The AHRC ‘Crafting Care for People, Place and Planet’ Doctoral Focal College has ten non-university (or ‘non-HEI’) Partners who contribute to a wide range of the college’s activities including co-supervision, training, and governance.
Our Non-HEI Partners are:
Alder Hey Children’s Hospital runs an award-winning arts for health programme inspired by patients. The hospital welcomes artists, storytellers, and musicians to encourage children’s creativity and boost their recovery: ‘Music Matters’ runs workshops on the oncology ward for children and their families to make music together; the ‘Lullaby Project’ works with parents and carers to create their own bespoke lullabies for their babies; ‘Dance and Movement’ delivers weekly sessions with long-term patients on the cardiac and neuro-rehabilitation wards, developing muscle strength, coordination and flexibility as well as creative health and wellbeing. The hospital welcomes the opportunity to involve PhD students in research which embraced the entirety of what constitutes care and the hospital’s care environment.
Canal and River Trust is the UK’s largest canal charity, caring for a 2,000-mile-long, 200-year-old network of canals, navigable rivers, reservoirs, and docks, connecting many of the UK’s urban and rural areas. Their vision is to transform places and enrich lives. They believe everyone deserves open spaces where they can feel happier and healthier, and where wildlife can thrive. However, the 250-year-old waterways in their care and the vital ecosystems are threatened by the growing impact of climate change. The Canal and River Trust are keen to continue to align their diverse and inclusive work in relation to environment, culture and health to the college’s research agenda and understand the importance of investing in a new generation of interdisciplinary researchers to tackle urgent challenges that do not fit one scale, discipline or perspective.
DaDa is an award-winning, innovative and cutting edge disability and Deaf arts organisation based in Liverpool, with international reach. DaDa was established in 1984 and was one of the first disabled-led arts organisations in the UK. They are known widely for their biennial cross-arts festivals which have nurtured, supported and showcased internationally renowned and new disabled artists since 2001, but they also work more broadly for greater equality and access for disabled artists across the arts sector. Their vision is simple; ‘Equity and Excellence in the Cultural landscape’. DaDa welcomes the opportunity to contribute to research agendas that explore the impact of social isolation and or the climate crisis on disabled communities in the UK and how we can work to combat these effects.
Liverpool Biennial is a visual arts organisation and a platform for commissioning and presenting ground-breaking and powerful contemporary art. It is the UK’s largest free festival of contemporary art and has been transforming the city of Liverpool through public art commissions, community projects, and a legacy of Biennial exhibitions for over two decades. The notion of care, both in concept and in practice, has been central to Liverpool Biennial’s work and continues to be a priority as they work towards becoming ‘A Biennial for Everyone’. The themes of sustainability, research and collaboration connect with both their approach and organisational values and they welcome the opportunity to collaborate with PhD students from a wide range of fields to develop this line of research.
Liverpool Heart and Chest Hospital
Liverpool Heart and Chest Hospital is the second largest cardiothoracic surgical centre in the country. Their vision is to ‘Be The Best – leading and delivering outstanding heart and chest care and research’. Participating in global research into heart and lung disease has been primarily focussed on pharmacological, physiological, and physical therapies which are traditionally well represented in medical research. As LHCH continues its mission to provide the absolute best in patient centred care, they recognise the need to include psychological wellbeing and holistic research in their portfolio and welcome the opportunity to challenge conventions and bring patients better, personalised care that is meaningful on a local and global scale by incorporating the arts and humanities in their understanding of patients’ needs.
Liverpool Philharmonic is one of the largest cultural organisations in Liverpool and reaches more people than any music organisation outside London. In addition to 400 orchestral and other events each year, they run an extensive
programme of participative work with young people and adults across communities. They are dedicated to the development of musicians’ practice, wellbeing and health and are at the forefront of thinking about the role environment and place for musicians through our musicians’ health programme. They are keen to continue to align their diverse and inclusive work in relation to arts, culture and health to the college’s research agenda.
Mersey Care is one of the most innovative and progressive NHS trusts in the country. They offer specialist inpatient and community services to support physical and mental health, learning disability, addiction and brain injury services. Their commitment is to care that is safe, effective, positively experienced, timely, equitable and efficient. Mersey Care’s aim is to play a full part in the health and social care economies they serve, by promoting and driving greater integration between mental and physical health and social care. These collaborative endeavours reflect their recognition that – as a Trust serving people with complex physical, mental health, addictions and social needs – they cannot improve the quality of health services without considering the wider issues which impact on health and wellbeing. They are keen to contribute to and benefit from the college’s research agenda, which demonstrates a rich and dynamic understanding of health and care.
National Museums Liverpool is a consortium of seven museums and galleries in the Liverpool region which holds collections that include natural history, social history, international slavery, contemporary forms of slavery, global history and social history. The college’s aims align with NML’s priority to interrogate their collections, the means by which they have been collected, and associated empirical truths and narratives, across all their museums and galleries. The themes of the college resonate especially with NML’s striving to: be more inclusive and represent the stories of all the communities they serve; work in partnership to contribute to reparative justice through accessible dissemination of knowledge in all its forms; seek solutions and utilising our resources to offer practical means of support.
The Mersey Forest is a unique partnership of community and statutory organisations working together to deliver a vision for a thriving, connected landscape across Cheshire and Merseyside. They focus on creating woodlands, improving green spaces, restoring habitats, and connecting people with nature. Their work on wellbeing and education has highlighted the urgent need for interdisciplinary approaches that integrate arts and humanities with environmental science and healthcare and they believe the college’s focus on co-produced care, multispecies health, and place-led approaches will directly inform and enhance ongoing efforts to promote wellbeing through engagement with nature and cultural heritage.
The Wirral Council Public Health Team has a long-standing history of undertaking research with local people and communities. The purpose of the team is to establish a system and infrastructure for generating qualitative insights and applying scientific analysis to inform policy, improve public services, and deliver positive results for people and communities in Wirral. It is hoped that being part of this college will strengthen the team’s ability to design and deliver public health interventions based on creative methods and practices, and that PhD students will bring innovative solutions and offer new perspectives to local problems, drawing on cutting edge research and interdisciplinary approaches.
AHRC 'Crafting Care for People, Place and Planet' Doctoral Focal College 