Impact Acceleration Accounts

Institutional Joint IAA Call

Overview

For the first time at University of Glasgow, we are holding a joint Impact Acceleration Account (IAA) call that spans all six IAAs that the University holds. This pilot will offer applicants an unprecedented opportunity to form or deepen collaboration across academic disciplines and external sectors. 

As one of only five institutions in the UK to hold all six IAAs available from UKRI, we have a rare opportunity to fund collaborative interdisciplinary knowledge exchange activity from across the University. In this call we are looking to fund projects that broaden and deepen the engagement with research of non-academic partners. The funding will enable participation in a project by academics from any part of the University and will fund multiple types of knowledge exchange activity. 

Funding for this pilot call is from our AHRC, BBSRC, EPSRC, ESRC, MRC and STFC IAAs alongside the University's own Glasgow Knowledge Exchange Fund (GKEF). 

Eligibility

• Projects must be rooted in University of Glasgow research and should demonstrate how both the University and the external partner will benefit from research-driven knowledge exchange activity.
• The scheme will not fund new research projects, but rather the translation of research towards impact.
• Projects must clearly identify a need, challenge or opportunity and demonstrate how working with external partners can overcome this challenge or capture the opportunity.
• This call is aimed at encouraging a broadening and deepening in engagement with our research and our external partners. Projects should cross at least two research council boundaries. However, the aim of the call is to support activity that catalyses radical new engagement between disciplines that do not commonly receive support to collaborate and may not have a track record of co-working. We are looking to support work that is driven by user need, but that is looking to combine disciplinary approaches in new and untested ways. Priority will be given to applications that can demonstrate the potential to build cross-council partnerships between disciplines that infrequently collaborate. We would also like to see a variety of knowledge exchange activity types employed during the project.
• Projects must demonstrate reciprocity amongst their contributing disciplines, making clear how equitable contributions to the conceptualisation of the project from each discipline has been achieved, and what benefits will flow to each contributing discipline from their involvement.
• Projects can continue to develop already ongoing partnerships and activity with an academic group but must show the potential benefit resulting from expanding academic connection points and activity types.
• Applications can be led by any member of University staff.
• Applications must involve partners external to the University and academia, and applicants must demonstrate how each partner constitutes a user of research and will benefit from project involvement.
• Partners are expected to contribute to the project and applicants must demonstrate how all partners have substantive involvement in the project; this should also be reflected in the details of any partner’s contribution (cash and in kind) to the project costs.

Eligible knowledge exchange activities include:

• Placements of staff between the University and a non-academic partner organisation, company or agency from any sector or placement of an employee from a non-academic partner within the University.
• Activity that de-risks an output/outcome for commercial uptake.
• Engagement with policymakers and practitioners at any stage of the research-impact cycle, for example through events, knowledge exchange workshops, collaborative toolkit development, collaborative activity to co-produce evidence, and/or mechanisms to ensure the uptake of that evidence.
• Engagement with partners in private, public or third sectors to foster new collaborative relationships, or deepen/broaden existing relationships.
• Engagement with particular communities to pursue new avenues of discovery, to increase the uptake of relevant research outcomes, and other public engagement initiatives, provided they are structured in a way that supports the creation of strong, well-evidenced impact.

Funding

Eligible costs up to £60k will be considered for this call.

Eligible costs include:

• staff costs to undertake the project (researchers and other staff, but not PI or Co-I time)
• consumables, travel and subsistence
• costs associated with placement between the University and the partner
• costs associated with external partner engagement (eg travel)
• public engagement costs
• subcontracting costs
• training costs (for training directly related to impact generation activities only)
• commissioning expert consultants to undertake specialist tasks such as market research/analysis, product design, industry engagement or a commercial champion to support the development of impact
• dissemination costs

Timeline

Call launch – January 2024

Pre-application support – January/February

Online information session – 13 February - watch the recording

Expressions of Interest deadline – 11:00, 28 February

Post-EOI project enhancement workshop - 9:30-11:30, 14 March 

Full application deadline – 11:00, 10 April

Results communicated – May 2024

Project start – June 2024

Project end – March 2025

Application process

Application teams must discuss their application with the IAA team prior to submitting an Expression of Interest. Applicants should contact one of:

• College of Arts & Humanities: Neil McIntyre
• College of Medical, Veterinary & Life Sciences: Louise Mason
• College of Science & Engineering: Caroline Hogarth
• College of Social Sciences: Natalia Popielska
• General and NERC: Gordon Meiklejohn

2-stage process:

• Stage 1 – Expression of Interest
• Stage 2 – Written application form  

Assessment

Expressions of Interest and Applications will be reviewed by a panel drawn from across all four Colleges.

At the Expression of Interest stage, the University’s IAA Managers will review the portfolio, and may put in place activities to encourage further consideration of different potential disciplinary contributions, and/or make introductions between applicant teams where there is significant complementarity.

Assessment criteria

• The quality of the underpinning research and its ability to generate impact. The depth of the underpinning research in its breadth will also be considered.
• Reciprocity between disciplines and evidence of how equity of contributions from different disciplines has been achieved.
• The clear linkage of the underpinning research to the activities proposed within the project.
• The visibility of the partner in their role and activity within the project and how they will benefit from being part of the project. The partner contribution to the project with particular attention to the clarity of the activity they will undertake in the workplan and the value of their contribution in the project costs.
• The clarity of the work plan, variety of Knowledge Exchange (KE) activity types employed, and the likelihood they will deliver on the project aims.
• Identification of risk and the quality of the evaluation plan to capture impact from the project.