41 new AHRC awards accepted worth £3.3M, including financial amendments to existing awards (University financial year Aug-Jul)
Success Rates 2010/11 by volume of applications (responsive and strategic modes)
National average: 39%. Oxford: 46%. (AHRC financial year Apr-Mar)
See the AHRC's Research Statistics webpage
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Preparing your application

  • It is essential that you refer to the Funding Guide and any specific guidance issued with the funding call or opportunity. Contact the Council directly for further guidance.
  • If you are thinking of putting together a grant application, please get in touch with your Departmental Administrator, Research Officer or Research Facilitator as soon as possible (and at the very latest four weeks before the deadline), so that they can provide advice and assistance with the preparation of your proposal. The sooner you get in touch, the more they will be able to help.

Further information

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Using the Je-S system for grant applications

Je-S is the Research Councils' web-based Joint Electronic Submission system for grant applications and award administration. All applications must be prepared and submitted via Je-S.

If you are new to Je-S, you will need to create a user account - please refer to Step 1 in our Application Process section. Your co-investigators will also need an account. Please note that you can also grant access to co-investigators or other colleagues so that they can view and edit the application directly in the system.

Please refer to the links below for more information about using Je-S at the application stage.

Further information:

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Preparing a Case for Support

  • This is the part of the application where you will describe your proposed project and why you should be funded to carry it out.
  • Ensure that your case is well-structured and addresses the issues or questions raised in the call.
  • Familiarise yourself with the assessment criteria that will be used - and the weighting given to each.
  • When writing your proposal be aware of who will ultimately be reading and assessing it. This will not just be subject experts but also generalists sitting on review panels, as well as (in some cases) research users.
  • Use the advice and expertise of colleagues, especially those who have had successful proposals - it can be helpful to ask colleagues who are both expert and non-expert in your field to read and comment on your application.
  • As with all aspects of your application, don't overlook 'minor details'. The wrong font size or exceeding page limits will result in your application being returned by the funder - and sometimes not considered at all.
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Ethics

  • The Je-S forms ask whether there are any ethical implications arising from the proposed research. This might include research involving human participants.

Further information

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Pathways to Impact

  • Applicants to the majority of AHRC funding calls and schemes are required to complete additional sections in the application form: an Academic Beneficiaries section, an Impact Summary and a Pathways to Impact section.

  • The Academic Beneficiaries section should describe how your research will benefit other researchers in your field and, where relevant, academic beneficiaries in other disciplines. Academic communication and dissemination plans should be elaborated further in your case for support.

  • The Impact Summary and Pathways to Impact section allows researchers to identify the potential scientific, societal, economic or cultural impacts of their research.

  • Researchers must ensure that any confidential information is described in the Impact Statement or Plan rather than in the Impact Summary.

Further Information

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Costing and Budgeting

  • Your Departmental Administrator, Research Officer or Research Facilitator will assist you to identify the costs of your project and also prepare a Resolve costing. Please contact them as soon as you are thinking about applying and at the very latest four weeks before the deadline. The Resolve costing will provide the financial information that you must include in the Je-S forms and, since this is the form that indicates Departmental approval of the costs of a project, it has to be provided to Research Services before the application can be approved and submitted by the University to the funder.
  • Applications should be costed on a full economic cost (FEC) basis. The Council will contribute 80% of these costs with the exceptions of project studentships which are paid at 100%, and equipment costs where different funding rules apply depending on the value of each individual item of equipment. For further information please see Research Councils and Equipment Funding.
  • Note that there are (maximum and minimum) limits of the funds sought for certain schemes - check the scheme guidance for details.
Further information for researchers:

Further information for Departmental administrators:

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Justification of Resources

  • All applications must include an attachment which sets out the justification for the resources requested. This is an opportunity to explain in words why you require the resources detailed in your budget.
  • Note that this is not justifying the costs (money) sought, rather the resources required to undertake the project, such as equipment or number of staff but also the level (seniority) of proposed staff and the proportion of their time they will dedicate to the project.
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I'm ready to submit my application - what should I do now?

  • Firstly check that your application is complete and includes all the information and attachments required by the Council (this includes letters of support, CVs, lists of publications etc). You can use the 'Validate' function in Je-S to detect any errors in data fields that need to be corrected before the system will allow you to submit it to the next stage.
  • Hitting 'Submit' on Je-S doesn't submit the application. It sends it to the next stage of the process which is to your Departmental Approver Pool. You should therefore check that they are expecting this and have received it.
  • Once your Departmental Approver has approved the application on behalf of your Department it is routed via the Je-S system to Research Services.
  • Research Services reviews applications on behalf of the University and will liaise with you and/or your Departmental Administrator over any queries or changes that might be needed to the application.
  • Research Services submits the approved application to the Council.

Further Information

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The application has been submitted - what next?

  • All proposals are first assessed on general eligibility and assessment requirements, and where they meet these requirements, are subject to review by (a minimum of two) members of the AHRC's Peer Review College.
  • Any proposals receiving two or more unfundable grades are rejected at this stage.
  • For all other proposals, researchers have the opportunity to respond to grading and comments produced by the peer reviewers. This allows you to correct any factual errors or conceptual misunderstandings in the peer reviewers' comments, or to respond to any queries they have highlighted.
  • Proposals plus peer reviewers' and researcher's responses then go forward to Peer Review Panels which rank proposals in order of priority of funding.
  • AHRC notifies applicants of the outcome via Je-S. For details please see our Offer Acceptances and Start Certificates page. For unfunded proposals you will be notified of the grade awarded and you can check whether a resubmission is possible. However, as from 1 April 2012, unless you have been specifically invited to resubmit, resubmission of the same proposal will not be permitted.
  • Do let your Departmental Administrator know the outcome of your proposal. Where it is to be funded they will liaise with you and Research Services regarding the acceptance of the award. Sometimes the AHRC may require the level of resources requested in the proposal to be adjusted. This would be done via the Je-s system, with deadlines for the return of the amended applications.

Further Information

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Managing your award

  • Please refer to the AHRC Funding Guide and the Research Council Terms and Conditions for FEC Grants.
  • See Managing awards for the process at Oxford for accepting and managing awards.
  • See our Offer Acceptances and Start Certificates page for information about how this process works on Je-S
  • See our Grant Maintenance page for information about how to request changes to your award on Je-S (e.g. request an extension, change of grant title, change of grant holder).
  • All Directly Incurred staff working on Research Council projects must complete timesheets unless they are 100% charged to one project. See Other key funder requirements for further information, including a sample timesheet.
  • Final Reports are no longer required by the AHRC. Instead, grant holders are asked to submit details of the outputs and outcomes of their research via the Research Outcomes System (see below). However, Final Expenditure Statements are still required.
  • The Research Outcomes System (ROS) was launched in November 2011. It is a web based system currently used by AHRC, BBSRC, ESRC and EPSRC and requires grant holders to provide information about the outputs and outcomes of their research.
  • All claims, invoices and financial statements to funders must go out from Research Accounts, never directly from Departments.
  • Publications arising from research funded by the AHRC should include an acknowledgement of AHRC support as set out in the AHRC Funding Guide.
  • Publications arising from AHRC funded research must be made available in accordance with their policy relating to access to research outputs (PDF).

Further information

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Documents

Related links

Joint Electronic Submission system (Je-S)

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