Attendance and engagement at UK sporting, cultural and heritage sites (Grant)

Apply for funding to research the development of novel data-intensive approaches for capturing engagement data from unticketed cultural, heritage, and sporting events, activities and locations, demonstrated through a deployable tool in at least one Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) sector.You must be based at a UK research organisation eligible for AHRC funding.The full economic cost (FEC) of your project can be up to £1.32 million. AHRC will fund 80% of the FEC.Projects will be funded up to a maximum of 34 months and must start on 1 May 2027 and must be completed by 31 March 2030. Demand management Demand management is not being applied to this funding opportunity. Aim The DCMS is interested in new methods to measure both event participation and attendance, to improve the understanding of engagement across its sectors (such as sports, culture and heritage, and tourism). We take attendance to be the number of people that attend a location, event or activity. We take participation to be what people do in that location/event/activity, including an understanding of their demographics. We define engagement as a function of attendance and participation.The challenge comes from activities outside the home, which can be unticketed, where engagement does not require a point of entry that can be measured, or where measurements need to be supplemented with additional data (for example, duration and frequency of visit) to provide useful insights. In many cases, data and insights are collected through surveys, which can be expensive and suffer from low sample sizes and recall bias, and which provide limited understanding of engagement at a local level.To help address these limitations, the DCMS Research and Development Science and Analysis Programme published new research in March 2026 on Capturing engagement numbers for unticketed sporting and cultural events . This pilot project established a comparative framework for utilising alternative datasets and developed modern, data-intensive approaches for counting attendance numbers using mobile app data, social media data, personal activity data, and aerial imagery. These approaches were tested across Bradford 2025 UK City of Culture, the Great North Run 2024, the Giant’s Causeway, The British Museum, and public screenings of the Women’s Euros 2022.The pilot project was limited in four crucial respects: • the existing models had limited applicability in certain cases, for example, they did not work in rural heritage sites • the models can tell us about attendance, but they provide limited information about engagement • current models are not commercially deployable, they require significant expertise and bespoke tooling to be used • the use of edge machine learning tools, particularly in the context of limited time and training data, limited the accuracy of the models The new research will build on the foundations established in the pilot project to close these gaps.Specifically, we expect the new research to use a mix of methodologies from data science, philosophy (especially data science ethics), cultural and museum studies, media and cultural studies, historical geography, urban studies, planning, statistics, public policy evaluation and social research, business and management, event management, sport science, econometrics and applied economics, and others.It will deliver a working model that is deployed in at least one DCMS sector, that can deal with a greater range of activity types, and that captures participation as well as attendance. See a breakdown of DCMS sectors . Scope The pilot project identified four challenges around tracking engagement at unticketed events, locations and activities. We welcome applications that address the following challenges.Firstly, we are looking for research that can explore opportunities to apply engagement tracking models to a broader range of events, locations and activities than in the original pilot project.DCMS will be able to assist in brokering access, for example, there are provisional agreement to access the Science Museum Group’s sites for baselining and experimental work but bids should not assume this and are expected to fully account for access in their research design.Secondly, the new research should build out models of engagement in addition to attendance, that is, not only how many people engage with an event, but how they engage (for example, whether they are just passing through or genuinely engaging, how long they engage for, where they seem to spend their time and so on) and if there is significant variation by demographics. In the process, the research should engage with the debate on how to cash out participation, especially in order to highlight any limitations that might remain at the end of the project.Thirdly, the research should deliver an operationally deployable model, which can be operated and maintained without significant specialist support, in at least one DCMS sector. This s

This is a UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) funding opportunity led by the AHRC in partnership with the DCMS. It is open to the research and innovation communities of all UKRI research councils and Innovate UK. This opportunity is open to organisations with standard eligibility. Check if your organisation is eligible . Who is eligible to apply We are interested in funding teams that are based in, and have research links with, a range of locations across the UK that include researchers at different career stages, and that bring together a range of expertise. The team must be supported by dedicated administrative resource, recruited specifically for this project. Employment The project lead and any project co-leads must be employed and supported by an eligible organisation for at least the duration of the UKRI support, it is not a requirement that a contract be in place at the point of application submission. It is also not a requirement to have a permanent employment contract to apply for funding. Skills and qualifications You must have the appropriate skills to lead the project in line with UKRI’s terms and conditions. There are no specific qualification requirements and you do not necessarily need a qualification such as a PhD. During your project, you must be primarily based and permitted to work in the UK. You do not need to hold an academic research or teaching post to apply. Applications are welcomed from those working, for example, as practitioners or evaluation experts. Project co-leads Project co-leads are permitted and encouraged for interdisciplinary applications or where a co-lead would provide specific technical expertise that is essential to the project. However, it must be clear that the project lead is responsible for leading the project. There is no maximum number of co-leads that can be included on the application. However, the inclusion of each co-lead needs to be fully justified in the application. Business or third sector researchers based in the UK can also be included on research grant proposals as a co-lead or project partner. These roles can be funded at 100% FEC. International co-leads are not eligible under this funding opportunity. Other roles Other roles that are supported by this funding opportunity are listed in the ‘Core team’ section. Who is not eligible to apply Government departments and arm’s length bodies are not eligible to apply for this funding. We do not support project studentships (funding PhD study) within this funding opportunity. Resubmissions We will not accept uninvited resubmissions of projects that have been submitted to UKRI. Find out more about UKRI’s resubmission policy . Equality, diversity and inclusion We are committed to achieving equality of opportunity for all funding applicants. We encourage applications from a diverse range of researchers. We support people to work in a way that suits their personal circumstances. This includes: • career breaks • support for people with caring responsibilities • flexible working • alternative working patterns UKRI can offer disability and accessibility support for UKRI applicants and grant holders during the application and assessment process.

Click here to start an application on the UKRI Funding Service: https://funding-service.ukri.org/OPP1420/apply/1456 We are running this funding opportunity on the new UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) Funding Service so please ensure that your organisation is registered. You cannot apply on the Joint Electronic Submissions (Je-S) system. The project lead is responsible for completing the application process on the Funding Service, but we expect all team members and project partners to contribute to the application. Only the lead research organisation can submit an application to UKRI. To apply Select ‘Start application’ near the beginning of this Funding finder page. • Confirm you are the project lead. • Sign in or create a Funding Service account. To create an account, select your organisation, verify your email address, and set a password. • Answer questions directly in the text boxes. You can save your answers and come back to complete them or work offline and return to copy and paste your answers. If we need you to upload a document, follow the upload instructions in the Funding Service. All questions and assessment criteria are listed in the How to apply section on this Funding finder page. • Allow enough time to check your application in ‘read-only’ view before sending to your research office. • Send the completed application to your research office for checking. They will return it to you if it needs editing. • Your research office will submit the completed and checked application to UKRI. Please be aware that research office and finance teams undertake checks on hosting arrangements and financial eligibility. The ultimate responsibility for ensuring compliance with all opportunity requirements lies with the applicant. Where indicated, you can also demonstrate elements of your responses in visual form if relevant. When including images, you must: • provide a descriptive caption or legend for each image immediately underneath it in the text box (this must be outside the image and counts towards your word limit) • insert each new image on a new line • use files smaller than 5MB and in JPEG, JPG, JPE, JFI, JIF, JFIF, PNG, GIF, BMP or WEBP format Images should only be used to convey important visual information that cannot easily be put into words. The following are not permitted, and your application will be rejected if you include: • sentences or paragraphs of text • tables • excessive quantities of images A few words are permitted where the image would lack clarity without the contextual words, such as a diagram, where text labels are required for an axis or graph column. For more guidance on the Funding Service, see: • how applicants use the Funding Service • how research offices use the Funding Service • how reviewers use the Funding Service References References should be included within the word count of the appropriate question section. You should use your discretion when including references and prioritise those most pertinent to the