AHRC Impact Acceleration Account

The University of Sussex has been awarded an Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) Impact Acceleration Account (IAA) grant of £750,000 over five years (April 2022 - March 2027), to accelerate the impact of arts and humanities research.

The programme enables researchers across the University (conducting research in the Arts and Humanities remit) to help bring about societal, economic, environmental and other impacts beyond academia. It offers advisory and financial support for individual impactful projects, and facilitates collaborations between researchers and external partners in a wide range and scale of organisations, to work on real-world changes.

The funding will be used to explore and develop new opportunities and innovative avenues to utilise arts and humanities research, with the aim of achieving impactful outcomes, particularly across our core strands:

• Creative Economy
• Cultural Heritage
• Policy
• Equality, Diversity & Inclusion
• AI & Digital Transformation
• Place-making & Community

Project funding calls (2025/26)

Having received a further 1-year programme extension, we are re-opening our two main impact project seed-funding calls, for one more round:

• Impact Builder (up to £10,000) – enabling researchers to deepen their existing collaborations with specific organisations or communities, and expand effective impact activities to generate demonstrable outcomes.
• Fast Track Fund (up to £3,000) – enabling researchers to strengthen emerging relationships with non-academic organisations or communities, and generate early-stage impacts through piloting small-scale / experimental engagement activities.

Timeline: £3k and £10k calls close Friday 23 January 2026. Outcomes to be communicated mid/late February 2026. Funds must be spent by 31 December 2026.

We are also re-opening our rapid-response call on a rolling basis:

• Engagement Opportunity Fund (up to £500) – enabling researchers to participate in a one-off engagement opportunity with key non-academic stakeholders, for the purposes of initiating or strengthening relationships that may lead to collaborative impact activity.

Timeline: Apply when needed (while budget permits), outcome within 2 weeks.

As with previous IAA calls, we invite a broad range of project proposals, but – for the 2025/26 round – we're particularly interested in proposals that would:

• explore or progress opportunities to commercialise research, and/or
• improve the success of an external research funding bid in development (e.g. strengthen partnership commitments, pilot impact plans/activities).

How to apply

For more information about the calls, eligibility criteria, and how to apply, visit the AHRC IAA main webpage (behind Sussex login).

Please contact the AHRC IAA team inbox with any questions about the programme: ahrciaa@sussex.ac.uk 

For impact support more generally, please contact the relevant PS colleague(s) from these lists:

• Contacts per Faculty

  Brighton and Sussex Medical School. Deeptima Massey - Research Manager - d.massey@bsms.ac.uk

  Faculty of Science, Engineering and Medicine. Trine Bjorkmann Berry - Research Manager - T.B.Berry@sussex.ac.uk

  Faculty of Social Sciences. Carol Anderson - Assistant Research Manager - c.s.anderson@sussex.ac.uk

  Faculty of Media, Arts and Humanities. Katherine Blackadder - Assistant Research Manager (Impact) - k.blackadder@sussex.ac.uk

• RIQI Research Impact Managers

  James Morland - J.Morland@sussex.ac.uk - for:

  • Life Sciences (Chemistry only)
  • Business School (except Economics)
  • Education & Social Work
  • Law, Politics & Sociology
  • Engineering & Informatics
  • Media, Arts & Humanities (jointly with Chris)

  Chris Machell - C.Machell@sussex.ac.uk - for:

  • Brighton & Sussex Medical School
  • Psychology
  • Life Sciences (Biology only)
  • Mathematics & Physical Sciences
  • Global Studies
  • Business School (Economics only)
  • Media, Arts & Humanities (jointly with James)