Crafting Care for People, Place and Planet (Doctoral Focal Awards in the Arts and Humanities)

The Crafting Care for People, Place and Planet Doctoral Focal Award (DFA) College aligns with the AHRC ‘arts and humanities for a healthy planet, people, and place’ research theme. Our DFA College aims to equip a new and inclusive generation of researchers, deeply versed in interdisciplinary approaches and multi-sectoral skills, to tackle urgent challenges that do not fit one discipline or perspective.
This DFA College is rooted in the University of Liverpool’s interdisciplinary Centre for Health, Arts, Society & Environment (CHASE), which will work in partnership with the University of Central Lancashire and the Royal Northern College of Music (a small specialist institution), both of which bring thematic expertise and extensive experience of diverse doctoral provision. Recruitment and training will be centred around four cross-institutional interdisciplinary themes: Care-as-Craft, Ecologies of Care, Creativity and Care, and Curating the Future.
PhD projects will be co-created between prospective Postgraduate Researchers (PGRs) and interdisciplinary supervisory teams, with recruitment including a holistic review of candidates’ preparedness for postgraduate research, as opposed to a simple assessment of academic track record. A six-strand training programme has been designed to address baseline and advanced skills needs which include (i) general transferable skills training; (ii) discipline-specific training; (iii) methods training; (iv) theme-specific medical and environmental humanities modules; (iv) bespoke courses informed by a DFA Development Needs Analysis; and (v) employability training. All DFA PGRs will have the opportunity to undertake a placement during their PhD and will be made CHASE Fellows after graduation, continuing their access to training and networks for at least three years.
The consortium will be delivered in collaboration with ten non-HEI partners in key sectors: health (Alder Hey Children’s Hospital, Liverpool Heart and Chest Hospital, Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust, Wirral Public Health), environment (Canal and River Trust, The Mersey Forest), and the arts (DaDa, Liverpool Biennial, Liverpool Philharmonic, National Museums Liverpool). Non-HEI partners will be involved in co-supervising Collaborative Doctoral Awards (CDAs), supporting placements, contributing to our training programme, and steering the direction and development of the college by sitting on panels and boards.
The aims and objectives of this DFA College are to (i) position the arts and humanities as diverse models of practice; (ii) draw on and further key conceptual innovations; (iii) nurture cross-disciplinary research; (iv) disseminate innovative-creative methods; (v) use arts and humanities creative potentials to dissolve boundaries between sectors, recognising expert marginalised or excluded voices; (vi) employ collaborative and participatory approaches to research; and (vii) create future research leaders in academic and non-academic sectors.
We will measure success against these objectives by monitoring the diversity of our cohort, the range of interdisciplinary projects being supported, the skills development of our students, and the scale of non-HEI partner involvement in all areas of our programme. We will prioritise expertise-by-experience, whether that is living with illness, encountering exclusion, or working as an established professional or practitioner. Our partners are united in their commitment to forging non-traditional pathways to PhD study as vitally enriching a research culture with care at its centre.