Above and BeyONd: developing and evaluating new approaches to access for Opera North‌

Inclusion is core to Arts Council England’s current Let’s Create Strategy and to Opera North’s ambition to build new audiences and sustain existing ones. But captioning opera performances – multi-layered performance texts including music and sung text alongside other modes of communication that include costume, set, lighting, gesture and movement – presents particular challenges in terms of what can be captioned and what is ‘lost in translation’. Building on the company’s sector-leading work on access, this project examines what can and should be captioned and explores how best to do so to support understanding and pleasure for all audiences.

Creative Play: Learning to Fail through Digital Tinkering‌

Prof. Nic Whitton, Northumbria University, with the International Centre for Life (Life)

Thinking creatively and managing setbacks are crucial for all young people. Playful digital tinkering in family groups can help develop creativity and build resilience by reducing fear of failure. However, play can unintentionally exclude families from disadvantaged backgrounds, and we need more evidence of how to support children to learn from their mistakes. In collaboration with the International Centre for Life, a science visitor centre in Newcastle, the research will explore how to maximise inclusivity in playful design, how best to facilitate learning through failure, and provide evidence of the impacts of this approach on fear of failure and creativity.

Edition of unpublished Greek documents from the Papyrus Collection of the Austrian National Library‌

Dr Micaela Langellotti, Newcastle University, with Austrian Academy of Sciences; and Austrian National Library

This project focuses on the decipherment, translation and commentary of a group of hitherto unpublished Greek texts written on papyrus from Egypt, housed at the Austrian National Library. Dated to the Ptolemaic and Roman periods (III BC-AD IV), the texts concern the socio-economic life of a number of Egyptian communities. The aim of this project is twofold: first, to make accessible to scholars, for the first time, new documents, which can be used for further study; second, to get an insight into the lives of the lower strata of society for Ptolemaic and Roman Egypt, and for antiquity more broadly.

Ethnographies of Border Mapping: Retracing the Field through the Geographical Archive‌

Prof. Philip Steinberg, Durham University, with Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers)

The researcher will draw on border expertise at Durham’s Centre for Borders Research and expertise in the history of cartography at Queen’s Belfast to analyse archival data from when the Royal Geographical Society’s was a leader in boundary delimitation (ca 19th-early 20th centuries). Through developing a methodology of ‘cartographic ethnography’, the researcher will produce insights on: relations between cartographic and other knowledge systems; how boundary maps are produced through processes that articulate across a range of media; and how the intersection of maps, knowledge, and media are mobilised to construct ideals of state territory amidst the practicalities of political bordering. 

From Algae to Bioplastics: The Making of Ecosophy‌

Dr Marin Sawa, Newcastle University, with Notpla

Native algae grow around North East and Scottish coasts and biologically convert anthropocentric carbon dioxide into biomass including biodegradable plastic polymers, which 21st-century biotech industry has valorised as sustainable plastics. However, there is little understanding in the real sustainability of marine bioplastics around the whole circularity from bioproduction to intellectual and utilitarian consumption. Forging a new collaboration between Newcastle University and the Earthshot-Prize winning algal bioplastic company Notpla, the studentship will critically explore the process of making and aims to architect ecosophy – ecological and ethical materiality against mentalities behind plastic pollution and beyond.

(Person Specification to follow) 

The Growth and Decline of North East Jewish Communities, 1881-2000‌

Prof. Rebecca Clifford, Durham University, with Tyne & Wear Archives, Discovery Museum, Newcastle

This project partners with the Tyne & Wear Archives (TWA) to explore why Jewish communities in the North East, which grew rapidly in the period after 1881, declined dramatically in the latter half of the twentieth century. Newcastle, Sunderland and other smaller urban centres once were home not only to synagogues but to Jewish sports clubs, literary and dramatic societies, newspapers and charities. What caused this world to flourish and fade? The project employs a network analysis approach to trace the growth and decline of these communities and will be embedded in two of the TWA’s current heritage projects.

Interrogating colonialism, climate crisis and mass human migration through decolonial curating‌

Dr Donna Chambers, Northumbria University, with D6: Culture in Transit

Rooted in decolonial curatorial theory and practice, this PhD interrogates the idea of the Anthropocene by critically examining interconnections between colonialism, climate crisis and mass human migration. It will do this through building collaborative relationships with impacted international visual artists. Working with Northumbria and partners, D6: Culture in Transit, a Newcastle-based visual arts organisation with international reach, the candidate will: work with international visual artists to co-produce multi-faceted interpretations of the nexus between colonialism, climate crisis and mass human migration; interrogate and reflect on the extent to which such artistic interventions can contribute to social justice through decolonial curatorial practices.

Our Calder History: Our Calder Future‌

Dr Leona Skelton, Northumbria University, with Calder and Colne Rivers Trust (CCRT)

Calder and Colne Rivers Trust (CCRT) must urgently balance the environmental and heritage needs of Yorkshire’s heavily modified, post-industrial River Calder. This archival PhD project analyses the Calder’s past management because historic priorities have shaped the development and management of today’s Calder catchment. The research will inform environmental policy by sharing archival evidence of the legacies of historic river management in the present and future with CCRT, Yorkshire Water (YW), the Environment Agency (EA) and local councils. By incorporating this PhD project’s conclusions, CCRT’s new management plans will better accommodate competing needs of heritage, people and environment in the future.

Outsourcing State Censorship: The Stationers’ Company and the privatisation of press regulation in Restoration England‌

Prof. Rachel Hammersley, Newcastle University, with Stationer’s Company (Worshipful Company of Stationers and Newspaper Makers)

This project investigates the full apparatus of pre-publication licensing in Restoration England. The government’s reliance on the Stationers’ Company to conduct press regulation shows an early modern state outsourcing its security to a private guild. How did the Company recruit its spies and censors, and locate and shut down forbidden printing? To what extent did this represent a state appropriation of the traditional regulatory function of the Company? The project uncovers for the first time how this policing functioned, the opportunities - and pitfalls – it presented, the impact of this alliance on the book trade and on the Company.

Periodicals in the Life of a Literary House: Dove Cottage, 1799-1818‌

Dr Daniel Roberts, Queen's University Belfast, with Wordsworth Grasmere

The writers William and Dorothy Wordsworth and Thomas De Quincey occupied Dove Cottage – now an important literary heritage site - between 1799 and 1818, celebrating their life here in writing. Despite the remote location of Dove Cottage, these writers however were far from isolated. Periodicals, which were a ubiquitous and relatively new form of publication in this period, brought news and information from across the globe and locally into the house. This project will study the ways in which periodicals entered the intellectual, socio-political and domestic life of the house, and influenced the literary works of these writers.

Roman ceramic production in the middle Tiber valley: archaeometric analysis of a legacy dataset‌

Dr Robert Witcher, Durham University, with The British School at Rome, Ital

Roman economy research emphasises long-distance trade of high-value commodities (e.g. wine) and market integration across the Mediterranean—but such trade formed only a small component of total economic activity. This CDA examines the abundant evidence for small-scale economic activity in the form of cheap, locally-made cooking pots. Using samples from a newly-available dataset of ~80,000 sherds from the hinterland of Rome, archaeometric techniques (thin-section analysis, XRF) are used to identify production techniques and sources of raw materials. Extrapolating results to the wider database will unlock the potential to map local networks of production/exchange and contribute to a reassessment Rome’s economy.

Wholesaler of the North: The Bewick-Beilby Enterprise and Newcastle Print History‌

Dr Helen Williams, Northumbria Univesity, with Tyne & Wear Archives

Thomas Bewick (1753-1828) is widely recognised as a producer of fine prints who pioneered new techniques of wood engraving. But the shop that he co-ran with Ralph Beilby (1744–1817) was also a major intervention in the commercial history of Newcastle, helping to service a city which became a premier print centre outside of the metropolis. The Bewick-Beilby archive is held at Tyne & Wear Archives, where a collection of papers remains unlisted in the archive catalogue. This project will make accessible this underused resource to future scholarship while producing new knowledge on eighteenth-century Newcastle as the printing centre of the North.

(Person Specification to follow) 

Windows into Ancient Recycling at Fishbourne Roman palace‌

Dr Chloë Duckworth, Newcastle University, with Fishbourne Roman Palace & Gardens; Sussex Archaeological Society; and Butser Ancient Farm

The luxury and everyday glass from the Roman Palace at Fishbourne will for the first time be fully catalogued and published, with a particular focus upon the site’s exceptional collection of early window glass. This will address a pressing conundrum – the scale and nature of Roman recycling, and its impact upon our understanding of the economy – via a tailored ‘round-robin’ of techniques, from chemical analysis to experimental reconstruction. Key transferable skills will be developed in examining this assemblage of manageable size yet major potential, addressing the question: are windows the missing piece to the puzzle of Roman glass recycling?

Thursday 13 July 2023

The Collaborative Doctoral Award (CDA) competition opens. Academics working with non-HE organisations are invited to begin work on their project proposals.

By 30 September 2023

The list of subject areas and Subject Area Lead contact details updated and published to the Northern Bridge Consortium (NBC) website.

Subject Area Leads are confirmed as CDA competition Subject Area co-assessors and advised on their roles in the assessment of applications.

By 16:00 Tuesday 10 October 2023
Deadline for the submission of CDA applications to the NBC.

Academics, NBC partners, and other non-HE organisations submit their proposals to the NBC using the application form provided.

CDA Project Proposal Application

(With apologies, we are only able to provide a copy of the application form in Microsoft Word Document (.docx) and cannot guarantee its compatibility with other systems and devices.)

Wednesday 11 October 2023

NBC administrators at Newcastle log and prepare the assessment documentation.

Thursday 12 October 2023 (PM)

NBC administrators at Newcastle release applications to the relevant Subject Area cross-institutional panels via OneDrive.

All applications and related documentation will also be made available to the CDA Studentship Committee members via OneDrive.

*New for 2023/2024* Wednesday 1 November 2023

The NBC strongly urges cross-institutional panels to confirm a date on which to meet in advance of the release of applications for assessment. We recommend setting a meeting date on Wednesday 1 November 2023.

By Midday on Friday 3 November 2023
Deadline for the submission of cross-institutional panel scores and comments to the NBC.

Monday 6 November 2023

NBC Administrators at Newcastle collate and prepare a ranked list of all applications and circulate to CDA Studentship Committee members.

Monday 13 November 2023

The CDA Studentship Committee meet to moderate and agree the outcome of the CDA competition.

The top ranked 13 applications will be awarded. Normally, the remaining applications form a Reserve List in ranked order.

Tuesday 14 November 2023
CDA competition results announced

NBC administrators at Newcastle notify all applicants of the outcome, copying in the administrator at relevant NBC partner institution.

NBC Administrators at Newcastle update the NBC website and advertise successful projects on the NBC website only. Further advertising is devolved to local schools/departments/subject areas.

Supervisors and partner organisations begin their recruitment campaigns. Local schools/departments can choose their own deadlines for the internal receipt of Expressions of Interest and any supporting documentation required, (bearing in mind the deadline for sending details of the selected candidate to NBC), and are encouraged to use NBC marking criteria for selection.

Date to Be Confirmed
Deadline for the submission of CDA Candidate Details forms to the NBC.

(The CDA Candidate Details form will be available here once finalised. Please note it will be available in Word .doc format only following feedback from participants in previous competitions.)

CDA projects and candidates are not reassessed, but will be ratified by the Studentships Committee. A formal studentship offer will be issued by the student’s host institution in line with the dates of the open Studentship Competition, which are to be finalised.

Supervisors instruct their successful CDA student applicant to submit a standard postgraduate application form to their host institution.

CDA Project Proposal Application‌

Please note that, following feedback from the previous competition, the application is only available in Microsoft Word Document (.docx) format and we can't guarantee its compatibility with other systems and devices. 

‌Please ensure that the form is submitted by 16:00 Tuesday 10 October 2023. Applications received after the deadline will not be considered under any circumstances.

Resources:

• For further information about CDAs issued by the AHRC: AHRC Guidance on Collaborative Doctoral Awards

(This includes important guidance on developing projects with non-HE partners based overseas.)‌

• CDA Marking and Assessment Criteria, for guidance on how applications are assessed.

Examples of previously successful CDA application forms:

Please note that we do not anticipate that new applicants will directly copy language from the applications below, and it would not be appropriate to copy a project methods outline.

Constitution-making in Sudan
Research Analysts Department, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office; Rift Valley Institute, and Professor Justin Willis, Durham University

Defending the Nation or Violating Human Rights? The Autobiographical Memory of Former Border Soldiers of the GDR after 1990
Stiftung Berliner Mauer (Berlin Wall Foundation), Berlin, Germany and Professor Daniel Siemens, Newcastle University

Developing an Inclusive Conception of Skilful Action
Difference North East and Dr Katherine Puddifoot, Durham University

Experimental Fiction and the Literary Museum: The Legacy of Laurence Sterne
The Laurence Sterne Trust at Shandy Hall and Dr Helen Williams, Northumbria University

Glass: In Search of Creative Environmental Histories
National Glass Centre and Dr Noam Leshem, Durham University

Historicising Nerys Johnson
The Laing Art Gallery and Dr Victoria Horne, Northumbria University

Histories, Collections and Practice: Gender and the Regional Art Gallery
The Laing Art Gallery and Dr Claudine van Hensbergen, Northumbria University

The Importance of Youth in the Early Modern Economy: Apprentices and their peer-networks, 1605-1800
The Stationers’ Company (The Worshipful Company of Stationers and Newspaper Makers) and Professor Jeremy Boulton, Newcastle University

Managing ‘Wildness’: Creative Writing and Landscape Restoration
Northumberland Wildlife Trust and Assistant Professor Tony Williams, Northumbria University

Mapping the Cultural Geography of Sam Henry’s Irish Song Archive
Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council Museum Services, and Dr Frank Ferguson, Ulster University

Mapping Irish Erth: using deep mapping to curate an historic landed estate as a three-dimensional educational and cultural resource
Public Record Office of Northern Ireland and Professor Annie Tindley, Newcastle University

Museum Exhibitions ‘in Flight’: Displaying and Conserving Aircraft as Suspended Objects
Royal Air Force Museum and Professor Andrew Newman, Newcastle University

Nostalgia and the transformation of working-class heritage
Beamish: the Living Museum of the North and Professor Julie-Marie Strange, Durham University

Peer Power: Scotland and northern England under the 5th and 6th dukes of Buccleuch, c.1820-c.1914
Buccleuch Living Heritage Trust and Professor Annie Tindley, Newcastle University

Placing Astronomy: Landscape, Space and Science at Armagh Observatory, 1790-1916
Armagh Observatory and Planetarium, and Dr Oliver Dunnett, Queen’s University Belfast

Systemic Inclusion: Representation and Diversity in UK Literary Festivals
Sabotage Reviews and Dr Jenna Clake, Teesside University

Trauma, textiles, and technologies: participatory sewing of electronic-textiles as a metaphor for post-traumatic healing
Changing Lives (CL) Women’s Services and Dr Angelika Strohmayer, Northumbria University

Supervisors of successful projects are expected to undertake a recruitment process, rather than nominate a student at the point of application to the CDA competition. 

Successful projects and accompanying Applicant Criteria will be advertised on these pages following the announcement of the results of the competition, from Tuesday 14 November 2023. If you wish to make any changes to the Applicant Criteria (e.g. the deadline for the Expression of Interest), please contact northernbridge.admin@newcastle.ac.uk.

Northern Bridge Consortium cannot fund any further advertising. This is devolved to supervisors and projects leads, individual schools and departments, and the non-HE partner organisations, who are welcome to promote their award via their own networks, etc.

Project leads can choose their own deadlines for the internal receipt of Expressions of Interest and can request any supporting documentation they require, such as references. When short-listing and selecting student applicants for interview, please refer to the Northern Bridge Consortium's marking and assessment criteria for applicants: Applicant Assessment Aide

A Northern Bridge Academic Director must be present at all interviews. Once project leads have set their shortlist and interview dates/times, please notify northernbridge.admin@newcastle.ac.uk. We'll confirm which Academic Director will join your interviews.

Once you have selected the successful student applicant:

1) Details should be sent to northernbridge.admin@newcastle.ac.uk by a date to be confirmed (usually March), using the Selected Candidate Details form‌. Please attach a copy of the student's CV - maximum 2-pages. There is no requirement to send references or evidence of qualifications (though you may request these as part of your selection process).

2) The selected student should also complete an Equal Opportunities Monitoring form and send this themselves to northernbridge.admin@newcastle.ac.uk by a date to be confirmed. The data will only be used for general statistical and monitoring purposes. The form will be viewed by the Education Assistant Manager (Northern Bridge Consortium DTP) only. The data collected are anonymised and are processed and held separately.

3) You can informally advise the student of their award.

4) If they have not done so already, please remind the student that they must submit a postgraduate application form to their host institutions's Postgraduate Admissions Service. Collaborative Doctoral studentship Awards are conditional upon the successful student receiving a formal unconditional offer to study the appropriate PhD programme by their host University, and on the student's subsequent registration.

5) Successful projects and their selected students are not reassessed, but those awards will be ratified by the Studentships Committee. 

6) Students will receive a formal studentship offer from their host institution following the Studentships Committee. (Please note, the student's offer of a place on a doctoral programme will be managed separately by the host university's Postgraduate Admissions Service.)

For further information about these Collaborative Doctoral Awards (Staff-led), and to submit an Expression of Interest, student applicants will be required to review the "Appliant Criteria" on their project of interest and to contact the named lead by the stated date. Applicants may be required to submit accompanying documentation, which will be detailed in the specification, and to be interviewed.

Please note that the successful projects will be announced no sooner than Tuesday 14 November 2023, and will be available to view from that date and not before. 

Student applicants who are successfully recruited to a project are still required to meet the AHRC's eligibility criteria and to submit a postgraduate application form to their host university. This should be done as soon as they are informally notifed by the project leads that they have been successful, and no later than a date to be confirmed.

Please note that Collaborative Doctoral Studentship Awards are conditional upon the successful student receiving a formal unconditional offer to study the appropriate PhD programme by their host University’s Postgraduate Admissions Service, and on the student's subsequent registration. 

Please submit any queries to your local contact at the institution you are based. We'll list FAQs here as we receive them.

How are the applications assessed?

We ask applicants to state the proposal's primary subject area. Applications are assessed by a Cross-institutional Review Panel comprising the academic Subject Area Leads in each NBC partner institution, so an application in Archaeology for example would be jointly assessed by the Archaeology Subject Leads at Newcastle, Durham and Queen's University Belfast. A panel chair is responsible for recording the agreed marks and comments, and returning them to the NBCDTP. The assessment results are collated by the NBCDTP administrator at Newcastle, then moderated by a committee comprising the Northern Bridge Academic Directors from each partner institution to ensure consistency of marking, etc. The final results are then ranked.

Are there any research priorities or steers?

No, the only stipulation is that the proposal falls within the AHRC subject area remit. The open studentship competition Marking and Assessment Criteria will guide you as to what the assessors are looking for in terms of quality.

Can the supervisory team comprise colleagues from NBC partner institutions?

Yes, cross-institutional supervision is permitted but is not a requirement and does not effect eligibility. A supervisory team based solely at the host institution will not disadvantage the application. The composition of the proposed supervisory team must comply with the host institution’s Code of Practice for Postgraduate Research Students (or equivalent). In most cases that will usually mean the primary and secondary, or joint-primary, supervisors will be members of academic staff at the host institution, (as well as the external advisor(s) from the non-HE partner organisation). Additional supervisors may be appointed from an NBC partner institution, or any other HE or non-HE organisation if appropriate to the research proposal, and if permitted by the host institution. Please note, however, there is no financial remuneration for external supervisors and advisors via the NBC. A financial arrangement, if any, will be at discretion of the host institution, and cannot be funded by the NBC by any means.

What is the value of the award?

• Tuition fees paid at a rate equivalent to the Home UK fee. Successful international candidates should be prepared to fund the difference between the Home and International tuition fee rate by alternative means. Under no circumstances can this be funded by the NBC. An applicant’s host institution may offer an additional scholarship to the value of this difference, but this is not guaranteed. Applicants should check with their host institution for further guidance. 

• A minimum stipend per year for living costs, which is paid in regular instalments. Awards increase every year, typically with inflation. As an indicator, the level for 2023/2024 is £18,622. CDA award-holders will receive an additional £600 per annum to help fund collaboration with the non-HE partner (for travel, accommodation, etc.).

• Award-holders are eligible to apply to a fund reserved to support primary research costs to include, for example, conference attendance, fieldwork, language training, overseas research visits and placements with a non-academic partner. 

• Please note award-holders will not have a personal research account on which to draw.

• The duration of the award is 3.5 years.

Are there recommended partner institutions that NBC would like the proposers to use?

No. We do have a number of strategic partners, but applicants should not feel limited to this list. Previous and current collaborations include projects with a number of diverse organisations:

Research Analysts Department, FCDO and the Rift Valley Institute; Historic Environment Scotland; National Trust; The Literary and Philosophical Society; Changing Lives (CL) Women’s Services; The YMCA Newcastle; National Library of Wales; Berlin Wall Foundation; BALTIC; National Museums, NI; Open Clasp; Northumberland Wildlife Trust; Blackfriars Restaurant; Public Record Office of Northern Ireland.

Are there any terms and conditions preventing people already working for the partner organisation (as staff or volunteers) to apply for the staff-led CDA when it is advertised?

Staff or volunteers can apply, however they could not be appointed without evidence of no conflict of interest that could compromise completion of the PhD or any of the parties involved.