What next for languages research in the UK?

This project tackles the challenge of "What next for languages research in the UK?" by a. evaluating current work and capabilities, b. horizon-scanning for emerging areas and new opportunities, and c. undertaking a gap analysis between current work and capabilities in research areas, methods, outputs and impacts, and the "ideal future state" of languages research (itself a notion requiring careful balancing of competing factors). Consulting widely with languages researchers at all career stages and in all research settings in the UK, with award-holders, subject associations, external stakeholders and potential beneficiaries, and the AHRC/UKRI, the project will yield a report with a series of recommendations, based on a literature review, gap analysis of existing work and the wider languages research landscape, and a mapping of current and potential foci in languages research against the needs of government departments' areas of research interest (ARIs) and policy areas, including those not typically funded by the AHRC. The project will equip the AHRC, government departments and other potential end-users, HEIs, subject associations and, ultimately, teams and individuals engaged in languages research with a solid basis for strategic decision-making about new directions for global languages research & impact work and for its funding.
The "global languages" remit of the project is equated here with the AHRC's definition of "Modern Languages" as "any language currently in use in the world today, including sign languages". The remit of "languages research" thus encompasses: the larger modern European languages that historically dominate "Modern Languages" at universities; "smaller" European languages (e.g. Dutch, Portuguese); the UK's indigenous languages (e.g. Welsh); the indigenous languages of postcolonial societies; minoritized languages (e.g. Breton within France); the UK's community languages (e.g. Polish, Gujarati, sign languages); as well as, crucially, other major world languages (e.g. Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Urdu). (These categories partially overlap).
Specifically, the project will:
1. take stock of the current languages-based research and impact landscape in the UK
2. identify new and emerging research questions, themes, approaches, and methods in research and impact
3. identify new areas of potential impact and influence, including policy at the level of UK government departments' areas of interest as well as at other levels of policy-making and implementation
4. identify areas of focus in research and input that may be considered to be currently "under-represented"
5. identify strengths, weaknesses, risks, and opportunities regarding the scope of UK languages researchers to participate in and/or lead: i. current AHRC-remit research; ii. research that addresses current challenge-led funding calls; as well as iii. research addressing other agendas of non-academic communities (e.g. aspects of Sustainable Development Goals; Government departments' ARIs) not usually funded by the AHRC.
The project will include analysis of qualitative and quantitative data (e.g. AHRC/UKRI data, and relevant HESA, REF, KEF, and HEBCI data, subject to availability within the 5-month timeframe), desk-based research, and document analysis. To maximize engagement and, accordingly, representativeness of the languages research landscape (at all career stages and in all settings), the project will also incorporate the evaluation of data from questionnaires, interviews, and focus groups. The project will, specifically, solicit input from: subject associations; award-holders; early career researchers and postgraduates as well as established staff; and (with assistance from the AHRC team as well as from the University of Nottingham's networks with business and government), wider stakeholders and (potential) end-users of languages-based research, including government departments.