Philip Esler: The AHRC’s first decade

The Arts and Humanities Research Council has made the disciplines it funds more ambitious, more international, more relevant and more connected, says Philip Esler.

The Arts and Humanities Research Council celebrated its 10th anniversary on 1 May. Each year, the AHRC pumps about £105 million into arts and humanities research and postgraduate training in the UK—yet nothing like it existed until 1998, when its predecessor, the Arts and Humanities Research Board, was established. Thanks in large part to this funding, the arts and humanities in the UK have become more ambitious, more international, more relevant and more connected than ever before.

The AHRC has funded big projects that would be impossible without it, such as the Stonehenge Riverside excavations and the digitisation of the Old Bailey’s proceedings dating back to 1674. It has enabled international collaborations that were previously impossible, not only with the rest of Europe and North America, but also through its agreement with Fapesp, the research agency of the state of São Paulo in Brazil, and the Newton Fund, which fosters collaborative partnerships with emerging nations.