AHRC Hub for Public Engagement Webinar

Answer: There can be several or even many collaborators involved. There should be at least one main academic partner.

Answer: Community isn’t something that we will put any geographical limitation on, as, for example, you may be working on a project that crosses regional borders. We would love to hear your definition of what community means to your particular project, and we can work with you on this. 

If there’s a large distance between partners, you may need to explain how the partnership will work. We suggest adding this explanation throughout your application.

Answer: As the Hub is a devolved funding model from the AHRC for UK-based activities, on this occasion both academic and non-academic partners must be based in the UK.

Answer: At the Hub, we think of public engagement and social justice as ways to examine who holds power in knowledge-sharing. Collaboration between academic and non-academic partners allows more reflection on these power dynamics. We encourage projects to focus on debate, discussion, and co-creation. 

We also hope for public engagement alongside knowledge exchange so that your work impacts both each other and the wider public.

Answer: At this first stage, we’re not asking you for any formed thoughts about what those outcomes might look like. The creation of a logic model will help you pin those down during the shortlisting stage. 

From that point onwards, how much of the outcomes are viable will depend on the project. We want to tell the stories of the difference you’re making, and we want you to create an amazing piece of research. As a Hub, we’re really interested in the equitable access around the Hub and spoke projects. We use diversity and inclusion surveys attached to a lot of our activities, so that we can do some demographic analysis to see who we are reaching and who we have inadvertently missed. With this analysis, we can reflect on our processes.

Answer: Yes, absolutely. We haven’t got any limitations on how many applications can come from any one institution and academics can be based in any department or faculty. We recommend that you avoid submitting two applications with the same academic leads to avoid confusion.

Answer: In our initial application to host the AHRC Hub, we detailed engaging with the devolved governments and Public Policy Southampton looks at policy making UK-wide with their broad horizon scanning process.

Answer: The funding will go to the academic organisation. However, we will be looking for equity between the academic and non-academic partners in terms of how the funds are spent. The financial reporting implications will be to the academic partner who will need to follow their institution policies regarding IR35s and freelancer policies.

Answer: The researcher needs a contract that extends to the duration of the spoke project. As long as there is something in writing contractually about your affiliation to the university, even if it was honorary, would extend through the project duration, then this would be OK. You will need to have institutional access, for example the ability to do the ethics application and to liaise with your institution with regards to costings.

Answer: You could mobilise existing research, or you could have a new idea or a new partnership that you want to explore. Perhaps there's an existing opportunity in the community that needs more funding to continue and you could integrate research methodologies within that. 

We’re looking for how research can be co-created in the community. If the research question existed in previous projects, you could consider how to frame it in a dialogue with the non-academic communities that you are partnering with.

Answer: How the time commitment is managed will need to be negotiated between the academic and the non-academic partners. As a Hub we will offer to pay for travel and potentially other costs to people who need that support to attend our networking events, so we are open to these conversations. 

We expect clear and open communication around time commitment relating to the mentoring process.

Answer: As the Hub is hosted by the University of Southampton, we cannot fund any of our own academics.  

Answer: We are building a database of people interested in projects. Please write to us at our email address [email protected] and we can add you to that database to be shared with others. We also encourage you to attend one of our online or regional networking events.