Cover photo by Daryan Shamkhali on Unsplash
What is the Social Science Impact Accelerator?
The Social Science Impact Accelerator (SSIA) programme enables collaboration and knowledge exchange to maximise the impact of Royal Holloway’s social science research for our region, the UK and internationally. It is funded by a 5-year ESRC Impact Accelerator Account grant (2023-28) and match funding from Royal Holloway, University of London.
To achieve this, we will:
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Build partnerships that enable Royal Holloway to collaborate with policy makers, businesses, charities and innovators in our region, and to serve as an innovation hub.
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Equip our researchers with skills to apply their expertise and insight to real-world problems.
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Offer flexible project funding to maximise the impact of our research in creating positive outcomes for society and the economy.
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Offer placements, residencies and bursaries for social science researchers and PhD students to spend time working with our partners, as well as opportunities for partner placements at Royal Holloway.
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Share the progress, learning and insight from our activities, to support others working at the intersection of academia and industry, policy, non-profit and business.
Building on our strengths
Royal Holloway is home to world-leading research in social sciences with several departments in the UK top 5. Our wide-ranging portfolio includes expertise relevant to the challenges in sustainability, education, health, justice, communities, economic development, inequalities, participation, and many others. This programme enables us to build on those strengths to achieve a step change in our impact activities, to maximise the positive difference that our research makes in the world.
ESRC IAA Funding
We are delighted to have been awarded our first Impact Acceleration Account (IAA) grant from the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), to fund our Social Science Impact Accelerator Programme (2023-28).
Royal Holloway succeeded in a competitive round of applications for this grant and is one of 32 institutions nationally to have been awarded an ESRC IAA. Watch the ESRC 2023 launch video below to find out more.
