29 October 2004
AHRB and EPSRC Appoint New Initiative Director
The Arts and Humanities Research Board (AHRB) and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research
Council (EPSRC) are pleased to announce the appointment of an initiative director for their first
collaborative initiative, Designing for the 21st Century. Professor Tom Inns will take up the post in
January.
Professor Inns is based at the University of Dundee, where until recently he was Head of the School of
Design. He has worked extensively both in design research and practice, across a wide range of fields
covering the remits of both the AHRB and the EPSRC.
As Director, Professor Inns will provide intellectual leadership in developing the Designing for the 21st
Century initiative, with the support of a Steering Group. The initiative aims to support leading-edge
design research that will stimulate new ways of thinking and encourage the formation of a new and diverse
community of design experts.
"I am delighted to have been appointed to this post," says Professor Inns. "I am very excited to have
the opportunity to work with both the AHRB and the EPSRC in bringing together designers and other
specialists from different academic backgrounds and from industry. This initiative recognises the
multidisciplinary nature of contemporary design. New insights into design activity of the sort envisaged
as a result of this initiative will help us all deal with both the challenges and the opportunities that
await us in the 21st century, and I'm looking forward to being at the centre of this development."
A call for research clusters for the initiative was issued in March 2004. The successful applicants
will be announced later this year.
Editors' Notes
The AHRB funds postgraduate training and research in the arts and humanities, from archaeology
and English literature to design and dance. The quality and range of research supported not only provides
social and cultural benefits but also contributes to the economic success of the UK. Each year the AHRB
provides approximately £70 million to support research and postgraduate study in the arts and humanities.
Arts and humanities researchers constitute nearly a quarter of all research-active staff in the higher
education sector. The AHRB was created in 1998 as an interim and transitional body, pending a decision
by Government on the recommendation in the 1997 Dearing Report that a research council for the arts and
humanities be established. The Higher Education Act will now make this a reality. It is expected that
the new Arts and Humanities Research Council will come into being in April 2005. As with the other
research councils, the AHRC will operate on a UK-wide basis through a Royal Charter and be funded by the
Office of Science and Technology (OST).
The EPSRC is the UK's main agency for funding research in the engineering and the physical
sciences. The EPSRC invests more than £500 million a year in research and postgraduate training, to help
the nation handle the next generation of technological change. The areas covered range from information
technology to structural engineering, and mathematics to materials science. This research forms the
basis for future economic development in the UK and improvements for everyone's health, lifestyle and
culture. EPSRC also actively promotes public awareness of science and engineering. EPSRC works alongside
other Research Councils with responsibility for other areas of research. The Research Councils work
collectively on issues of common concern via Research Councils UK.
The Designing for the 21st Century initiative is the first collaboration between the AHRB and the
EPSRC. The remits of the AHRB and EPSRC each include some of the interests of the diverse academic
design community within higher education institutions. Both are committed to enhancing the quality of
research in and through design, embedding that research in a series of effective and innovative
partnerships between design, engineering and production.
For further information, please contact Kathryn Willey, AHRB PR Officer, tel: 0117 987 6773,
email k.willey@ahrb.ac.uk
By Jenny Marra, Head of Press 01382 344910, out of hours: 07968298585, j.m.marra@dundee.ac.uk | 
