ESRC Impact Acceleration Account Funding

Our interdisciplinary approach

The overarching aim for our ESRC IAA is to mobilise our social science researchers to drive future solutions to economic and societal challenges.

These challenges are complex and interconnected. We believe that they can only be met by moving beyond siloed approaches to generating research impact.

To achieve this, we’ll support our social scientists to surpass disciplinary boundaries and collaborate in ways that bring together diverse expertise.

Our commitment to Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI)

At Newcastle University, we are committed to fostering an equitable and inclusive impact culture.

We’re embedding EDI in the Impact Acceleration Account by breaking down the barriers that drive underrepresentation in impact activities. We'll also support our researchers to build equity, diversity, and inclusivity in every stage of the research impact cycle.

Our vision for the Impact Acceleration Account

The IAA will focus on fostering ambitious projects with the potential for creating actionable change.

A portion of this funding will be aligned with our designated Strategic Priorities. These priorities reflect the five thematic research strengths across the University. They also represent our greatest areas of untapped potential.

These Strategic Priorities are:

• ageing and vitality
• data and digital
• childhood and youth
• sustainable futures
• cities
• rural enterprise and innovation
• electrification

Open Calls

Ideas to Impact Fund (up to £2.5k): Funding for small grants to pilot a new idea for impactful work connecting to past, current or future research. We are open to high-risk, high-reward projects, and encourage applicants to experiment with new ideas, partnerships, and impact strategies from the ‘ground up’.

Strategic Fund (up to £15k): Funding for large impact projects that primarily focus on at least one of the IAA’s Strategic Priorities: Ageing and vitality; Data and digital; Childhood and youth; Sustainable futures; Cities; Rural enterprise and innovation; and Electrification.

Collaborative IAA Fund (up to £5k): Dedicated to supporting cross- and intra-institutional collaboration between IAAs. Impact projects should be developed with researchers applying for either ESRC IAA funding held by other institutions, or AHRC, EPSRC, MRC, or Place-Based IAAs held either by NU or other institutions.

Strengthening Partnerships Fund (up to £15k): A scheme dedicated to strengthening strategic partnerships between the University and organisations/consortia in the VCSE, industry, policy, and technology sectors, aimed at developing sustainable alliances and delivering impact. Applications should be co-produced, with University staff encouraged to propose programmes of work that strengthen existing partnerships and create alliances, rather than delivering short-term projects.

Innovation Forum A space to network, share best practice and collaborate. Four events and two pilot projects per year, focusing on partners seeking solutions from researchers around a mutually agreed theme connected to our Strategic Priorities. Funding for colleagues to run events is currently available.

Interdisciplinary Impact Clusters Interdisciplinary co-mentoring scheme, with ‘clusters’ of 3-5 people meeting throughout the year to share good practice and build capacity on a defined topic. With workshops and seed corn funding available. Flexible number of clusters and participants. Open to early- and mid-career researchers – at least one member of each cluster must be from a non-ESRC discipline.

Further information for researchers can be found on the internal pages.

Organisations, professionals, groups, and communities are welcome to contact us with enquiries at esrciaa@newcastle.ac.uk