Accelerating Impact at MOLA (Museum of London Archaeology)
Lead Research Organisation:
Museum of London Archaeology
Department Name: Research and Education
Abstract
The MOLA Impact Accelerator Account (IAA) aims to derive greater value from MOLA's world-leading archaeological research and practice through facilitating four key steams of work: (1) Partnerships, providing resource to establish meaningful relationships with new partners to reach underserved audiences, and to further sustainable development goals and novel forms of communication. (2) Innovations in project design and delivery, providing safe, fail-fast environments within which internal and external stakeholders and clients can codesign projects and scale-up learnings that develop impact. Co-design with commercial clients (in housing, highways, railways, windfarms) is key to change, as their reach into society is tremendous but they often report little perceived public value from their expenditures on archaeological work. (3) Commercialisation, providing seed funding for external researchers, small to medium sized enterprises (SMEs) and MOLA staff to co-develop educational products and other evidence-informed goods issuing from archaeological research. (4) Advocacy, providing support for specialists from other organisations (commercial, charitable, government), university students, and MOLA staff to experiment with approaches to policy shaping and local governance of the historic environment.
These streams of work will be enabled via the funding of 6 different types of impact activity:
(1) Networking Grants: Grants of up to £10k each to establish working relationships with new and unusual partners to reach target audiences, and address objectives associated with the UN Sustainable Development Goals and disciplinary challenges around communicating with audiences.
(2) Partnership Grants: Grants of £10k-20k each to support innovation in project design and delivery in partnership with at least one other archaeology unit, developer or charitable body.
(3) Creative Residencies: Funding for two 6-month residencies per year (six in total) for a creative practitioner to experiment on translating archaeological research into unusual forms for distribution across target audiences. Priority will be given to designers working in currently untapped creative sectors such as interior design, fashion, food, comedy, music, dance, infographics, and creative writers working in languages other than English.
(4) Secondments: Dedicated periods of time (5 to 60 days), scoped by applicants, to gain novel experiences of the operations of other organisations or departments and to devise impactful outcomes from archaeological and heritage research. Applicants may be MOLA staff seeking secondment to commercial, charitable, or government offices which complement MOLA Impact Acceleration objectives; or they may be academic, developer, charitable or government staff seeking secondment to MOLA.
(5) Business Development Grants: Seed funding of £5k-15k for creative practitioners, SMEs and MOLA staff to collaborate in development of educational products and other evidence-informed, revenue-generating business plans issuing from archaeological and heritage research.
(6) Policy Shaping Grants: Grants of approx. £5k each to support sector stakeholders and students in innovating with tools to influence policy makers.
These streams of work will be enabled via the funding of 6 different types of impact activity:
(1) Networking Grants: Grants of up to £10k each to establish working relationships with new and unusual partners to reach target audiences, and address objectives associated with the UN Sustainable Development Goals and disciplinary challenges around communicating with audiences.
(2) Partnership Grants: Grants of £10k-20k each to support innovation in project design and delivery in partnership with at least one other archaeology unit, developer or charitable body.
(3) Creative Residencies: Funding for two 6-month residencies per year (six in total) for a creative practitioner to experiment on translating archaeological research into unusual forms for distribution across target audiences. Priority will be given to designers working in currently untapped creative sectors such as interior design, fashion, food, comedy, music, dance, infographics, and creative writers working in languages other than English.
(4) Secondments: Dedicated periods of time (5 to 60 days), scoped by applicants, to gain novel experiences of the operations of other organisations or departments and to devise impactful outcomes from archaeological and heritage research. Applicants may be MOLA staff seeking secondment to commercial, charitable, or government offices which complement MOLA Impact Acceleration objectives; or they may be academic, developer, charitable or government staff seeking secondment to MOLA.
(5) Business Development Grants: Seed funding of £5k-15k for creative practitioners, SMEs and MOLA staff to collaborate in development of educational products and other evidence-informed, revenue-generating business plans issuing from archaeological and heritage research.
(6) Policy Shaping Grants: Grants of approx. £5k each to support sector stakeholders and students in innovating with tools to influence policy makers.
