The University of Birmingham has been awarded an Impact Acceleration Account (IAA) by EPSRC to support impact and knowledge exchange activities in engineering and physical sciences. The IAA enables the University to support such activities in flexible, responsive and creative ways, ensuring that outcomes of research activities achieve excellent outcomes.
The current EPSRC IAA runs between 1 April 2022 to 31 March 2025 and all projects must end by this date.
The key aims and objectives of the Impact Acceleration Account are:
Aim 1. Accelerate the commercialisation of research in engineering and physical sciences across the University
- Objective 1: Support the development of outcomes of research activities in all areas of engineering and physical sciences
- Objective 2: Develop knowledge exchange with new and existing external partners
Aim 2. Enable researchers at all career stages to engage with impact
- Objective 3: Support early career researchers in translating their research into impact
- Objective 4: Celebrate the impact of engineering and physical sciences through public engagement
Aim 3. Support capacity building for key strategic areas of activity
- Objective 5: Support key areas of strategic potential to help them gain critical mass
- Objective 6: Provide opportunities for interdisciplinary collaboration and engagement
Funding Schemes
Funding is available to staff in all Colleges who are working in the engineering and physical sciences remit, and applicants do not need to have previously held EPSRC funding to be eligible.
The aims and objectives will be delivered through the funding of activities and responsive mode open calls.
Interdisciplinary Projects
Projects involving the collaboration of staff from different Colleges and disciplines are encouraged; in some cases it may be appropriate to fund such projects from multiple IAA allocations.
Future Funding
Funding from the IAA should not be seen as a standalone activity, and it is important to plan how you will continue to develop the outcomes of your project once IAA funding finishes. This could be in the form of external investment, Innovate UK funding or forming a spin-out.
Review Process
There are four funding rounds each year and applications received are peer-reviewed by the EPSRC IAA Management Group. Each application is allocated to two members of the Management Group who conduct a detailed review and score it out of 10. Scores and reviews are then discussed at a panel meeting where an agreed overall score for each application is finalised and those deemed fundable are awarded.
Applicants are not required to attend the meeting to present their application, but may be asked to provide additional information or clarification before funding is awarded, or be asked to resubmit to a later round following feedback. We aim to give final outcomes within 4 weeks of closing dates.
Funding is designed to be flexible in nature and should be relevant to the proposed activity. Example costs* include:
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- research or technical assistance (both salaried and casual);
- access to facilities;
- meetings, visits and events with project partners;
- consumables;
- items of equipment up to £10k in value;
- subcontracts to external organisations.
- Travel costs are permitted, however applicants will need to justify why in-person meetings are more effective than virtual.
- Staff costs should be calculated in Worktribe. If you have a researcher or technician in mind for the project, please name them in the application.
*when calculating costs please remember to include VAT where applicable.
The following costs are not eligible to be supported:
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- salary costs for staff already in post (directly allocated staff costs);
- estates, indirects and overheads;
- individual items of equipment over £10k in value;
- costs related to the protection of Intellectual Property;
- PhD fees/stipends/studentships;
- keeping staff employed between projects ("bridging").
EPSRC IAA Funding Schemes
Advice and Support
If you would like further advice regarding any of the schemes, please get in touch with the EPSRC IAA team by email - epsrciaa@contacts.bham.ac.uk