Boost in arts and humanities research funding

An unknown poem by the Greek poet Nicarchus (1 AD), entitled `On an Adulterer', forms part of a new AHRB-funded project linking images to on-line versions of edited texts

Oxford is expected to receive more than a million pounds in research funding grants following the completion of the first round of awards announced by the Arts and Humanities Research Board—the highest total for any UK university. In all, the University has received 17 grants from the AHRB for applications submitted before 30 September 1998, including eight large grants ranging from areas including music, literae humaniores, and refugee studies. The total funding received to date is £261,044, with large awards accounting for £252,017, and small grants of £9,027, but the potential total value to Oxford is expected to rise to more than £1 million over the lifetime of projects. In addition, seven research leave awards have been made to Oxford academics. The AHRB was established last year by the Higher Education Funding Council for England and Wales, the Education Department in Northern Ireland, and the British Academy to provide increased funding, with broader subject responsibilities and a ten-fold increase in funding. In all some £50 million will be available for 1999–2000. The University secured the largest amount of research funding, with Reading the only other university to attract more than £250,000 in this first funding round, and most leave awards, along with Leeds, which also secured seven such grants. Among the recipients of awards are: Dr Margaret Bent on studies of fifteenth- century muscial manuscipts, Dr Cathie Lloyd, Director of the Centre for Cross-Cultural Research on Women, for research on contemporary narratives of Algerian women caught up in the current violence; Dr Peter Mitchell, Curator of African Prehistory at the Pitt Rivers Museum, for research into Late Quaternary hunter-gatherer adaptations in the Lesotho Highlands; Dr Dirk Obbink on digitised images of Greek and Latin papyri; Professor Barry Cunliffe on excavation results from Brittany; (see Gazette 11 Dec. 1997, No. 4458, p. 497); Dr Alan Bowman on the Roman Vindolanda writing tablets (see Gazette 15 Oct. 1998, no. 4487, p. 147); Dr James Raven on the print culture of eighteenth-century London (see Gazette 25 Feb. 1999, No. 4503, p. 789), and Professor Malcolm Godden on the Fontes Anglo-Saxonici database (see Gazette 18 Mar. 1999, no. 4506, p. 937). The Vice-Chancellor, Dr Colin Lucas, said: `The number and size of our awards clearly reflects the breadth and depth of arts and humanities research at the University. It is very good news that the University has performed so well in the first round of funding, and we are confident that we can build on this success for the future.' At present the AHRB is offering large grants, worth up to £100,000 a year for five years, including support for research assistants; small grants, worth up to £5,000 in total, to subsidise research costs such as travel and maintenance; and research leave awards, which pay up to four months of an academic's salary.