Our ability to fully appreciate the richness of world history, literature and belief requires the research expertise and language skills to better understand the cultures, art and traditions the world around us. The Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) is pleased to announce details of its major new funding initiative aimed to enhance the UK’s research strengths in this area: the Open World Research Initiative. The initiative will be looking to fund exciting and ambitious new investigations rooted in language expertise in cultures from across the world, ultimately helping to inform what it means to be human in a global world.

The initiative is central to AHRC’s wider strategy for language-led research – research that is rooted in a deep appreciation of the language and literary traditions of human cultures. The AHRC will invest around £20m on at least five research programmes over four years from 2016. Programmes will be expected to develop innovative ways of working and to achieve wider impacts by engaging extensively with public audiences, policy bodies, private enterprises, the third sector and international partners. The Research Organisations involved in a programme will be required to demonstrate longer-term strategic commitment to the initiative, including sustainability beyond the initial funding period.  It is expected that after the four-year period of Research Council funding, there will be a clear and sustainable legacy of the work, including partnerships, and on-going impact both within and beyond academia.

For further press information from the AHRC, please contact Danielle Moore-Chick on 01793 41 6021 or d.moore-chick@ahrc.ac.uk