The Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) is passionate about the importance of public engagement with both the research that we fund directly, and in arts and humanities research in general.
We believe that public engagement makes arts and humanities research more beneficial, relevant and useful to the public, in turn making the research that we fund higher quality, better informed and more useful. In essence it helps to improve the life of individuals and the country, and to make the case to continue arts and humanities research in the future.
What we do
The aim of AHRC’s public engagement team is to:
- create and support public engagement opportunities and partnerships for our research community
- understand and monitor the full public engagement landscape in the arts and humanities, so that we know how to best help our community and whether we’re making a difference
- make change to support public engagement internally and within UK Research and Innovation, to create an arts and humanities funding environment where the highest quality public engagement can flourish
- provide support for skills and training in the arts and humanities research community, so our researchers understand the importance of public engagement and know how to engage the public throughout the research process.
Our programmes
Some of our continuing public engagement programmes include:
- New Generation Thinkers, our flagship public engagement scheme for early career researchers run in partnership with the BBC
- Being Human festival, co-founded and funded by us along with the British Academy, and delivered by the School of Advanced Study, University of London
- the New Thinking podcast, part of BBC Radio 3’s Arts & Ideas series in partnership with the BBC, where we support researchers to share their research.
BBC 100: a century of UK broadcasting
The BBC is 100 years old this year – providing an opportunity to reflect on the history of the world’s oldest broadcasting organisation, and how we individually and collectively engage with broadcast content today and will into the future. AHRC’s programme of public engagement activity throughout 2022 will see arts and humanities researchers engage people with research about the history and future story of broadcasting in the UK.
Read more about AHRC research and engagement with the BBC centenary
Contact us
If you have queries about AHRC’s public engagement support and activities, please contact our public engagement team.
Email: engage@ahrc.ukri.org
Last updated: 15 July 2022