The RNCM is one of seven higher education institutions within the North West Consortium (NWC) to benefit from a £14 million grant from the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) to train the next generation of researchers.
Led by The University of Manchester, the NWC includes Keele, Lancaster, Liverpool, Manchester Metropolitan, and Salford Universities, in addition to the RNCM, and aims to award 200 PhDs over a five year period. It is one of 11 new Doctoral Training Partnerships (DTPs) and seven Centres for Doctoral Training (CDTs) to deliver postgraduate supervision, training and skills development from 2014.
The DTPs offer postgraduate studentships and training across all AHRC’s disciplines, largely through consortia of Higher Education institutions (HEIs). As part of the scheme, the AHRC is also funding placement opportunities and additional skills training, working alongside partner organisations including the BBC, Foundation for Art and Creative Technology (FACT), FutureEverything, Home, Museum of Science and Industry (MOSI), Opera North, Tate Liverpool, and Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent Archives and Heritage Service.
Professor Richard Wistreich, Dean of Research and Enterprise at the College, commented: ‘Our participation in the NWC’s Doctoral Training Partnership alongside the six major Universities in the region provides a terrific boost for the RNCM’s extraordinarily successful postgraduate research degrees programme, which started in 2009 in collaboration with MMU. We already have 18 students working in the fields of musicology, music-psychology, composition, performance and music education, two of whom have recently completed their degrees. This latest achievement follows our success in securing three AHRC doctoral studentships, and a further six RNCM Research Studentships since 2010. The new DTP will also further strengthen our existing close collaborative ties with neighbouring University music departments in the region and also with our regional and international partners, including Opera North, and other major orchestras and ensembles. The NWC Partnership will provide new opportunities for all our research students to develop relevant expertise, make new contacts, and enhance their future career prospects’.
