The Arts and Humanities Research Council has awarded funding of £1.8 million over five years to a new collaborative Doctoral Training Centre in the Celtic Languages.
Led by the University of Glasgow, a consortium of twelve higher education organisations across the UK will award doctoral studentships and support the training of students in a new, collaborative fashion.
The universities of Ulster, Aberdeen, Bangor, Cambridge, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Oxford, Swansea, Queen’s University Belfast, the University of the Highlands and Islands/Sabhal Mòr Ostaig, the University of Wales, Trinity Saint David, and the University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies, will organise new training programmes in the Celtic Languages in support of this Centre.
Students will be enabled in an unprecedented way to partake of shared supervision and resources across these universities, and to engage with partners outside the higher education sector.
The consortium will be aided in this by three core partners, BBC Northern Ireland, Bòrd na Gà idhlig, and the National Library of Wales.
Dr Fionntán de Brún, Senior Lecturer in Irish, who headed up the bid for Ulster said: “This news is a welcome endorsement of the collective vision expressed in the consortium’s bid. “The AHRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Celtic Languages will place students at the heart of a vibrant network of research expertise and experience which will be of enormous benefit to their own development and to the future of the Celtic languages.”
Professor Ailbhe Ó Corráin, Head of the Irish and Celtic Studies Research Institute at Ulster added: “This is an important vote of confidence in the future of Celtic Studies research in the UK. It will provide the top Celtic Studies centres with the opportunity to collaborate in the delivery of postgraduate training in order to educate the next generation of researchers in the discipline. We are looking forward to participating in this scheme.”
Recruitment for the first cohort of students will begin this winter with a start date of October 2014.
