Welcome to Coventry University’s ESRC Impact Acceleration Account (IAA) website. In March 2023, the University was a £1.25 million IAA to deliver a five-year programme of impact activities, starting in April 2023. This is the first IAA award that Coventry University has ever received reflecting our strategic commitment to research, our successful REF2021 submission, and the research being delivered by researchers in our research centres.

IAAs are focused, institutional funding streams to enable universities to unlock the impact of their regional, national, and international economic and social sciences research base. The awards support a breadth of impact activities that allow funding to be used in flexible, responsive, and creative ways. They provide research organisations with the agility to make decisions about how to invest in impact in ways that best suit institutional strategies and opportunities. The awards also add value to existing funding and take advantage of new or unforeseen opportunities to facilitate the realisation of impact.

The CU ESRC IAA has five broad objectives

  1. People Development:
    To develop our researchers as leaders in knowledge exchange and impact locally, nationally and internationally in our priority areas.
  2. ​​​​Collaborations, Relationships and Partnerships:
    To identify, develop, engage and sustain the most appropriate relationships, collaborations, and partnerships that maximise the potential of our knowledge exchange and impact.
  3. Developing, Supporting and Enhancing Impact:
    To develop and support knowledge sharing across centres and the wider University, encouraging transdisciplinary approaches to impact and the sharing of best practice.
  4. Evaluating and Evidencing Impact:
    To build a culture in which KE and impact is monitored, assessed and improved and externally communicated and promoted.
  5. Strategic Initiatives:
    To implement a range of underpinning mechanisms that will allow for more effective and efficient impact activity across Coventry University.

For more information about Coventry University’s ESRC IAA, please contact the Project Team.