King's College London

Awarded in 2022 and running until March 2027, the Impact Acceleration Account (IAA) has driven a ‘step change in impact culture’ across the faculty. With innovative professional development programmes, hundreds of activities delivered and nearly 10,000 people attending events hosted through the grant.

The Impact Acceleration Account

There are currently three other IAAs held at King’s, covering disciplines funded by the Economic & Social Research Council, the Engineering & Physical Sciences Research Council, and the Medical Research Council

The AHRC IAA has four broad aims:

1. To maximise the cultural and societal impact of arts & humanities research with a particular emphasis on reaching publics underrepresented in the Academy
   
   
2. To forge new strategic partnerships with diverse external partners, driving mutually beneficial collaborations that enhance societal impact
   
   
3. To innovate new opportunities for impact
   
   
4. To extend impact literacy across researchers through professional development programmes that provide cohorts with experiential learning opportunities

Markers of success

By the end of the third year of the grant, quantitative data demonstrated it as the highest performing IAA at King’s in several areas:

• Number of activities delivered: 268 across 105 collaborators

• Attendance at events: 9,080 attendees out of a King’s IAA total of 12,088

• Number of people trained: 1,269 people trained out of a King’s IAA total of 2,458

• Number of training activities delivered: 95

• Number of academic & non-academic publications produced: 60

• Engagement with small to medium-sized enterprises: 19 SMEs engaged

In addition, work to date has generated £245k in cash and in-kind contributions and has secured £235k follow-on funding.

Extensive sub-grant activity

Over the past four years, more than £300,000 in sub-grants have been awarded to 46 impact and engagement projects – covering exhibitions, events and workshops.

Early in 2026, £85,000 was awarded to 11 projects across the faculty that are focused on innovation. These projects, delivered in collaboration with 34 external partners, look either to generate new knowledge, practice, processes, products, methods and / or tools or to apply novel approaches to address existing challenges that diversify income streams and open new pathways for commercial growth or inclusion.

Sector-leading professional development programmes

A core innovation of the IAA has been to curate a suite of professional development programmes that provide awareness and understanding of impact and of opportunities available to researchers, as well as the skills and tools to seize them. Programmes have built cohorts of researchers to foster peer support and interdisciplinary exchange and have focused on experiential learning underpinned by theory. Topics covered have included policy impact, activism, impact leadership, impact planning, and impact advocacy to name a few.

Three programmes launched through the IAA will continue via core funding provided by the Faculty. These include:

• An impact fellows’ programme: The first of its kind for the university, the impact fellows’ programme provides individual and cohort development opportunities in research impact for researchers, supporting them to produce impact and evidence collection plans linked to their own existing or planned research projects.
  
  
• An activist-in-residence programme: Another first for King's, the activist-in-residence programme funded four projects that brought together activists and researchers to address social challenges and that culminated in a Festival of Activism. The onward programme is now hosted by the Global Cultures Institute, with four new projects recently launched.
  
  
• Undisciplined Spaces: An innovation in the wider sector and delivered in conjunction with The Young Foundation, Undisciplined Spaces {link} has supported three cohorts of PhD students to coproduce, alongside local charities, six community engagement projects underpinned by research. The programme was recently featured as a best practice case study in a report by the National Civic Impact Accelerator, Meaningful Engagement between Students and Local Communities. Undisciplined Spaces will now be delivered in-house as part https://www.kcl.ac.uk/about/strategy the new King’s Doctoral School for Arts & Humanities, and will be extended to PhD students at The Courtauld as part of King’s-Courtauld 10-year strategic partnership.

Speaking to Strategy 2030 and beyond

The breadth of work delivered under the IAA leaves the faculty well-placed to contribute to several aspects of King’s Strategy 2030. Through driving over 100 impactful partnerships and investment in innovation-led projects, the IAA has demonstrated how arts & humanities research serves society at local, national, and international levels.

In addition, sub-grant projects have all spoken to at least one of King’s Impact Priorities, ensuring we shape a better world together. And with a focus on both practical impact work and on enhancing impact literacy, the IAA has made important contributions to the faculty’s evolving REF2029 submission.

Find out about the work of the Faculty of Arts & Humanities Impact & Knowledge Exchange team on the Impact website, or email with any questions.