Central is pleased to announce that it has been awarded funding for its research through UK Research and Innovation’s Impact Acceleration Account (IAA). 

Now in its 10th year, the IAA programme supports early-stage UK research to make real impacts, transforming public services, creating new jobs, attracting private investment and forging new partnerships with businesses and charities. 

The funding allows UK teams to unlock the value of their work, including early-stage commercialisation of new technologies and advancing changes to public policy and services. 

The total funding being invested by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) from 2022-25 is £118 million, which will support research at 64 universities and research organisations across the UK. 

Of this funding, Central has been awarded £450,000 by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), which will enable the School to create a Centre for Research Impact in the Performing Arts to co-ordinate, expand, and promote its impact and Knowledge Exchangeactivities. The funding will accelerate impact from Central research in the field of the performing arts, with a particular focus on activities connecting the arts and health, collaborations with the performing arts industries, and interventions to democratise and widen participation in culture. 

Of the funding, Dr Tom Cornford, Senior Lecturer in Theatre and Performance and Head of the Research Degrees Programme at Central, said: 

“We are delighted to be among a very small number of specialist institutions to receive funding under this scheme, which will enable us to support researchers to focus on and expand the ways in which their work extends into society beyond the university through numerous partnerships and collaborations, and plays a constructive role in processes of social change.” 

This is the first time that the AHRC has participated directly in IAA funding, investing £5m over three years. Arts and Humanities subjects are at the forefront of innovation, and IAA funding will provide an important tool for AHRC’s research communities to work with the creative industries and government departments to generate social, economic and cultural value.