It is a dream come true for me to be able to announce MOLA’s Impact Acceleration Account (IAA) grants. Alongside my incredible colleague, Dr Emma Dwyer, and with huge support from others in our team including Nigel Jeffries and Dr Blen Taye, we’ve just published the calls for proposals for our first two opportunities:
- Creative Residencies (worth up to £13k each)
- Networking Grants (worth up to £15k each)
More information about the IAA funding from the AHRC and these grants is available on MOLA’s webpages, so I won’t repeat the details here. Note that by the terms of the funders, these grants support our staff to work in paid partnership with UK-based individuals, groups, organisations and small/medium sized enterprises (outside of higher education institutions) to extend the impact of our archaeological research across different audiences in unusual ways.
I just wanted to pause to reflect briefly on what the IAA means to me. I don’t think it’s an understatement to say that, with likeminded colleagues, I’ve invested years of hard work in highlighting the potential for archaeology to inspire countless forms of innovation, creative exploits, business development and playful inspiration. Examples of such playful innovation abound, from nail art…
…to colouring…
…to comedy and so much more…
But so much of this work is driven by the passion of individuals, often working for free in their spare hours. Or these efforts are tacked-on to big research projects rather than being recognised as critical ventures in themselves that have the potential to spawn new research, new forms of business, new developments for society and the environment.
Having the opportunity to not only explore these creative potentials, but to fund external partners to collaborate with us in doing so is, for me, the fulfilment of a lifelong ambition. I am grateful to the AHRC for making this possible, and to Dr Emma Dwyer and my colleagues at MOLA who are amongst the most hardworking and inspirational people I’ve ever met.
I hope you might consider joining us in this work, referring others to it, or sharing our outputs and experiences with your networks. Keep your eyes peeled for another 4 grant opportunities and repeat calls of all of these grant offerings over the next 2.5 years! Read more here and contact iaa@mola.org.uk to register your interest.
SARA PERRY 