Campus Talks by Times Higher Education Campus talks: The future of doctoral research funding for arts and humanities
Oct 16, 2025
Alice Taylor, a professor of Medieval History at King's College London, shares her insights on the challenges and strategies for funding doctoral research in the arts and humanities. She highlights the importance of clear project presentation to attract funders and discusses how collaboration and digital skills can enhance research proposals. Alice emphasizes the need for universities to provide robust support and training for PhD candidates, and she encourages applicants to focus on originality and articulate their career aims to succeed in a competitive funding landscape.
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Collaboration Transformed Research Culture
- Arts and humanities research has historically been individualistic but is shifting toward collaboration and digital methods.
- Alice Taylor credits collaborative digital projects and cross-institution work for expanding research possibilities and funding success.
Write For The Funder's Reviewers
- Frame applications exactly as funders request, explaining what the research will do and why it merits investment.
- Demonstrate clearly why you are the best person to deliver the project for peer reviewers to fund it.
Funding Pressure Is Systemic Not Just Sectoral
- University research increasingly runs at a loss as fee income becomes unstable and costs rise.
- Alice Taylor links this fiscal pressure to greater reliance on research councils and shrinking institutional capacity to fund arts and humanities.
