IAA Arts & Humanities Accelerator fund

The IAA will enable King's College London to expand the scale of our impact and KE work by focusing on underexploited areas and by adding value to existing mechanisms. KCL will use the IAA to support four strategic aims: (1) To maximise the cultural and societal impact of King's Arts and Humanities research by leveraging new impact and KE activities that reach publics underrepresented

in the Academy (e.g. low-income, first-generation attendees, LGBT+, and BAME stakeholders). (2) To extend existing, and create new, strategic partnerships by working with a diverse range of internal and external partners to conduct socially engaged impact and KE activities that are demand-led, that meet the needs of publics in London and globally.

(3) To create new opportunities for impact and KE, both on- and off-line. We will network with external stakeholders and communities to extend our use of virtual platforms, enabling us to widen access to information and collaboration in more flexible ways and to enhance our understanding of how to generate impact in digital environments.

(4) To sustain, accelerate and communicate an interdisciplinary impact and KE culture in the Faculty and beyond by extending impact literacy in the Arts and Humanities community, from postgraduate research level upwards through tailored training courses. Transcending these four strategic aims, our interdisciplinary approach will extend

collaboration across King's to AHRC disciplines within King's Faculties and Institutes. The following objectives underpin our strategic aims: (1) Create a new, flexible, rapid response fund that supports proactive impact and KE

activities with underrepresented groups. We will emphasise supporting ECRs and BAME researchers in interdisciplinary projects (e.g. working with health professionals, biochemists or law experts), particularly those fostering new collaborations and / or generating impact and KE in creative, risky and disruptive ways.

(2) Establish and grow diverse strategic partnerships in underdeveloped impact

areas. We have established thematic funding priorities for underrepresented types of Arts and Humanities impacts. These potentially transformative impacts are in health and wellbeing, the environment, digital culture and datafication. In addition, we will build a strategic partnership with the Institute for Community Studies, co-convenors of the national Civic University Network, who possess extensive expertise in university-driven societal impact.

(3) Develop and grow a network of diverse researchers and publics to build on existing, and develop new, on- and off-line impact and KE activities. The Activist-in- Residence and Virtual Impact Fund schemes will allow academics to connect with internal and external stakeholders more rapidly and effectively.

(4) Build capacity for impact and KE skills among individual researchers at all career stages to enhance impact literacy across Arts and Humanities and to celebrate and share good practice from REF2021 and beyond.