University of Birmingham showcases how IAA funding is helping turn research into real-world impact

Dr Stuart Wilkinson (CEO, Knowledge Exchange UK):

Impact Acceleration Accounts are great. They take research and allow it to be progressed towards a real impact that can affect people in society and ultimately the economy.

Dr Faye Sayer (Associate Professor in Heritage & History, University of Birmingham):

The most important thing IAA funding enabled me to achieve was actually to partner with external organisations and to work really closely with communities, but also it enabled us to think about working with other disciplines. So we were able to work with psychologists, social scientists, along with really diverse members of the community to come up with a new plan of action for our heritage sites.

Dr Luca Arnaboldi (Assistant Professor of Cyber Security, University of Birmingham):

They come at a stage where traditional funding just isn't available. They allow you to start a project and get it going in the very, very early stages. It got me in connection to work very closely with my industry partners. I was working side by side with them, and achieving a level of impact that you just wouldn't in traditional, larger, more theoretical grants.

Dr Chris Nunn (Assistant Professor of Film, University of Birmingham):

At the University of Birmingham, we've co-produced 2 feature films over the last 4 years. Both of them have had money from the AHRC IAA, and the films really wouldn't exist without that money, and they certainly wouldn't have had as big a reach out into the world. One of them was just released on Blu-ray.

Prof. Jessica Woodhams (Professor of Forensic Psychology, University of Birmingham):

We're designing a decision support tool, and we've designed it with the National Crime Agency in the UK, so it will provide a national service for the UK, but there are law enforcement partners

across the world who would also benefit from the decision support tool. So the IAA funding allowed us to convene a meeting together at Birmingham to showcase to them what we'd already done and to get them on board for the next stages.

Simone Schehtman (Founder, Birmingham for Ukraine):

The IAA funding in particular has enabled us to really reach deep into the heart of government and policymakers. People have fled a war, been traumatised, have found safety and sanctuary in the UK, and the University of Birmingham's team supported by that Impact Accelerator has been phenomenal.

Dr Emeka Njoku (Assistant Professor, International Development Department, University of Birmingham):

There's a move, you would say a turn, you know, in scholarship whereby we're not just sitting in the universities waiting to develop theories or whatever, we are actually engaging with the society, engaging with policymakers and trying to see how our ideas can be able to—

can be transformed into something that is impactful, something that can actually affect, positively, the lives of people.

Prof. Sara Jones (Professor of Languages, Cultures and Societies, University of Birmingham):

We're starting to break down barriers between disciplines and between sectors and drawing on diverse kinds of expertise in order to address the real-world challenges which, really do need that interdisciplinary and cross-sector working to be solved.

Dr Tony Soteriou (Director of Commercialisation, UKRI:

I think it's just the imagination of how people are approaching the idea of impact, and that's so broad across the different disciplines, and I think that's really exciting.