Languages & Quantitative Skills Programme

The British Academy has been awarded special Government funding to run a four year programme to support Languages and Quantitative Skills (L&QS). The £5m programme will cover a range of initiatives supporting languages and the use of rigorous, especially quantitative, methods across the humanities and social sciences.

The programme reflects the Academy’s longstanding concerns about deficits in L&QS in UK education and research. Recognising these deficits are rooted in the way in which these disciplines and skills are taught at every level, from school to undergraduate degrees, the programme’s main focus will be on building capacity to address these deep-seated challenges: through a targeted programme of research support, partnerships and interventions the Academy will supply leadership to help strengthen skills in these vital areas, which are necessary to maintain the UK’s competitiveness.

The L&QS programme will comprise two main strands within an integrated whole. Most individual projects and activities will focus on one strand of work, but we will also seek to promote activities which involve both, and which can bridge the humanities and social sciences.

Objectives

Through a range of different activities, the objectives of the programme are to:

• Work alongside key stakeholders and partners in promoting and supporting the need for, and use of, languages and quantitative skills;
• Build capacity to address these deep-seated challenges at all levels, from school to undergraduate degrees and thereafter;
• Draw on existing mechanisms within the Academy’s range of activities to embed the concerns and related activities underlying the L&QS Programme.

Content

The LQS Programme will operate through shared programmes of activity to address deficits in languages and quantitative skills. These will include:

Partnerships and Collaborations

Recognising the importance of working with other bodies in supporting both  languages and quantitative skills, some of the Programme’s funding will be used to develop and create new and shared initiatives with other research funders and agencies (including the research councils, funding councils, and charitable foundations).

Fellowships

A key part of the Programme will include the awarding of early and mid-career fellowships to pursue original, independent research in the fields of modern languages or quantitative skills. These awards will be made to candidates whose research particularly exemplifies the importance of these skills for humanities and social science research.

Events, Prizes and Policy Activities

Drawing on the existing framework of activities across the Academy, a range of policy reports, workshops and conferences will examine and explore specific areas related to languages and quantitative skills. Other related events and communications activities, including prizes schemes, will assist in profile building for the Programme and its objectives.

Details of specific activities being pursued in the new L&QS programme will be posted on this page as the project develops. The programme is run by the Academy’s staff, with guidance from an Advisory Group of Fellows:

• Professor Nigel Vincent (Chair);
• Professor Vicki Bruce;
• Professor Clive Holes;
• Professor Sue Mendus;
• Professor Fiona Steele;
• Professor Dame Helen Wallace.

For queries relating to the research funding element of the Programme, please email grants@britac.ac.uk.

For general queries regarding the Programme, please email Anandini at a.yoganathan@britac.ac.uk.