The Flexi Fund from the ESRC Impact Acceleration account is aimed at early-stage relationship building and idea development.

Applications of up to £3K are now welcome until January 2025. Projects that contribute to policy change, and secondments that exchange knowledge, skills and expertise are particularly welcome.

Dr Maria Loades, Reader in the Department of Psychology, who has received Flexi Funding from the ESRC IAA says:

We needed to pilot of our online single session sleep intervention. The ESRC IAA Flexi Funding was an ideal funding source for this proof of concept work. Working with our project partners in the UK and USA, the pilot has successfully recruited a large sample of diverse young people. Using the data collected, we will be able to progress towards a more definitive trial, and ultimately, towards achieving our ambition of making effective help for sleep accessible on demand and anonymously. This in turn will improve mental health, as well as academic and occupational achievement as long-term impact goals.

Hannah Tebbutt, Impact and Knowledge Exchange Programme Manager for the ERSRC IAA at the University of Bath, says:

We are thrilled to be able to reopen the ESRC Impact Accelerator Flexi Fund and support more colleagues on their impact journey. In the last funding round we awarded over £30k across 15 social sciences projects, ranging from knowledge exchange events to intervention pilots. We are excited to see what the next round of applications will bring.