Royal College of Art AHRC Impact Acceleration Account 2022-2025
Lead Research Organisation:
Royal College of Art
Department Name: Research Office
Abstract
The Royal College of Art's research has a focus on art and design practice and a commitment to industry-facing, interdisciplinary research with impact. In addition to research in our four Schools (Arts & Humanities; Architecture, Communication; Design), we have four research centres: the Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design (HHCD), the Intelligent Mobility Design Centre (IMDC), the Materials Science Research Centre (MSRC), and the Computer Science Research Centre (CSRC). RCA researchers engage in interdisciplinary research collaborations regularly, bringing expertise in the visual and creative arts, design and innovation, technology and materials, and critical thinking and cultural interpretation to these collaborations. They already collaborate with a large range of partners across business and industry (from global companies to local SMEs) and the cultural sector (e.g. British Library, Tate, Victoria & Albert).
The IAA will build on the RCA's existing strengths to expand further the range of partners the College engages with, providing support to develop substantial collaborations with policy makers, government and third sector organisations, creating increased opportunities for policy, social and cultural impact.
The overarching aim of the RCA IAA will be to develop the College's research culture and environment to deliver a step-change in researchers' capacity to undertake effective, ambitious, innovative and responsive impact activities. The IAA will focus on three main objectives: (i) embedding a stronger impact culture across the RCA; (ii) increasing policy engagement; and (iii) enabling agile innovation for researchers.
As a small specialist art and design institution, the RCA's Research & KE Office is not able to offer dedicated impact support to researchers. The IAA will help to address that by enabling us to embed impact skills and capacity among our staff, providing impact-focussed training that equips researchers at all career stages to strengthen their routes to impact with more structured and robust approaches to designing impact activities and planning impact evidence collection in the early stages of developing a research project.
By focusing on embedding a stronger impact culture across the RCA, the IAA will support researchers to engage with new stakeholders, new disciplines, and new routes to impact more broadly, with a particular focus on engaging effectively with policymakers. The IAA will also equip researchers to deploy agile innovation and 'fast failure' activities in their own research, and to undertake proof of concept and commercialisation activities, with the aim of increasing the number of researcher-led start-ups in our award-winning incubator, InnovationRCA.
The IAA will build on the RCA's existing strengths to expand further the range of partners the College engages with, providing support to develop substantial collaborations with policy makers, government and third sector organisations, creating increased opportunities for policy, social and cultural impact.
The overarching aim of the RCA IAA will be to develop the College's research culture and environment to deliver a step-change in researchers' capacity to undertake effective, ambitious, innovative and responsive impact activities. The IAA will focus on three main objectives: (i) embedding a stronger impact culture across the RCA; (ii) increasing policy engagement; and (iii) enabling agile innovation for researchers.
As a small specialist art and design institution, the RCA's Research & KE Office is not able to offer dedicated impact support to researchers. The IAA will help to address that by enabling us to embed impact skills and capacity among our staff, providing impact-focussed training that equips researchers at all career stages to strengthen their routes to impact with more structured and robust approaches to designing impact activities and planning impact evidence collection in the early stages of developing a research project.
By focusing on embedding a stronger impact culture across the RCA, the IAA will support researchers to engage with new stakeholders, new disciplines, and new routes to impact more broadly, with a particular focus on engaging effectively with policymakers. The IAA will also equip researchers to deploy agile innovation and 'fast failure' activities in their own research, and to undertake proof of concept and commercialisation activities, with the aim of increasing the number of researcher-led start-ups in our award-winning incubator, InnovationRCA.