Arts, Culture & Design

Exploring art, music, design, and culture, and the part they play in everyday life

#23 of 29 research categories by total funding · About £25 per person in the UK

Funded awards

8,732

Published funding

£1.7B

Average published award

£247K

Active funded awards

966

NIHR-supported projects

Amounts are published for 6,683 of 8,732 funded awards. Data as of 16 July 2026.

AHRC funds the most Arts, Culture & Design research — 3,730 grants (43% of the topic). The busiest year was 2023, with 919 grants.

Top Funders by Funded Award Count

View data table

Funder	Funded awards
AHRC	3,730
InnovateUK	1,504
UKRI	1,301
EPSRC	667
ESRC	659
EC	431
Wellcome	265
STFC	75
NIHR	25
NERC	23

Funded Awards by Year

View data table

Year	Funded awards
2006	318
2007	266
2008	247
2009	203
2010	210
2011	245
2012	282
2013	321
2014	278
2015	424
2016	377
2017	451
2018	456
2019	602
2020	668
2021	596
2022	732
2023	919
2024	867
2025	187

Grants


Creative Territories: Exploring Innovation in Indie Game Production Contexts and Connections	University of the West of England	AHRC	£31K	2014	Completed
Brand Hollywood: Selling Entertainment in a Global Media Age	University of Nottingham	AHRC	£21K	2007	Completed
XRtists: Artists Extending Realities	University of the West of England	AHRC	£6.7M	2024	Active
StoryFutures: Gateway Cluster Partnership for Audiovisual Digital Creativity	Royal Holloway University of London	UKRI	£6.5M	2018	Completed
Fusing Semantic and Audio Technologies for Intelligent Music Production and Consumption	Queen Mary University of London	EPSRC	£5.2M	2014	Completed
RUDIMENTS: Reflective Understanding of Digital Instruments as Musical Entanglements	Imperial College London	UKRI	£1.7M	2023	Active
Cyborg Soloists: Advancing Interdisciplinary Music in the Post-Internet Age Through New Musician-Technology Interactions.	Royal Holloway University of London	UKRI	£1.2M	2021	Completed
SHIFT - Shared Hub for Immersive Future Technologies	University of Greenwich	UKRI	£999K	2023	Completed
TOPUP: Transform Outcome and Process Utilities and Programs - Upgrading music performance and intervention research equipment for creative processes	Anglia Ruskin University	UKRI	£970K	2023	Completed
Understanding Displacement Aesthetics and Creating Change in the Art Gallery for Refugees, Migrants and Host Communities	University of Manchester	AHRC	£785K	2021	Completed
Cyborg Soloists: Advancing Interdisciplinary Music in the Post-Internet Age Through New Musician-Technology Interactions	Royal Holloway University of London	UKRI	£596K	2025	Active
Coastlines as Zones of Ecocultural Crisis: Shaping Resilience through Transnational Performance-based Arts	Royal Holloway University of London	AHRC	£420K	2025	Active
ICC Lab: Expanding practice-led capability in the Creative Arts	Coventry University	UKRI	£357K	2023	Completed
Graphic Design Histories for Creative Dissent: Archiving and Ethical Challenges	Royal College of Art	ESRC	£327K	2025	Active
The Internet of Musical Events: Digital Scholarship, Community, and the Archiving of Performances (InterMusE)	University of York	UKRI	£278K	2021	Completed
Popular Classics: Western Art Music and the Everyday Listener	University of Bristol	AHRC	£208K	2023	Active
Audiovisual Space: Recontextualising Sound-Image Media	University of Greenwich	AHRC	£201K	2021	Completed
p_ART_icipate - Participatory Art, Design and Facilitation for Social Connectedness	University of Roehampton	AHRC	£188K	2022	Completed
p_ART_icipate - Participatory Art, Design and Facilitation for Social Connectedness	University of Greenwich	AHRC	£164K	2022	Completed
The Work of Art in Contemporary Japan: Inner and outer worlds of creativity	University of Cambridge	AHRC	£106K	2021	Completed

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Arts, Culture & Design

Top Funders by Funded Award Count

Funded Awards by Year

Grants

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