🔗 Connected Communities
Connected Communities was a Cross-Research Council programme led by AHRC (Arts and Humanities Research Council), designed to help understand the changing nature of communities in their historical and cultural contexts and the role of communities in sustaining and enhancing our quality of life.
300+
Funded Projects
400+
Community Groups
2010-2015
Active Period
📚 Programme Overview
The Connected Communities programme represented one of the largest investments in community-university research collaboration in the UK. It brought together researchers, community organisations, policymakers, and practitioners to explore fundamental questions about community life, culture, and heritage.
🎯 Key Research Areas
- Co-production and Co-design: New methods for collaborative research between academics and communities
- Heritage Research: Community engagement with cultural heritage and memory
- Digital Transformations: Using technology to enable community research and storytelling
- Cultural Communities: Music festivals, arts, and cultural practices
- Social Justice: Communities responding to adversity, division, and exclusion
- Early Career Researchers: Developing new generations of community-engaged academics
🌟 Major Events
- Connected Communities Festival (Cardiff, 2014): Major public event with gigs, talks, walks, readings, performances, and workshops
- Heritage Network Symposiums: Annual gatherings exploring co-produced heritage research
- Research Development Workshops: Fostering new collaborative projects across disciplines
- London & Edinburgh Summits (2013): Bringing together projects and partners
⚠️ Historical Archive Notice
The Connected Communities programme concluded around 2015. This domain was part of the programme's original web presence, hosting research outputs, blog posts, event information, and project documentation.
The programme represented a significant contribution to understanding community-university partnerships, co-production methodologies, and community-engaged research in the arts and humanities.
📖 Archive Access
The Internet Archive has preserved 218 snapshots of this website spanning from June 2011 to February 2026.
🔍 Browse Archive.org Snapshots
🔗 Related Resources
- AHRC Website: www.ukri.org/councils/ahrc/
- Research Council UK: Information about cross-council research programmes
- Connected Communities Media Collection: Audio-visual outputs from programme projects
📝 Programme Legacy
The Connected Communities programme helped establish new standards and practices for:
- Community-university research partnerships
- Co-production methodologies in academic research
- Community engagement in the arts and humanities
- Early career researcher development in community-engaged research
- Digital tools for collaborative research and storytelling
Many of the projects, methodologies, and networks established through Connected Communities continue to influence research practice in the UK and internationally.