Tom Devine, director of Aberdeen University's pioneering Centre for Irish and Scottish Studies, has welcomed the "stunning news" that the centre has won £1.25 million from the Arts and Humanities Research Board, the largest single award the board has ever made.
The award comes in the second phase of the AHRB research centres scheme to develop world-class research. A second award is yet to be announced.
To win the award, Professor Devine collaborated with researchers at Queen's University Belfast, Trinity College Dublin, Liverpool University and the National Maritime Museum, which between them boast some 100 researchers in complementary disciplines.
"The unprecedented level of new funding will have a transformational effect on the centre's research activities and postgraduate training," Professor Devine said.
He believes one reason the centre won the award was its focus on the Scottish and Irish diaspora. It not only supplies a Scottish and Irish dimension but also fits with the growing interest in the diaspora in the humanities.