OU awarded to support world-class doctoral training

The Open University (OU) has been awarded funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) to train postgraduate researchers in creative economy and arts and humanities.

The awards are in response to a change in the way the AHRC funds research students and a move away from the Doctoral Training Partnerships model to a combination of Doctoral Landscape Awards and Doctoral Focal Awards.

Doctoral Landscape Awards provide a baseline of funding to underpin the UK’s overall doctoral capability and capacity needs for the arts and humanities.

Doctoral Focal Awards fund future-facing training in areas vital to the UK’s creative economy and societal wellbeing.

Since these changes were made, the OU has been one of only 50 institutions awarded a Doctoral Landscape Award representing five cohorts of three fully funded students. Collaboration to improve training support and offer further opportunities for cohort development will be facilitated through regional hubs, with the OU working with the South East/South West Hub.

The OU has also been a co-applicant in two of the 10 successful Doctoral Focal Awards announced on 3 July 2025.

This four-year award, which merits the recruitment of eight studentships under the theme of ‘Creative Economy’, the OU (OU Scotland, the Faculty of Science, Technology and Mathematics and the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences) together with Scotland’s Rural College is part of a successful bid led by the Glasgow School of Art entitled ‘A Golden Thread: Crafting the Creative Economy from Scotland’s Highlands, Lowlands & Islands’. The funding will support interdisciplinary exploration of craft practice and its application to and in future-focussed sectors such as space, aquaculture and bio-design.

The OU is also part of a consortium with Welsh universities, the outcome of which is awaited.

Commenting on the impact of these successes for the OU, Professor Rose Capdevilla, Associate Dean for Research in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, said:

“We are delighted to have successfully bid to the AHRC doctoral awards under their new schemes. We look forward to collaborative working across faculties, nations and institutions to support the next generation of arts and humanities researchers.”

Commenting on its effect on the recruitment of the next generation of researchers, Professor Eleni Andreouli, Director of Research Degrees, Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences, said:

“We are very proud to have achieved an AHRC Focal Award with our partner institutions in Scotland. The new award fits superbly with our research strengths in the arts and with The Open University’s ethos of supporting the next generation of researchers through inclusive and interdisciplinary learning. We look forward to recruiting our first cohort of students in 2026."