Midlands universities receive research awards to encourage collaboration and excellence in arts and humanities
The University of Leicester is amongst six other higher education institutions (HEIs) in the Midlands to receive Doctoral Landscape Awards from the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC).
The awards will offer additional strength and stability for arts and humanities research at the country’s leading HEIs.
The Universities of Leicester, Nottingham, Birmingham, Warwick, Birmingham City University, De Montfort University and Coventry University, have all secured Doctoral Landscape Awards, enabling these leading Midlands institutions to continue to build on the thriving relationship and collaborative community of doctoral students producing world-class arts and humanities research.
Only 50 universities across the UK have received the funding which has been allocated through a formula-based approach. Each institutional award will support 15 full-time PhD students, with studentships starting in October 2026 – three per year, over a five-year period – and will contribute towards the AHRC’s three-fold strategy for post-graduate research funding, alongside Collaborative Doctoral Partnerships and Doctoral Focal Awards.
Dr Isobel Whitelegg, Director of Postgraduate Research for the College of Social Sciences, Arts & Humanities, said: “We are delighted to have secured an exciting opportunity to support a new generation of researchers in contributing to our internationally celebrated Arts and Humanities research, while also building on and strengthening our collaboration with other UK universities who are also leaders in this field “
AHRC Executive Chair Professor Christopher Smith, said: “The AHRC Doctoral Landscape Awards provide flexible funding to allow universities to build on existing excellence in research and opportunities for innovation across the arts and humanities. They will support the development of talented people and, alongside our other doctoral schemes, contribute to a vibrant, diverse and internationally-attractive research and innovation system.”