BU Research Blog

An online petition calling on the AHRC to remove Big Society research from its delivery plan has attracted more than 1600 signatures. The petition was created by members of the AHRC Peer Review College after an Observer newspaper article in which  Cambridge historian Peter Mandler was quoted as saying that the AHRC had been pressured by officials to study the Big Society as a condition of its funding settlement.

Yesterday, the AHRC issued a statement denying the allegations and arguing it had been working on a programme called Connected Communities for two years before the Conservative party’s decision to make Big Society one of its election campaign slogans.