Midlands universities receive research awards for collaboration and excellence in arts & humanities

The University of Birmingham, along with six other higher education institutions in the Midlands, will receive Doctoral Landscape Awards.

Arts building on University of Birmingham campus

The Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) has announced that the University of Birmingham, along with six other higher education institutions (HEIs) in the Midlands, will receive Doctoral Landscape Awards.

These prestigious funding awards, which reflect the HEIs’ successes in Arts and Humanities research and research supervision, are for scholarships for arts and humanities doctoral study.

The Universities of Birmingham, Nottingham, Leicester, Warwick, Birmingham City University, De Montfort University and Coventry University, have all secured Doctoral Landscape Awards, enabling these leading Midlands institutions to continue to build on the thriving relationship and collaborative community of doctoral students producing world-class arts and humanities research.

The Landscape Awards will contribute to ensuring the longer-term health of these disciplines by supporting a diverse and talented new pipeline of postgraduates, who will go on to make key contributions both to their disciplinary fields and to innovation in wider society.

Professor Helen Abbott, University of Birmingham

Only 50 universities across the UK have received the funding which has been allocated through a formula-based approach. Each institutional award will support 15 full-time PhD students, with studentships starting in October 2026 – three per year, over a five-year period – and will contribute towards the AHRC’s three-fold strategy for post-graduate research funding, alongside Collaborative Doctoral Partnerships and Doctoral Focal Awards.

Professor Helen Abbott, Pro-Vice-Chancellor and Head of College of Arts and Law, said: “The University of Birmingham is delighted to be awarded AHRC Doctoral Landscape Awards. The University of Birmingham is fully committed to our extensive range of AHRC-remit disciplines. The Landscape Awards will contribute to ensuring the longer-term health of these disciplines by supporting a diverse and talented new pipeline of postgraduates, who will go on to make key contributions both to their disciplinary fields and to innovation in wider society. We are especially pleased to build on the postgraduate training successes of the last decade with our Hub partners.”

All institutions receiving Doctoral Landscape Awards will be part of an AHRC-supported regional Hub. The University of Nottingham’s Professor Royan, who is Director of Midlands4Cities, said: “I am delighted to be leading the discussions on the Midlands Hub, with a view to maintaining the strengths of Midlands3Cities and Midlands4Cities, developed over a decade, in sharing best practice, developing collaborations and being a point of contact for external partners.”

AHRC Executive Chair Professor Christopher Smith, said: “The AHRC Doctoral Landscape Awards provide flexible funding to allow universities to build on existing excellence in research and opportunities for innovation across the arts and humanities. They will support the development of talented people and, alongside our other doctoral schemes, contribute to a vibrant, diverse and internationally-attractive research and innovation system.”

Notes for editors

  • For media inquiries please contact Ellie Hail, Communications Officer, University of Birmingham on +44 (0)7966 311 409. Out-of-hours, please call +44 (0) 121 414 2772.

  • The University of Birmingham is ranked amongst the world’s top 100 institutions. Its work brings people from across the world to Birmingham, including researchers, teachers and more than 8,000 international students from over 150 countries.