IFS awarded five-year Impact Acceleration Account funding from ESRC

The Institute for Fiscal Studies has been awarded £1.25 million in flexible Impact Acceleration Account (IAA) funding from the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) over the next five years. This award will allow IFS researchers to undertake significant impact and engagement activities, working with partners from policy, industry, third sector and academia.

The ESRC, part of the non-departmental public body UK Research Innovation (UKRI), has awarded IAAs to 32 UK research organisations to provide the funding to support activities which maximise the impact of their research. 

Research organisations who are awarded an IAA can use the funds flexibly and responsively, aligning with their strategic aims, to ‘unlock the value of their existing social science research.’ These organisations also participate in the ESRC’s annual, UK-wide Festival of Social Science.

Previous funding from the IAA from 2019–2023 has supported a wide range of impact activities within IFS, including the IFS’ podcast IFS Zooms In, and interactive tools and calculators such as the Student Finance Calculator, Local Government Finance Model and NHS Waiting Lists calculator.

Commenting on this year’s IAA awards, ESRC Interim Executive Chair Professor Alison Park said that “the social, behavioural and economic research we fund helps us understand how we live and how society functions, throwing new light on how best to tackle our most pressing challenges. This investment creates a network of research organisations with dedicated funding to support and accelerate the impact of this research.”

Find out more about Impact Acceleration Account funding here.