Area of investment and support

Area of investment and support: UKRI impact acceleration accounts

UKRI impact acceleration accounts (IAAs) are strategic awards providing funding to research organisations to use creatively for a wide range of impact activities.

Budget:: The latest round brings together awards from five councils for a total budget over £117 million over three years.
Duration:: The current tranche runs from 2022 to 2025.
Partners involved:: Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) Medical Research Council (MRC) Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC)

The scope and what we're doing

UKRI impact acceleration accounts (IAAs) are strategic awards for research organisations to respond to impact opportunities in more flexible, responsive and creative ways.

The research organisation is responsible for managing the UKRI IAAs to design and deliver activities that best suit their institutional strategies and opportunities.

The awards are intended to add value to existing funding and take advantage of new or unforeseen opportunities for creating impact.

Why we're doing it

Impact acceleration account funding is used to:

strengthen engagement with users (non-academic partners) in order to accelerate the translation of research outputs into impacts
support, develop and foster strategic partnerships for knowledge exchange and impact, including across disciplines and sectors
build and maintain an environment and culture that enables effective and ambitious knowledge exchange and impact, including development of skills, capacity and capability within research organisations
provide early-stage support for progressing research outputs towards the next stages in the impact pipeline, for example:
- proof of concept projects
- commercialisation
- market validation
- activities targeting policy, business and the third sectors
drive continuous improvement in impact by supporting innovation, enabling ‘fast failure’ and capturing learning through appropriate mechanisms
enable flexible and adaptive approaches to knowledge exchange and impact, including the ability to respond quickly to emerging opportunities.

See further information on permitted activities and costs (PDF, 121KB).

Opportunities, support and resources available

Beginning with the awards starting in April 2022, UKRI has brought together impact acceleration account (IAA) funding from five research councils, with a harmonised application process:

AHRC
BBSRC
EPSRC
MRC
STFC.

The following is a list of institutions that have received UKRI IAA funding for the current tranche, between April 2022 to 2025. If you think UKRI IAA funding is right for your project, you should contact a grant-holding institution directly:

Aberystwyth University: BBSRC
Aston University: BBSRC and EPSRC
Bath Spa University: AHRC
Brunel University: EPSRC
Cardiff University: AHRC, BBSRC, EPSRC, MRC and STFC
Cranfield University: EPSRC
Durham University: EPSRC, MRC and STFC
Heriot-Watt University: EPSRC
Imperial College London: BBSRC, EPSRC and MRC
Institute of Cancer Research: MRC
King’s College London: AHRC, EPSRC and MRC
Lancaster University: AHRC and EPSRC
Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine: MRC
Laboratory of Medical Sciences: MRC
Loughborough University: EPSRC
Museum of London Archaeology: AHRC
Newcastle University: EPSRC and MRC
Queen Mary, University of London: BBSRC, EPSRC and MRC
Queen’s University Belfast: AHRC, BBSRC, EPSRC and MRC
Rothamsted Research: BBSRC
Royal College of Art: AHRC
Swansea University: AHRC, EPSRC and MRC
Teesside University: AHRC
The Francis Crick Institute: MRC
The Pirbright Institute: BBSRC
The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, University of London: AHRC
The University of Manchester: AHRC, BBSRC, EPSRC, MRC and STFC
UK Dementia Research Institute: MRC
Ulster University: AHRC
University College London: AHRC, BBSRC, EPSRC, MRC and STFC
University for the Creative Arts: AHRC
University of Bath: EPSRC
University of Birmingham: AHRC, BBSRC, EPSRC and MRC
University of Brighton: AHRC
University of Bristol: AHRC, BBSRC, EPSRC, MRC and STFC
University of Cambridge: AHRC, BBSRC, EPSRC and MRC
University of Dundee: MRC
University of East Anglia: AHRC and MRC
University of Edinburgh: BBSRC, EPSRC and MRC
University of Essex: BBSRC
University of Exeter: AHRC, EPSRC and MRC
University of Glasgow: AHRC, BBSRC, EPSRC, MRC and STFC
University of Hertfordshire: AHRC
University of Huddersfield: AHRC and EPSRC
University of Hull: AHRC and MRC
University of Kent: AHRC, BBSRC and MRC
University of Leeds: BBSRC, EPSRC and MRC
University of Leicester: BBSRC and MRC
University of Liverpool: AHRC, BBSRC, EPSRC and MRC
University of Nottingham: AHRC, EPSRC and MRC
University of Oxford: BBSRC, EPSRC, MRC and STFC
University of Plymouth: AHRC and EPSRC
University of Portsmouth: STFC
University of Reading: AHRC
University of Sheffield: EPSRC, MRC and STFC
University of Southampton: AHRC, EPSRC and STFC
University of St. Andrews: BBSRC, EPSRC and MRC
University of Strathclyde: EPSRC
University of Sunderland: MRC
University of Surrey: EPSRC and MRC
University of Sussex: AHRC
University of the West of England, Bristol: AHRC
University of Warwick: EPSRC and MRC
University of York: BBSRC, EPSRC and MRC.

Who to contact

If you’re interested in obtaining funding from a UKRI impact acceleration account (IAA), you should do so through a grant holding institution.

Likewise, if you are a partner interested in accessing and developing opportunities through the UKRI IAAs, you should approach these organisations directly.

UKRI IAA harmonisation team

Email: iaas@ukri.org

Last updated: 27 November 2023