Scheme Coordination and Cohort-Building: Early Career Research Fellowships in Cultural and Heritage IROs
Lead Research Organisation:
Victoria and Albert Museum
Department Name: Research
Abstract
This programme will develop a cohort of future leaders in the cultural heritage sector, by supporting Early Career Research Fellows to develop ambitious and innovative research projects, buttressed by a robust and expansive career development and mentoring programme, in partnership with the IRO community and wider GLAM sector.
This programme is designed to address current shortcomings in the sector, most notably the break in the pipeline after the end of doctoral students' studies, by providing a cohort of Early Career Fellows with a thorough grounding of key issues in the cultural and heritage sector, equip them with the tools, techniques and confidence to navigate IROs and GLAM sector organisations as researchers. It seeks to expand and retain diversity, and build research capacity in the sector, producing high-quality, innovative research with public benefit.
A Coordination Team, based at the V&A, will respond to both the needs of host organisations and individual Fellows, through three workstreams: I) Supporting the Development and Commissioning of Fellowship Proposals; II) Designing and Delivering a Cohort Development Programme; III) Evaluating and Reporting.
The programme activities will seek to balance the expertise of the Coordination Team in designing a programme of events and activities that respond to GLAM sector and future leadership needs, whilst recognising the flexibility needed to respond to the collective needs of the Fellowship cohort and the individual Fellows themselves. A responsive grants scheme will be offered to enable Fellows to build on and expand their individually- and collectively-led opportunities. Equality Impact Assessments will be conducted throughout the planning for the activities, considering accessibility needs, accommodating different styles of learning, and additional considerations such as caring responsibilities. This will guide our approach to the balance between in person and remote/hybrid events.
Through the delivery and evaluation of this pilot programme, we aim to create a template for future research fellowships that can be rolled out across the cultural and heritage sector.
This programme is designed to address current shortcomings in the sector, most notably the break in the pipeline after the end of doctoral students' studies, by providing a cohort of Early Career Fellows with a thorough grounding of key issues in the cultural and heritage sector, equip them with the tools, techniques and confidence to navigate IROs and GLAM sector organisations as researchers. It seeks to expand and retain diversity, and build research capacity in the sector, producing high-quality, innovative research with public benefit.
A Coordination Team, based at the V&A, will respond to both the needs of host organisations and individual Fellows, through three workstreams: I) Supporting the Development and Commissioning of Fellowship Proposals; II) Designing and Delivering a Cohort Development Programme; III) Evaluating and Reporting.
The programme activities will seek to balance the expertise of the Coordination Team in designing a programme of events and activities that respond to GLAM sector and future leadership needs, whilst recognising the flexibility needed to respond to the collective needs of the Fellowship cohort and the individual Fellows themselves. A responsive grants scheme will be offered to enable Fellows to build on and expand their individually- and collectively-led opportunities. Equality Impact Assessments will be conducted throughout the planning for the activities, considering accessibility needs, accommodating different styles of learning, and additional considerations such as caring responsibilities. This will guide our approach to the balance between in person and remote/hybrid events.
Through the delivery and evaluation of this pilot programme, we aim to create a template for future research fellowships that can be rolled out across the cultural and heritage sector.
Organisations
| Description | This award supports the coordination of a pilot programme of Early Career Research Fellowships in Cultural and Heritage Institutions. Eight Early Career Research Fellows are undertaking individual research fellowship based in a cultural or heritage organisation, and report individually on their own findings and achievements. For cohort development and scheme coordination, at this mid point of the award, key findings have been made relating to what resources, infrastructure and processes are needed in cultural and heritage organisations to support early career researchers to thrive. Through a bespoke programme of practical training workshops (e.g. on funding opportunities; CV development; project and budget management; navigating institutions), seminar-style sessions on aspects of sector-based research (e.g. on engaging with communities; evaluation methods; the cultural and heritage sector and its networks; storytelling with objects and sites), the development of a blog series, 'Perspectives on Research' as a public resource; the implementation of a mentoring programme and guidance, developed with Cultural Associates Oxford; and through the creation of mechanisms to support informal, peer-to-peer learning, the award is pioneering a coordinated, cohort-based approach to early career research in cultural and heritage organisations, and developing a blueprint for how this might be rolled out more widely. It is also enabling fellows to engage in aspects of cultural and heritage practice, such as exhibition and display development; approaches to collections access; cataloguing of objects; developing relationships between institutions and communities of interest; building connections between collection organisations in the UK and internationally, and developing shared approaches to particular topical challenges and issues. |
| Exploitation Route | It is intended that the resources that have been made available through the award - for example, the public blog posts - will be used by others engaged in research support and that they will help to raise visibility and understanding of research in the cultural and heritage sector. At the award is still active we have not yet developed the full 'blueprint' that will be developed for dissemination across the sector and to funders and other relevant bodies. It is intended that this award provides the first evidence base for the benefits that embedded early career researchers can bring not to cultural and heritage organisations and their many and varied audiences, and that it might inform further funding opportunities that could build on this initiative by enabling a consistent 'blueprint' for the sector. |
| Sectors | Creative Economy Culture Heritage Museums and Collections |
| URL | https://www.vam.ac.uk/research/projects/early-career-fellowships-in-cultural-and-heritage-institutions |
| Description | Across this programme, individual fellows' work is leading to new public-facing outputs such as exhibitions and displays, the updating of catalogue records for objects held in UK cultural and heritage organisations, the development or piloting of new policies, protocols or approaches to cultural and heritage collections and/or sites. Public-facing events and publications are enabling new audiences of major cultural and heritage institutions to engage with new research, and organisations are enabled through the fellowships to build or deepen national and international partnerships with other institutions and/or stakeholder communities. At this mid point of the award, it is too early to say how the cohort development findings may have been used beyond those directly involved in the programme (this will be for the next reporting period) but it is clear that the programme is developing a template for early career research development and support in the cultural and heritage sector that it will be possible to share to provide guidance across the sector. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2024 |
| Sector | Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections |
| Impact Types | Cultural |
| Description | Influence on British Academy policy team's work on SHAPE careers |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Participation in a guidance/advisory committee |
| URL | https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/projects/shape-research-careers/ |
| Description | AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Partnership Coordination Group |
| Amount | £476,256 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | AH/Z505778/1 |
| Organisation | Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 03/2024 |
| End | 03/2027 |
| Description | Early Career Research Fellowships Showcase |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
| Results and Impact | Around 30 participants, representing different Independent Research Organisations, Arts and Humanities Research Council and other sector colleagues participated in a day-long research showcase organised at V&A South Kensington to share research by the cohort of Early Career Research Fellows in Cultural and Heritage Institutions. The event was organised at the mid-point in this two year pilot programme. The showcase prompted discussions about changes to practice in cultural and heritage organisations, proposed synergies between fellows' research projects to pursue, and highlighted the public-facing impacts of research that are arising for audiences of each of those cultural and heritage organisations. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2025 |