Centre for Cultural Value: Collaborate Fund

Overview

The Centre for Cultural Value is building a shared understanding of the differences that arts, culture, heritage and screen make to people’s lives and to society.

They want cultural policy and practice to be shaped by rigorous research and evaluation of what works and what needs to change. To achieve this, they are working in collaboration with partners across the UK to:

• Make existing research more relevant and accessible so its insights can be understood and applied more widely.
• Support the cultural sector and funders to be rigorous in their approaches to evaluation and to foster a culture of reflection and learning.
• Encourage new research partnerships between academics and the cultural sector through our Collaborate programme.

Based at the University of Leeds, the Centre’s core partners are The Audience Agency and the Universities of Liverpool, Sheffield and Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh. The Centre is funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (part of UK Research and Innovation), Paul Hamlyn Foundation and Arts Council England.

About the fund

Collaborate is their open-call funding programme.

They will invest £200,000 into the UK cultural sector, which includes arts, cultural, heritage and screen practitioners and organisations. The fund is designed to support the development of rigorous, collaborative research projects into under-explored, sector-driven questions of cultural value.

Research topics will be identified by cultural sector organisations. They will then be supported to find a suitable academic research partner to jointly develop a specific research question, approach, methodology and project funding application.

As well as providing funding for projects, participation in the Collaborate programme will provide opportunities for professional development in collaborative research practice through skills sharing, active learning and access to a cohort of peers, workshops and learning resources.

Who can apply?

Cultural sector:

To be eligible, you must be:

• based in the UK
• currently working in the arts, cultural, heritage or screen sectors.
  This includes music, theatre, dance, visual arts, literature, combined arts, festivals, circus, carnivals, accredited museums, screen, libraries (where there is an arts, culture, heritage focus), archives and heritage organisations.

You must also be at least one of the following types of organisation or individual(s):

• a charitable or not-for-profit organisation, including social enterprises
• a creative practitioner or independent artist (this includes freelance collectives or individual practitioners working together)
• an arts and culture producing organisation, including arts and culture producing NPO (in England), RFO (in Scotland), Arts Portfolio Organisation (in Wales) or Arts Council NI AFP organisation (in Northern Ireland)
• a local authority-run art gallery, library or museum.

Applying as a duo/partnership/consortium

Eligible lead applicants may wish to work in partnership or with the support of other organisations or individuals as part of the proposed project. In this case, please complete the relevant section on the Expression of Interest form.

There should also be an eligible single lead organisation or individual for information and communication purposes, and, if successful, be the accountable organisation for any funding. Eligible creative practitioners or individual artists can also apply as freelance collectives or individual practitioners working together.

Again, there must be a lead applicant contact identified for information and communication purposes during the process, and, if successful, be the accountable individual for any funding

Academic researchers:

Individual academic researchers or research teams can apply from any discipline. You must have a PhD at the time of application or similar research qualification or research experience, and currently be working at a UK-based university or higher education institution.

What can you apply for?

They anticipate supporting up to 15 projects, with awards of between £5K and £20K which can be used to cover all or part-costs of collaborative projects lasting between 6-12 months.

Why apply?

Cultural sector applicants

• To explore and more deeply understand your practice and to communicate the cultural value of your work more effectively
• Working in partnership with academic researchers can help open up new ways of thinking, develop innovative ideas and practice and build new networks.
• You’ll also develop knowledge and skills in collaborative research, with access to a cohort of peers, and workshops and learning resources.

Academic applicants

• To co-develop a collaborative research project to more deeply understand an area of cultural value.
• The research could form the basis of future research publications, be cited as impact activity for future REF case studies or be the foundation for further external funding in the future.
• You’ll have access to a cohort of peers, learning resources and the chance to develop skills in research leadership and new ways to communicate research.

Project Types

They will support projects that:

• Investigate currently under-explored areas of cultural value

Covering topics or issues that need further research to strengthen the evidence base and/or which seek to investigate perspectives on cultural value from individuals who are currently underrepresented in cultural value research.

This includes but is not limited to people who:

• experience racism (people from migrant communities, Black, Asian and minoritised backgrounds)
• identify as D/deaf or disabled
• are from socio-economic backgrounds and communities that are under-represented in the cultural and research sectors
• Are rooted in the real world questions of the cultural sector partner and have relevance to their practice - supporting the cultural sector to better understand the value of their work to audiences, participants or communities in a way that is practically applicable.
• Contribute to developing new and innovative research methodologies for exploring cultural value. This includes emerging research methodologies – not limited to the field of arts and humanities - and /or the application of proven methodologies in new contexts.
• Model collaborative and reflective research practice- demonstrating respect for each partner’s knowledge and skills and placing value on learning from the process, not just the findings.
• Have the potential to form the basis of a longer-term partnership or programme of activity continuing to deliver value beyond the life of the project.

Please see their website for examples of the selected partnerships from the first round of Collaborate funding.

Expressions of Interest

• Stage 1: Expression of interest
  • Cultural sector organisations and individuals are invited through an open call to submit an online Expression of Interest (EOI).
• Stage 2: EOI assessment and notification
  • An assessment panel will consider EOIs for eligibility and fit. The ten strongest EOIs will be advertised to academic researchers to express their interest in collaborating on these projects. We will aim to notify everyone about the result of their EOI within two weeks of the closing date for submissions.
• Stage 3: Matchmaking
  • An assessment panel will consider all academic researcher submissions for eligibility and fit and identify a shortlist of up to three academic researchers who could be a suitable match. Cultural sector applicants will have two weeks to meet with and select a partner from the shortlisted academic researchers. If cultural sector applicants do not feel they can make a strong match with the potential academic research partners presented, they may withdraw from the programme at this stage.
• Stage 4: Partnership and research project development
  • Cultural sector applicants and their selected academic research partner will both be invited to attend a workshop aimed at establishing collaborative working and developing a research question and methodology. They will then have six weeks to work together to develop a full project funding application. If they are unable to jointly develop a project funding application within six weeks, they may withdraw from the programme at this stage.
• Stage 5: Project application assessment and notification
  • An assessment panel will review submitted project funding applications. Decisions will be made according to project funding criteria, which will be set out in the guidance for applicants. They expect to be able to award funding for a minimum of five projects in each round.
• Stage 6: Funding and research
  • Awarded project teams will be issued with contracts and payment schedules set against the activities outlined in their project funding application. Payment will be subject to the delivery of activity and evidence of spending as appropriate. The funding shall be awarded to the cultural sector partner in the first instance. However, any proportion of funding can be made directly to the academic research partner for eligible costs (e.g. research assistant time) if requested and as outlined within the project application. There is no requirement that any proportion of the funding will be ring-fenced for any specific activity. Please refer to the FAQs on their website for details of eligible and ineligible costs. All awards are inclusive of any applicable VAT.
• Stage 7: Documentation and dissemination
  • As part of the funding conditions, all project teams will be expected to produce information about the research insights and/or learning outcomes that have emerged from their collaborative research project. These findings will be disseminated to the wider sector. They anticipate, at the least, this taking the form of a final report and/or case study written in plain language. They would also welcome new and compelling ways to present project findings and learning outcomes provided that all documentation can be produced in a way that is accessible. They will also request that research teams contribute to the development of content produced by the Centre for Cultural Value that will be used to showcase and highlight the outcomes from projects supported by Collaborate funding. This may take the form of participating in interviews or sharing images or videos from projects that can be included in news pieces, blog posts or films.