This document outlines the key features and requirements of coordinating centres being established to support community engagement related to the centenary of World War 1. The centres will facilitate collaboration between academic and public histories, contribute to research themes, and provide expertise, training, and funding to support community projects. Successful proposals will demonstrate cross-sector collaboration, support for capacity building, and plans for sustainable legacies. Funding of up to £500,000 over 3 years will be provided to 5-7 selected centres.

1. Co-ordinating Centres for
Community Engagement in the
Centenary of the First World
War
Key Features of the Funding Call

2. Key Features of Co-ordinating Centres:
Open Call
• Open Call - No need to have had any prior
involvement with Care for the Future or
Connected Communities or HLF.
• Lead research organisation needs to be
eligible for AHRC funding but looking for
proposals with a wide range of collaborations
• Not a route for funding specific research
projects already identified which relate to the
First World War – these can be directed
towards responsive mode or other routes

3. Key Features of Co-ordinating Centres:
Cross-cutting Research Themes
• Two-way dialogue between ‘academic’ and ‘public’
histories
• Contributing to Care for the Future Theme e.g.
understanding processes of commemoration; concepts of
memory, legacy, heritage; emotions evoked by reflections
on the past, transitions from trauma and conflict, etc.
• Contributing to the Connected Communities Prog., e.g.
around processes & ethics of community engagement/
participatory research / co-production, understanding the
temporal dimension to communities & connectivity etc.
• Identify areas of specialist expertise relating to the FWW
for support at a UK level plus (normally) local / regional
support

4. Key Features of Co-ordinating Centres:
Collaboration with HLF
• Working with HLF, locally &
nationally across all its funding
programmes for community heritage
• Responsive support and advice to a
diverse range of community groups
across the UK seeking & awarded
HLF funding
• Opening up expertise and resources
within research organisations to
communities

5. Key Features of Co-ordinating Centres:
Wider Collaboration
• Applications should be collaborative across all three
of the following dimensions:
- across research organisations;
- across disciplines in the arts and humanities (and
beyond if appropriate);
- with partners outside the higher education
sector
• Proposals involving international collaborations will
also be welcomed

6. Key Features of Co-ordinating Centres:
Access to Research Expertise: Co-
ordinating a Research Network
• Broad, inclusive multi-disciplinary network of
researchers with relevant expertise willing to provide
advice, mentor and support community groups (e.g.
historic context, methods, project management etc.)
• Network members will need support from their
institutions for their role.
• Centre to help make connections, provide training and
support.
• Initial network identified but expected to grow over
time.

7. Key Features of Co-ordinating Centres:
Connecting with Communities: Community
engagement, responsiveness and outreach.
• Beacons for outreach, engagement and collaboration
at a local/ regional and UK-wide scale (e.g. open days,
road shows, exhibitions, tours of facilities, on-line /
digital media activities, etc.)
• Proactive approach to developing new links, issues of
inclusion and not just existing collaborators / those
already well-connected
• Encouragement / moral support; nurturing innovation
and creativity; advising; etc.
• Not advice on whether applications are appropriate for
HLF funding

8. Key Features of Co-ordinating Centres:
Supporting Community Research: Advice,
Training and Access to Resources
• Provision of training and support based on a needs
analysis, especially those groups with less access to
other heritage expertise
• Access to archives, collections, libraries, and other
facilities and sign-posting to other resources
• Feedback and self-evaluation
• Outline broad approach and ideas in proposal

9. Key Features of Co-ordinating Centres:
Supporting Collaborative and Co-produced
Research Projects
• Collaborative research project fund of at least one third
total centre application (c£170k)
• Collaborative / co-produced projects to extend or
follow-up & add value to HLF funded activity through
more substantial engagement and supplementary
activities leading to additional outputs / outcomes
• Process for allocating these funds to applications from
network members and community groups but project
should emerge and not be specified at this stage

10. Key Features of Co-ordinating Centres:
Critical Research Reflection
• Critical reflection on processes of connecting
academic and public histories and the legacy this
leaves.
• Reflecting on the portfolio of commemorative
activities being undertaken, e.g. what is/ is not
being remembered, whose voices, who is involved
and who isn’t, what tensions emerge etc
• Reflecting on learning and input to Care for the
Future and Connected Communities and broader
academic and public debates

11. Key Features of Co-ordinating Centres:
Building Capacity: Developing
Infrastructure, Skills and ECRs
• Support for post-graduate students and early
career researchers, working with NCCPE
• Support for research network around issues
such as ethics
• Infrastructure to support engagement,
guidance, tools, case studies
• Building partnerships and developing ways of
working together

12. Key Features of Co-ordinating Centres:
Wider Connections: Connecting to Broader
Initiatives
• Centres will need to work with each other & with
Connected Communities & Theme Leadership
Fellows and with AHRC, NCCPE & HLF & participate
in relevant Programme / Theme events
• Linkages to other activities organised as a part of
the First World War Centenary Partnership
• Links to other AHRC partnerships and activities e.g.
with BBC or around the digital legacy

13. Other Issues:
Grant Leadership and Management
• Careful attention should be given to issues of
intellectual leadership and project management given
the ambitious nature of these centres and wide range of
objectives.
• Time commitments and leadership / management
structure should be commensurate with the scale and
ambition of the grants and their roles within the Theme
• Clear contact point / co-ordinator for communities and
links with NCCPE and other partners
• Roles should be clearly identified and if necessary
specialist support included if appropriate.

14. Other Issues:
Institutional Support
• As these are major strategic objectives we will be
looking for alignment with strategies within, and/or
support from, the research organisations.
• Support for research network members to engage with
community groups is essential.
• This will also be particularly important in, for example:
embedding and sustaining some activities & securing
the longer term legacy of the centres; supporting the
development of wider research capabilities and
collaborations; and, opening up resources and facilities
to communities.

15. Assessment Criteria
• Fit to call
• Capacity to inspire, encourage and nurture innovation
• Appropriate plans for outreach activities and brokering
connections
• Effective strategy for supporting community activities
and research
• Plans for supporting high quality collaborative research
with communities
• People, skills and expertise
• Partnerships, networking and capacity to make wider
connections

16. Assessment Criteria (cont.)
• Contribution to the Connected Communities
Programme and Care for the Future Theme
• Contribution to building capacity
• Leadership, management, achievability and feasibility
• Strength of research organisation commitment & longer
term sustainability
• Pathways to impact, outputs and dissemination
• Overall value for money
“lay the foundations for a sustainable legacy of
relationships, practices, resources and structures for
building dialogue between academic and public
historical research”

17. Further Information on the Call:
Funding Available
• Applications can be for up to £500,000 (fEC)
• Centres to start on 1 January 2014 and be for an
initial 3-year period ending on 31 December
2016.
• We expect to fund 5-7 Co-ordinating Centres
through this call subject to quality
• Some adjustments to plans may be required to
maximise coherence and reduce duplication
across the 5-7 centres

18. Further Information on the Call:
Timetable
• April 2013 Full call details published
• 14 June briefing meeting
• 16 July 2013 (16:00hrs) Closing date for full proposals.
• September / October 2013 Assessment Panel
• By end of October 2013 Inform applicants
• November 2013 Outcomes publicly announced
• 12 December 2013 Meeting between centre teams to
share plans
• 1 January 2014 Co-ordinating centres start

19. Further Information on the Call:
Timetable
• 31 January 2015 First Annual report from centres
• End of 2015 Interim report from co-ordinating centres
• First half 2016 Review progress & consider options for
phase 2
• End of 2016 First phase funding ends
• 2017-2019 Possible second phase activities

20. Further Information on the Call:
Submission of Proposals
• Submission through JeS
• 10 page case for support – guidance on format in the
call document
• Only one application can be submitted from any one
Research Organisation (but can also be involved as Co-Is,
collaborators in other proposals). Early strategic
engagement with RO leadership and management
teams & research / public engagement offices essential.
• Please make sure you allow time for your institution to
submit your application to AHRC ahead of the deadline
of 1600hrs on 16 July 2013 and try to avoid leaving it to
the last minute!

21. Other Funding Opportunities
• Shoehorning existing research project ideas into this call
won’t work! – only proposals that fully meet the aims of
the call will stand a chance. Other types of research project
should be directed towards other funding routes.
• Other thematic or Programme opportunities e.g. Care for
the Future:
- Theme large grants call closes on 10 October 2013
- We are planning a workshop for early career
researchers in December 2013/ January 2014 with
follow-up funding. Call for participants expected in
autumn 2013
• Responsive mode grants, fellowships and networking
schemes –potential to link into the theme / Prog. - Open
Deadlines

22. Questions?
Contacts for further queries in Team C
Jill Mustard (j.mustard@ahrc.ac.uk, tel: 01793
416085) or
Paul McWhirter (p.mcwhirter@ahrc.ac.uk tel:
01793 416083) or
Susan Hanshaw (s.hanshaw@ahrc.ac.uk tel:
01793 416063)