The University of Aberdeen leads the AHRC Doctoral Focal Award, North-Sea Heritage in Transitions (NHT), an ambitious investment in research talent spanning Scotland’s North Sea region.
NHT is a national centre for excellence addressing the role of art history, visual arts and creative practice in a region undergoing economic, environmental and cultural transition. Together with Robert Gordon University (RGU) and University of the Highlands and Islands (UHI), we are funded by an Arts and Humanities Research Council Doctoral Focal Award.
Why North-Sea Heritage in Transitions?
North-Sea Heritage in Transitions (NHT) fosters investment in collaborative doctoral training with a direct route to shaping regional cultural regeneration.
With the arts, heritage, and cultural initiatives increasingly recognised in the region as drivers of community wellbeing and economic growth, NHT supports place-based research to strengthen and empower a regionally-significant cultural workforce for a national and international creative economy.
Together we will:
- Build distinctive doctoral cohorts analysing and creating North Sea visual culture while collaborating with cultural practitioners to address geopolitical, environmental, societal change;
- Strengthen creative and digital skills, enhancing regional, national, international capability;
- Support partnerships delivering North Sea-specific expertise and furthering strong career pathways in the arts, heritage, creative sectors.
Our Three Pillars
North-Sea Heritage in Transitions is organised around three interconnected heritage pillars:
Combines art history, creative practice, and environmental humanities approaches to landscape and environmental change, examining how this intersects with cultural memory, community identity, creative practice in rural and coastal contexts.
Examines architecture, urban and island spaces, and heritage infrastructure through approaches including architectural history, design, lighting, archaeology, and digital humanities. This pillar supports research on regeneration, adaptive reuse, and archival practices.
Investigates heritage through social and cultural dynamics including migration, health and wellbeing, religion and faith, emerging technologies and interconnected communities. Research explores how creative industries and heritage organisations shape public life and community resilience.
Our Consortium Partners
North-Sea Heritage in Transitions comprises three partner Higher Education Institutions, leading environmental humanities research centre The Greenhouse, University of Stavanger, and 24+ cultural and community partners:
Our Projects and How to Apply
- Our projects
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NHT will be recruiting its first cohort of fully-funded PhDs to begin in October 2026. We will be advertising projects shortly.
Header image: Frances Walker, Clashach Cove (North Sea Glimpses), 1996, lithograph and screenprint, 46.3 x 61.5 cm. Peacock Archive, Aberdeen Archives, Galleries & Museums. © Frances Walker (2007).
