Description

I am excited to submit a poster presentation to showcase our approach and findings from the evaluation of the Arts and Humanities Research Council's (AHRC) Follow on Fund (FoF) scheme and how they have informed the new evolution of the programme.

For over a decade, the AHRC FoF scheme has supported researchers in transforming arts and humanities insights into tangible change across knowledge exchange, skills development, commercialisation, policy engagement, and public life. As the scheme reached its fifteen-year mark, AHRC commissioned an independent evaluation to explore its effectiveness, relevance, and future direction.

This evaluation took place against a backdrop of increasing expectations for publicly funded research to demonstrate impact beyond academia. While this imperative spans all disciplines, what constitutes ‘impact’ (and how it unfolds) differs markedly between fields. In the arts and humanities, pathways to impact are often non-linear, relational, and co-produced, contrasting with the more structured trajectories typical of science and innovation funding (such as TRLs). The evaluation sought to reflect these distinctive pathways while recognising the growing policy interest in the economic and societal value of arts and humanities research.

To capture the richness of ten years’ worth of evidence, we took an exploratory approach, co-developing and iterating a Theory of Change with AHRC and using Outcome Harvesting to understand and analyse the full body of evidence. This approach allowed the team to identify, substantiate, and analyse hundreds of outcomes (and trace this back to the AHRC FoF scheme), capturing nuanced examples of how arts and humanities research creates social, cultural, and economic value.

The evaluation confirmed that FoF is a valued and effective part of the funding landscape. Between 2015 and 2024, FoF awards leveraged £193 million in further funding, outperforming comparator schemes. Furthermore, manyFoF awards were referenced in the 2021 Research Excellence Framework (REF) impact case studies, underlining the scheme’s significant contribution to research impact and reach across the UK.

Yet, the evaluation also surfaced a clear message: there remains untapped potential, particularly in supporting projects to drive economic impact, commercialisation, and bold new pathways to impact. These insights came at a pivotal time, as the arts and humanities sector (and the funding system more broadly ) grapples with how to demonstrate value and relevance in a changing innovation landscape.

The poster will showcase how Outcome Harvesting and iterative Theory of Change development can be used to generate actionable insights even late in a programme’s lifecycle. It will share practical lessons on how evaluative learning can inform funding redesign, demonstrating that it is never too late to evaluate, reflect, and adapt. Ultimately, it argues that embracing discipline-sensitive definitions of impact and adaptive evaluation methods is essential to supporting the full potential of arts and humanities research to contribute to the UK’s economic, cultural, and societal wellbeing.