Centre for Music Education and Social Justice

AHRC Hub for Public Engagement Webinar

On November 7 2024, the AHRC Hub hosted a webinar which focused on the work, and funding available, from the new AHRC Hub for Public Engagement with Music Research. The Hub will fund and support four projects aimed at social change by connecting researchers with non-academic music organisations.

Speakers included:

Erin Johnson-Williams

Lisa Tregale

Caz Creagh 

Joseph Owen

 

Watch the webinar 

    This is an edited version of the live capture. The question and answer segment has been removed. You can read questions and answers from the webinar below.

AHRC Hub Webinar Q&A

Question: Can a spoke project link to more than one partner organisation or does it have to be just one non-academic partner?

Answer: There can be several or even many collaborators involved. There should be at least one main academic partner.

 

Question: How does the Hub define community? Is this opportunity aimed at purely geographical communities or are other types of communities intended? Does the academic partner need to be local to the non-academic partner and/or the community that the project will focus on?

Answer: Community isn’t something that we will put any geographical limitation on, as, for example, you may be working on a project that crosses regional borders. We would love to hear your definition of what community means to your particular project, and we can work with you on this. 

If there’s a large distance between partners, you may need to explain how the partnership will work. We suggest adding this explanation throughout your application.

 

Question: Must the non-academic partner be UK based?

Answer: As the Hub is a devolved funding model from the AHRC for UK-based activities, on this occasion both academic and non-academic partners must be based in the UK.

 

Question: How do you define public engagement in relation to knowledge exchange and mutually beneficial relationships?

Answer: At the Hub, we think of public engagement and social justice as ways to examine who holds power in knowledge-sharing. Collaboration between academic and non-academic partners allows more reflection on these power dynamics. We encourage projects to focus on debate, discussion, and co-creation. 

We also hope for public engagement alongside knowledge exchange so that your work impacts both each other and the wider public.

 

Question: Will applications need to explain in detail how we’d measure outcomes and are there plans for the Hub to do additional evaluation, for example tracking general outcomes for the Hub?

Answer: At this first stage, we’re not asking you for any formed thoughts about what those outcomes might look like. The creation of a logic model will help you pin those down during the shortlisting stage. 

From that point onwards, how much of the outcomes are viable will depend on the project. We want to tell the stories of the difference you’re making, and we want you to create an amazing piece of research. As a Hub, we’re really interested in the equitable access around the Hub and spoke projects. We use diversity and inclusion surveys attached to a lot of our activities, so that we can do some demographic analysis to see who we are reaching and who we have inadvertently missed. With this analysis, we can reflect on our processes.

 

Question: Can a research organisation submit more than one Stage 1 application?

Answer: Yes, absolutely. We haven’t got any limitations on how many applications can come from any one institution and academics can be based in any department or faculty. We recommend that you avoid submitting two applications with the same academic leads to avoid confusion.

 

Question: Has the Hub considered the policy aims of the devolved governments?

Answer: In our initial application to host the AHRC Hub, we detailed engaging with the devolved governments and Public Policy Southampton looks at policy making UK-wide with their broad horizon scanning process.

 

Question: Who would hold the funding, - the academic or non-academic partner - and what are the financial reporting implications for small organisations?

Answer: The funding will go to the academic organisation. However, we will be looking for equity between the academic and non-academic partners in terms of how the funds are spent. The financial reporting implications will be to the academic partner who will need to follow their institution policies regarding IR35s and freelancer policies.

 

Question: Do the research partner applications need to be on the payroll of a research or institution or can they be honorary?

Answer: The researcher needs a contract that extends to the duration of the spoke project. As long as there is something in writing contractually about your affiliation to the university, even if it was honorary, would extend through the project duration, then this would be OK. You will need to have institutional access, for example the ability to do the ethics application and to liaise with your institution with regards to costings.

 

Question: Can spoke projects mobilise existing music research projects or should they undertake new research?

Answer: You could mobilise existing research, or you could have a new idea or a new partnership that you want to explore. Perhaps there's an existing opportunity in the community that needs more funding to continue and you could integrate research methodologies within that. 

We’re looking for how research can be co-created in the community. If the research question existed in previous projects, you could consider how to frame it in a dialogue with the non-academic communities that you are partnering with.

 

Question: If selected as part of the eight shortlisted projects, what is the time commitment for mentoring and will people’s time be covered by the Hub?

Answer: How the time commitment is managed will need to be negotiated between the academic and the non-academic partners. As a Hub we will offer to pay for travel and potentially other costs to people who need that support to attend our networking events, so we are open to these conversations. 

We expect clear and open communication around time commitment relating to the mentoring process.

 

Question: Can my project involve a partner from the University of Southampton?

Answer: As the Hub is hosted by the University of Southampton, we cannot fund any of our own academics.  

 

Question: How can potential non-academics with no specific project ides yet make themselves known to academic partners to explore and develop project ideas?

Answer: We are building a database of people interested in projects. Please write to us at our email address CMESJ_MusicPEHub@soton.ac.uk and we can add you to that database to be shared with others. We also encourage you to attend one of our online or regional networking events.