UKRI grant impact-focused funding through Impact Acceleration Accounts (IAAs). These funding streams are designed to further the strategic goals of UKRI and its respective research councils.
The University has been awarded funds through three Harmonised IAAs: EPSRC and MRC IAAs and the BBSRC Pathfinder IAA. The EPSRC and MRC IAAs are 3-year funds which run from 2022-2025, the Pathfinder is a year-on-year fund.
If you want to apply for IAA funding, there are some important questions to consider.
If you have worked through these questions and decide that you would like to apply to an IAA, the application can be found here. The application process is designed to support you to embed impact into the work effectively, rigourously and feasibly, including aspects of research culture such as Equality, Diversity and Inclusion and Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI).
The IAAs can be used for new/early-stage impact projects or for progressing established work.
There are two funding streams for the Harmonised IAAs:
Stream 1 – Established/Main award projects
Stream 1 applications are welcome from projects which are ongoing impact work, have strong connections with users, industry and external stakeholders or have established trajectories. As such, these projects should could have previous impact-related funding and be lower risk than Stream 2 applications. It is expected that Stream 1 funded projects will progress to external funding opportunities, such as follow-on impact funding.
Stream 2 – Nascent/Kick-start award projects
Stream 2 seeds work which has little/no previous impact focused work. Projects may be more exploratory in nature, with a higher risk of failure than Stream 1 applications. Stream 2 projects may lead to future Stream 1 applications to progress successful work further.
Below is an overview of the IAA process:
If you have queries or would like further information on the IAAs, contact impact @st-andrews.ac.uk.