About Lles
Lles is a consortium of all Wales’ universities, working in partnership with Welsh public and third-sector bodies. It will fund and train PhD students to investigate issues relating to wellbeing through the arts and humanities. Lles is a Welsh word that means ‘benefit’ or ‘wellbeing’. Its use here captures both how Lles students will benefit from training and career development and how their research on wellbeing will be for the benefit of wider society in Wales and beyond.
Lles and its studentships are guided by the ambition, principles and requirements of the Well-Being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015. This legislation is globally unique and obligates Welsh public bodies to set objectives and take steps to improve the economic, social, environmental, and cultural wellbeing of Wales against seven goals: prosperity, resilience, equality, health, cohesive communities, vibrant culture and Welsh language, global responsibility. Lles seeks to use the arts and humanities to meet and understand these goals.
Lles will fund 28 PhD studentships over 4 cohorts. Lles studentships will explore and demonstrate how the arts and humanities can contribute to a healthy planet, people, and places. At the project’s heart is the Well-being of Future Generations Act (Wales) 2015. This unique legislation was designed to improve the wellbeing and sustainability of people and places in Wales. The underpinning goal of Lles is to work with and take forward that vision. All its students will receive bespoke training delivered in collaboration with the Office of the Future Generations Commissioner for Wales about the Act, its five ways of working and how these can be used in public life and policy. Every Lles student will undertake a sustained placement with a Welsh public body where they will develop their research and employment experiences.
Consortium Partners
Aberystwyth University, Bangor University, Cardiff Metropolitan University, Cardiff University, The Office of the Future Generations Commissioner for Wales, Learned Society for Wales, The Open University, Swansea University, University of South Wales, University of Wales Trinity St. David.
News
A major investment from the UKRI Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) has been announced to fund and train PhD students to investigate issues relating to wellbeing through the arts and humanities.
The funding has been awarded to Lles, a consortium of Wales’ universities, working in partnership with Office of the Future Generations Commissioner for Wales, and Welsh public and third-sector bodies. Over the next four years, Lles will create and fund 28 PhD studentships.
Lles is a Welsh word that means ‘benefit’ or ‘wellbeing’. Its use here captures both how this cohort of students will benefit from training and career development and how their research on wellbeing will be for the benefit of wider society in Wales and beyond.
Lles and its students will be guided by the ambition, principles and requirements of the Well-Being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015. This legislation is globally unique in requiring all new legislation proposed by the Welsh Government to consider its impact on future generations. It obligates Welsh public bodies to set objectives and take steps to improve the economic, social, environmental, and cultural wellbeing of Wales against seven wellbeing goals: prosperity, resilience, equality, health, cohesive communities, vibrant culture and Welsh language, global responsibility. Lles will operate in partnership with the Office of the Future Generations Commissioner for Wales. Its students will receive training in the Future Generations Act, its goals and ways of working.
The PhD students will be recruited over four years and will explore the artistic, cultural, and social dimensions of wellbeing in a variety of Welsh and international settings, past and present. They will undertake both a bespoke training programme developed by Wales’ universities and the Office of the Future Generations Commissioner. They will also undertake a placement at a Welsh public body to exchange knowledge and skills.
The first cohort of PhD projects has now been announced, and Lles invites interested students to apply. The projects around the goal of healthy people and places are:
- Creative Writing and Ecologies of Place in Collective Practice (Bangor University)
- Enabling Activities: Narratives of Health and Wellbeing in Wales and Beyond (Cardiff University)
- The Role of the Expressive Arts in Supporting Language Development and the Impact this has on Well-being among Young Bilingual Learners aged 7-11. (Cardiff Metropolitan University)
- Embedding Illustration in the Co-production of an Infection Prevention and Control Decision Aid for people with Cystic Fibrosis (Cardiff Metropolitan University)
- ‘Co-Creation of Creative Writing Interventions for Hospice and Palliative Care environments (Open University)
- Serious about Play: Childhood, Play and Policymaking in Wales, 1945 to the Present (Swansea University)
- From Gurkha Roots to Welsh Belonging: Learning from the Cultural History and Wellbeing of the Nepalese Community in Wales (University of South Wales)
- Understanding Children and Young People’s Experiences of Violence Against Women, Domestic Abuse, and Sexual Violence through Arts-based and Storytelling Methods (University of South Wales)
The projects of future cohorts will be based around themes of ‘Vibrant languages and Welsh culture’ and ‘Global responsibility’. This themed approach will help students work together and learn from each other, creating a vibrant multi-disciplinary approach to understanding and improving well-being.
Lles project lead, Professor Martin Johnes of Swansea University, said:
“This is an exciting opportunity for both students and for research in Wales. Lles students will not only undertake PhDs but gain valuable training in a wider range of skills that will prepare them to contribute to society in Wales and beyond. Their research will show the value of the arts and humanities for understanding and confronting the issues that face society. Meeting the aspirations of the Future Generations Act means thinking outside conventional boxes. Working together, the universities of Wales are hoping to train researchers to do just that.”
Derek Walker, Future Generations Commissioner for Wales said:
“Lles represents exactly the kind of long-term, values-driven leadership that the Well-being of Future Generations Act was designed to inspire. By embedding the Act’s goals and ways of working into learning from the very start, this project is equipping students to think beyond the short term and to act for the economic, social, environmental and cultural wellbeing of Wales. Working in partnership with Welsh Universities, the voluntary sector, public and private sectors, we are helping to nurture a generation that understands its responsibility to future generations and has the skills and ambition to build a more equal, resilient and globally responsible Wales.”
Lles is one of a number of Doctoral Focal Awards in creative economy and arts and humanities for a healthy planet, people, and place. The doctoral focal awards will champion the next generation of researchers, offering future-facing training in areas vital to the UK’s creative economy, societal wellbeing. The awards will also foster the strategic skills needed in arts and humanities research which align closely with the AHRC’s vision, mission, and theory of change.
AHRC Executive Chair, Professor Christopher Smith, said:
“Introducing Focal Awards allows us to support cohorts of students in centres for excellence for strategically valuable areas such as health and the creative economy.
In the future, this approach will allow us in consultation with the sector, to provide support where it is needed to disciplines across the arts and humanities, vital skills and digital humanities. But the scope for individual projects is wide and autonomy for researchers remains as important as ever.
The Focal Awards exemplify AHRC’s approach to doctoral training and our ambition for a sustainable portfolio providing support for training, investigator-led research, strategic direction and building the infrastructure necessary for people and ideas for the future of arts and humanities.”
