The Arts and Humanities Research Council of the UK (AHRC) and the Irish Research Council (IRC) are collaborating on a new programme that aims to deliver a transformational impact on Digital Humanities research in the UK and Ireland. The programme will exploit complementary strengths in the Digital Humanities between world-leading centres of excellence in the UK and Ireland, leading to new partnerships and cross-disciplinary projects, building capacity and enhancing the integration of humanities and technology in Digital Humanities development. A networking event intended to shape the collaboration was hosted at Dublin City University last week, where Dr Órla Murphy, Head of Digital Humanities at University College Cork, acted as co-facilitator alongside her UK counterpart, Durham University's Prof. Clare Warwick.

In the UK, the programme is supported by £4million of funding secured by the AHRC through the UKRI (UK Research and Innovation) Fund for International Collaboration. The Ireland-based component of projects will be supported by the IRC. The programme will support a range of collaborative activities over three years, including research networking activity and larger research grants. Last week's workshop brought together 60 leading digital humanities researchers from the UK and Ireland to build partnerships around the aims of the programme and identify priority thematic areas to be taken forward by the partners.