SOAS Impact Acceleration Account

SOAS has successfully secured a 5-year, £1.25 million Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) Impact Acceleration Account (IAA) from 2023-2028, to develop impact in the areas of migration, displacement, minorities and marginalisation.

Co-managed by the SOAS Centre for Migration and Diaspora Studies and the Research and Knowledge Exchange Directorate, the IAA will contribute to raising the profile and achieving greater impact for SOAS research in these thematic areas.

SOAS IAA models new approaches to impact, innovation and commercialisation by utilising a thematic research portfolio to work across disciplines and across sectors.

Key component of the SOAS IAA's activities include:

• Global thematic roundtables that foster knowledge exchange between SOAS academics, policy makers, social activists and migration practitioners.
• Development of an Open Online Shared Learning and Collaboration space for continuous sharing of information, resources and cross-network collaboration.
• An annual mobility programme of short-term, high impact knowledge exchange fellowships.
• Rapid response and strategic grants of £2,500 to £10,000 that support co-production of knowledge and impact-oriented outputs.

SOAS researchers will also be gaining expertise in knowledge exchange practices and approaches through partner-led capacity building, and will have the opportunity of showcasing their research and engaging with the public during the annual ESRC Festival of Social Science.

IAA Grants – Call for Applications Now Open

The next round of the IAA grant applications is now open. SOAS researchers interested in developing research impact projects in the areas of migration, displacement, minorities and marginalisation are invited to submit their proposals.

The IAA offers two grant schemes for collaborative projects between SOAS researchers and non-academic partners, designed to amplify research impact. The strategic grants and the rapid response grants:

• Strategic Grants: competitive funding for projects with a strategic focus on enhancing research impact.
• Rapid Response Grants: an open, rolling call to support urgent needs or emerging topics for research impact.

Application Resources

Applicants can access the following resources individually, or view/download all materials from the IAA Grant Application Resources Folder (2026).

• IAA Call for Proposals IAA STRATEGIC GRANT (2026)
• IAA Call for Proposals IAA RAPID RESPONSE GRANT(2026)
• IAA FAQs, which provide further details to understand our framing of impact
• Tips from previous successful impact proposals 

Application deadline: 

• Strategic Grant: 20 April 2026
• Rapid Response Grant: ongoing until 31 August 2027.

Previous IAA Grants

The first round of grants, launched in March 2024, supported a range of innovative collaborations between SOAS researchers and non-academic partners. This round culminated in the first IAA Grant Celebration Event on 27 February 2025, hosted by Deputy Vice-Chancellor Laura Hammond, where the creativity, innovation, and achievements of grant recipients were showcased.

Explore snapshots of our IAA impact projects across recent cohorts.

2025

The 2025 Festival of Social Science took place on 3 and 4 November 2025, exploring the theme 'Our work lives' alongside SOAS' IAA theme 'Migration, marginalisation, displacement and minorities'. 

SOAS researchers delivered a series of interactive, hands-on activities for young people aged 14–18, encouraging them to think critically about work, identity, and social change. The sessions created space for discussion, creativity, and new perspectives on how social science helps us understand the world around us.

2024

SOAS has now held two successful ESRC Festivals of Social Science, the annual celebration of social science research that looks to engage audiences through a range of public events.

Last year, on 7 and 8 November 2024, groups of 13 to 18-year-olds learning English as an additional language were invited to explore engagement activities designed by SOAS researchers and research partners.

The theme for the 2024 festival was ‘Our digital lives’. In keeping with this theme, as well as SOAS IAA’s fourfold thematic focus, SOAS researchers conducted a series of interactive workshops and activities, including:

• The Power of Video Games for Social Justice: the potential of video games to promote education about anti-slavery and influence policies to combat modern slavery.
• Digital Solutions-making for Food Insecurity: the role of technology in tackling food insecurity.
• What is a Home?: a series of creative activities that discuss what it is to be displaced from home, to rebuild it, and to imagine a future home.
• Exploring Cultural Memory Through Creativity: how can theatre and creative practice help us to see history differently?
• When Belongings Return: the role of objects in cultural memory, identity-making, and heritage activism.
• Reclaiming Your Digital Space: exploring how computers "think" and the role of coding in reclaiming personal space and identity in the digital world.
• Echoes From the Ruins: an interactive event exploring the plight of forcibly displaced people in Nigeria’s Northwest region due to armed conflict and banditry.