Durham awarded £1.25m to accelerate social science impact

The funding, which comes from The Impact Acceleration Account (IAA), supports a wide range of social, economic and behavioural science impact activities to translate research into real impacts. Thirty-two research organisations across the UK will benefit from the support, totalling £40 million, and will run from 1 April 2023 until 31 March 2028.

Record of success

IAAs have been vital in turning the bright ideas of our researchers into reality. Previous funding has supported 150 impact projects and initiatives, alongside capacity-building training and events. We have also received additional funding to accelerate business collaboration, support local policy engagement and encourage the development of social science research commercialisation.

Building on the success of previous programmes, we are delivering a range of IAAs focusing on supporting organisations of all shapes and sizes with their research and development. Previous projects include:

• MammalWeb is a is a citizen-science project designed to engage the UK public in mammal monitoring by supporting them with deployment camera traps and classifying the images on its online platform. 
  www.mammalweb.org/en/
• Baby Sleep Information Source (Basis) is a successful engagement and impact programme arising from the Durham infancy and Sleep Centre. It’s aim is to change perceptions and expectations around infant sleep. It is extensively used by health practitioners in the UK 
  www.basisonline.org.uk/
• IN2MUSIC is a project which has informed teachers’ thinking about the role of music in education and their professional practice. 
  IN2MUSIC article

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Find out more about the Durham ESRC Impact Acceleration Account