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.

2026 Edition -  5 and 6 November 2026

The SOAS ESRC Festival of Social Science returns on 5–6 November 2026, bringing social science research to life through interactive, hands-on workshops led by SOAS researchers. The annual festival celebrates research and knowledge about people and society, creating opportunities for researchers to share their work with the wider public in engaging and accessible ways.

The 2026 programme will explore the national festival theme, ‘Money, Finance and the Cost of Living’, alongside SOAS' institutional theme, ‘Migration, Marginalisation, Displacement and Minorities’. Designed for young people aged 14–18 (Years 10–13) who speak English as an Additional Language, the festival will bring together researchers, local schools and partner organisations to explore issues shaping our lives and communities.

Explore the workshops

The programme will feature interactive workshops connecting social science research with real-world experiences and challenges. Topics will include:

• Saving from an Early Age: Building healthy saving habits through interactive activities.
• Money and the UK Asylum System: Exploring budgeting on limited support and its impact on wellbeing.
• Who Does the Care Work? Examining household labour, migrant women's work and the cost of care.
• Digital Welfare and Food Assistance: Exploring access to support services and barriers faced by people who speak English as an additional language.
• Inflation and Its Impact: Understanding rising prices and the cost of living.
• Our Shared History: Exploring relationships and experiences across migrant and non-migrant communities.
• Mursi Stories Through Film: Discovering Mursi culture through a community-created play and its journey in Ethiopia.
• Digital Worlds and Social Media: Exploring coding, influencer culture, exploitation and misinformation.
• Why Do People Leave? Caste, Landlessness and Migration in Rural India: An interactive exploration of inequality and migration through role-play and mapping.
• Music, Inclusion and Social Change: Exploring the social impact of participatory music and opportunities in music leadership.

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.

SOAS researchers interested in developing research impact projects in the areas of migration, displacement, minorities and marginalisation are invited to submit their proposals.

Application Resources

Applicants can access the following resources:

• 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: next call for application will be launched in January 2027.
• Rapid Response Grant: ongoing until 31 August 2027.

Previous IAA Grants

Launched in 2024, the IAA grants programme has supported two completed cohorts of collaborative research impact projects, with the third cohort currently underway as researchers work with non-academic partners to deliver their projects.

Each completed cohort culminates in a celebration event, hosted and chaired by the Deputy Vice-Chancellor Laura Hammond, bringing together grant recipients and the wider SOAS community, including early career researchers (ECRs), PhD researchers and academic staff. Through project snapshot videos, panel discussions and interactive Q&A sessions, these events showcase research impact, facilitate knowledge exchange and sharing of experiences, and create valuable opportunities for peer learning, networking and future collaboration.

2025 Cohort

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2024 Cohort

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