REACH Consortium Collaborative Doctoral Partnerships

The REACH (‘Revisiting and Enhancing Approaches to Collections and Heritage’) Consortium is the holder of an AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Partnership award.

REACH was awarded 11 collaborative doctoral studentships under CDP3 and is very pleased to announce that the Consortium has been awarded a further award under CDP4 of 13 collaborative doctoral studentships.

REACH unites 5 nationally significant heritage institutions / Independent Research Organisations (IROs) with rich, extensive collections, a wide geographic spread, shared research interests and a strong collective track record of HEI collaboration through doctoral supervision and UKRI research grant participation.

REACH collection resources range from the medieval to contemporary and cover visual and material culture, sites, architecture, landscape and archival holdings.

The REACH consortium represents our desire to mobilise our shared research themes, the links across our world-class collections, buildings and landscapes, and our cross-disciplinary staff expertise.

REACH Consortium members

• Royal Museums Greenwich (PI; IRO since 2006): comprises the National Maritime Museum, the Queen’s House, the Royal Observatory, and the tea clipper Cutty Sark. Collections relate to British and global histories, maritime history, art, science and heritage science.

• National Portrait Gallery (IRO since 2006): promotes, through portraiture, appreciation of men and women who have contributed to British history and culture, and understanding of portraits in all media. Collections comprise paintings, sculptures, drawings, photographs and archives.

• Historic Royal Palaces (IRO since 2014): responsible for the Tower of London, Hampton Court Palace, Kensington Palace, Kew Palace, Banqueting House Whitehall and Hillsborough Castle and Gardens. Collections include the Royal Ceremonial Dress Collection.

• British Film Institute (IRO since 2017): holds one of the world’s largest collections of moving image materials including feature and documentary films, tv programmes, photographs, scripts, posters and personal papers.

• National Trust (IRO since 2019): Europe’s largest conservation charity and one of the world’s largest heritage organizations. Responsible for, among other things, 500 historic properties, alongside diverse landscapes, material culture, fine art and archival collections.

Our overarching research theme is on the construction of diverse identities in British and global contexts, and their representation or invisibility within historic and contemporary heritage practices and debates.

Our strategic aims are:

• to recover marginalised histories, champion new perspectives and tackle challenging histories;
• to promote the engagement of diverse audiences and communities with our collections;
• to foreground underused elements of our collections for research and public benefit;
• to reshape public and scholarly expectations of our holdings and institutional priorities, and create positive public outcomes from our doctoral research;
• to create a vibrant and diverse CDP cohort.

Studentship proposals starting in October 2024

Expressions of Interest in submitting a collaborative studentship proposal are now being sought from HEIs to collaborate with one or more of the five REACH partner organisations listed above.

Themes

A key ambition of the REACH consortium is to forge genuinely cross-consortium projects, so we encourage HEI partners to approach us creatively, thinking across our joint collections, histories, and concerns and to relate the project to one or more of the REACH cross-cutting themes below:

1. Identities in British and global contexts
2. The migration of people, objects and ideas
3. Diverse histories, gender and sexuality
4. Heritage narratives and public engagement
5. Conservation science, materiality and environments
6. Cultural approaches to science, technology and media

We welcome submission of practice-based proposals.

Disciplinary areas

REACH encourages projects across the 3 AHRC Primary Research Areas: Histories, Cultures and Heritage; Creative and Performing Arts; Languages and Literature. Particular emphasis is placed on: History; Cultural and Museum Studies; Design; Media; Visual Arts; Archaeology; Information and Communication Technologies; Political Science and International Studies; Religion; and Literature. Work in aspects of defined AHRC interest in Area Studies and Cultural Geography will be supported.

Student experience

One of the key student benefits of the consortium, REACH uses its scale and close strategic alignment to construct a distinctive student experience, including: cross-consortium research projects and developmental placements; wide supervisory resources; clear structures for supervision, feedback and mentoring; flexible training and placement programmes across members; a vibrant consortium cohort; and outstanding opportunities for developing research, communication, project management and networking skills.

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI)

When recruiting students, REACH actively seeks applications from individuals whose backgrounds are under-represented in the heritage sector and the histories it communicates. When writing an EoI please bear in mind that should you be invited to submit a full application you will be asked how you intend to encourage and support recruitment of students from diverse backgrounds.

Ethical concerns

When writing an EoI please bear in mind that any potential ethical concerns arising from your doctoral proposal should be flagged early.

Duty of care

REACH takes seriously its duty of care towards its students, including but not limited to: the undertaking of any emotionally demanding research such as into traumatic subjects; and undertaking research in terms of doctoral themes of wider public sensitivity that might attract media or Press interest. The EoI must flag any areas of concern in this regard.

Practical examples of cross-consortium doctoral projects

• a completely jointly conceived and co-supervised project between an HEI and two REACH partners which draws on both partners’ sites, collections and subject matter equally (although one REACH partner will still need to be named as lead co-supervisor for administrative purposes);
• a project that is mostly led and co-supervised by one REACH partner (together with the HEI co-supervisor) because the majority of the collections and motivation for the project lies with this partner, but with an additional REACH partner named as ‘second REACH co-supervisor’ because they have important complementary collections, themes or expertise;
• a project where the involvement of a second REACH partner might not be significant enough to warrant official co-supervision. In these cases, that partner (or partners) may be listed on the project as ‘providing access to collections or expertise that may help inform the project’.

If in any doubt, please ask for guidance. You must contact the REACH member organisation informally before submitting your EoI.

Process and deadline

To submit an Expression of Interest, please complete the Expression of Interest form by 18.00 on Friday 29 September 2023 and return to [email protected] marked ‘REACH EoI’.

Your proposal will then be sifted as quickly as possible by the REACH steering committee, and if your project is suitable, you will be invited to complete a full application for your proposal, with a deadline of Friday 24 November 2023. A final panel sift will then be undertaken in January 2024 to determine the final studentship projects that will be submitted to the AHRC.