AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Project Nominations 2026 (Invite Only) — Historical Reference

The AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Project Nominations 2026 opportunity is closed. This page is a historical reference for the October 2026 cohort, not a live route for students or institutions to submit an application. The official UKRI listing says that AHRC had to receive applications by 26 March 2026 at 4:00pm UK time, and that applications could not be made after that point. No later deadline is being substituted here. Check the AHRC and UKRI opportunity finders for any future doctoral funding rather than treating this closed call as open.

Key details

What the 2026 opportunity was for

This was not a general PhD competition and it was not an application that an individual prospective student could submit. AHRC invited HEIs that had been offered a studentship by an organisation holding an AHRC CDP round 4 award. The invited academic partner then had to nominate the doctoral project it wanted to develop with the CDP award holder.

The arrangement joined academic research with a non-HEI organisation such as a museum, archive, gallery, library, heritage body, or another organisation whose collections, expertise, facilities, communities, or professional practice were integral to the proposed work. The official description says that the student would conduct doctoral research in collaboration with a non-HEI organisation and gain experience outside the university environment. That makes the partner part of the research and training design, not simply a source of a supporting statement.

The project also had to fit AHRC’s remit and the CDP organisation’s priorities. A suitable nomination therefore needed a clear research problem, a credible doctoral method, and a practical explanation of what each partner would contribute. The HEI was responsible for the academic home and overall management of the studentship, while the CDP partner had to have a meaningful role in the proposed doctoral training and development.

Funding: what was and was not specified

The official opportunity page does not give one fixed total cash amount for each nomination. It describes the support as an AHRC CDP collaborative doctoral studentship comprising:

• stipend and fees;
• an additional research training support grant;
• a London allowance where the award is eligible for it; and
• a CDA stipend uplift that contributes to extra costs associated with collaborative study, such as travel between the HEI and non-HEI organisations.

The studentship was funded for four years. AHRC says that the duration could be adjusted pro rata for a part-time student, and that the four-year period was intended to provide time for doctoral development activities as well as submission of the thesis within the funded period. Projects in this call had to start no later than 1 October 2026.

The CDP partner organisation was also expected to make a financial commitment to recruited students. AHRC linked that expectation to the additional costs that collaborative doctoral work can create, particularly when the university and partner are geographically distant. That commitment is distinct from the core AHRC package and should not be turned into an invented award total. Institutions considering a future scheme should confirm the applicable stipend, fee, travel, and partner-support terms in the live call.

Who was eligible

The central eligibility rule was invitation by AHRC. Only an HEI that had been offered a CDP studentship through a CDP round 4 grant holder could apply. A student, an uninvited university, or a prospective partner could not bypass that condition by submitting a proposal independently.

The collaborating academic and non-academic organisations also had to agree to enter a collaborative working arrangement. The application required a lead applicant from the HEI and a lead from the non-HEI organisation, with permission from the relevant Head of Department or equivalent and from their respective organisations. The HEI lead accepted overall responsibility for the progress and management of the studentship. In the Funding Service team record, the collaborating non-HEI partner from the CDP organisation had to be added as the project co-lead.

Every application needed at least one non-HEI partner. The CDP award-holding organisation had to be named, and additional non-HEI organisations could be included if the partners agreed. In-kind support from both the HEI and non-HEI partners was mandatory. The application also needed at least one partner letter supplied by the CDP award-holding organisation. For a consortium CDP, the letter had to come from the non-HEI organisation hosting the student unless that organisation and the award holder were the same.

AHRC expected the supervisory team to include a supervisor from the HEI and a supervisor from the non-HEI organisation. Both needed relevant expertise and a real role in supporting the student. The recruitment process also had to be fair, open, transparent, and consistent with UKRI equality, diversity, and inclusion expectations. These conditions matter because the call funded a collaborative research-training environment, not just a university-based thesis.

What a nomination had to explain

The application questions were structured around the proposed studentship rather than around a generic institutional case. The vision response had a 550-word limit and had to summarise the PhD topic, explain why it was timely, show how it would advance knowledge, and set out aims, objectives, and measures of student progress.

The approach response had a 1,650-word limit. It had to explain the CDP organisation’s role in the project and in student support, the nature and frequency of contact with partners, the plan for managing risks and feasibility, the way training needs would be identified and monitored, and how the research environment would help the studentship succeed. Partner contributions had to be entered with the organisation’s details, contact information, contribution type, and monetary value. Formal collaboration agreements would be required if an award were made.

The supervision response had a 1,000-word limit. It needed to describe responsibilities, meeting frequency and format, relevant research experience, support for the student’s development, and any additional mentoring or peer-support arrangements. The recruitment, selection, equality, diversity, and inclusion response had an 800-word limit. It had to cover involvement from both partners, outreach for a diverse applicant pool, bias mitigation, equal-opportunity procedures, induction, and support for wellbeing.

The application also asked about intellectual property and communication, with a 500-word limit, and ethics and responsible research and innovation, also with a 500-word limit. Applicants had to explain how confidentiality, intellectual assets, outputs, ethical risks, and wider effects would be managed across the project. Discipline classification and Trusted Research and Innovation questions were part of the form as well.

These requirements give a useful record of what a strong nomination needed to contain: a focused doctoral question; a partner whose contribution was integral; named and available supervisors; a feasible training and support plan; a transparent recruitment process; and clear arrangements for sensitive information and project outputs.

How applications were submitted

The official process used the new UKRI Funding Service, not the Joint Electronic Submissions (Je-S) system. The project lead was responsible for completing the form, with contributions from team members and project partners, but only the lead research organisation could submit the final application to UKRI.

The process was:

1. Select Start application on the UKRI Funding Finder page and confirm that you were the project lead.
2. Sign in or create a Funding Service account, select the organisation, verify the email address, and set a password. If the organisation was not listed, the applicant had to contact support@funding-service.ukri.org; AHRC advised allowing at least 10 working days for an organisation to be added.
3. Complete the questions in the Funding Service. Answers could be saved and completed later, or drafted offline and copied into the form. Any requested documents had to follow the upload instructions in the service.
4. Review the application in read-only view before sending it to the research office.
5. Send the completed application to the research office for checking. The office could return it for edits.
6. The research office submitted the checked application to UKRI.

The deadline was a hard portal deadline: AHRC had to receive the application by 4:00pm UK time on 26 March 2026, and the official page says an application could not be made after that time. Internal research-office and finance checks needed their own earlier deadlines. Once submitted, the application could not be changed or returned for amendment, and an application that did not follow the guidance could be rejected.

What this page means now

The 2026 nomination window has ended, and the official listing identifies it as closed. The deadline remains in the front matter as the real closing date so this entry can be understood as an archive record; historicalReference = true marks that status for the site. It would be misleading to use rolling, describe the opportunity as upcoming, or invite students to apply directly.

The official page describes this call as the October 2026 opportunity associated with CDP round 4. It does not publish a later deadline for another round of these nominations. AHRC and UKRI may offer other doctoral programmes or successor arrangements, but those should be assessed from their own current opportunity pages and should not be presented as a continuation of this closed 2026 listing.

For the historical record, the specific contacts were skills@ahrc.ukri.org for questions about the opportunity and support@funding-service.ukri.org for Funding Service or submission problems. Those addresses are retained here to document how the 2026 call worked, not to suggest that a late application can still be opened.

Official source

Read the archived opportunity details on the UKRI Funding Finder:

https://www.ukri.org/opportunity/ahrc-collaborative-doctoral-project-nominations-2026-invite-only/