The Midlands Innovation Social Science Research Accelerator (MISSRA)
Social science is grounded in theories about human motivations and interests, social, economic, political, and cultural institutions, and fundamental ideas for organising society. These theories are combined with a variety of research methods that allow systematic analysis and the generation of evidence, explanations, and understanding which are then used by governments, policy-makers, civil society organisations, businesses and other key stakeholders in ways that underpin decision making across society.
The Midlands Innovation Social Science Research Accelerator (MISSRA) is a collaboration between the universities of Aston, Birmingham, Leicester, Loughborough, Nottingham and Warwick. Together they draw on the £4.3M of UKRI Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) funding allocated to the four Midlands Impact Acceleration Accounts (Birmingham, Leicester, Nottingham and Warwick, 2019-2023). This funding enables collaborations with public, private and third sector organisations that need research that helps understand society, human behaviour and how we influence the world around us. MISSRA can provide:
- access to a network of academics that spans the region and every social science discipline
- research expertise that underpins and informs socially inclusive growth
- agile response mechanisms to meet business needs, including researcher secondments and people exchange
- innovative and imaginative approaches to knowledge exchange between non-academic organisations and researchers, supporting experimentation and proof-of-concept building to larger-scale projects
If you would like to find out more about what MISSRA can offer your organisation, your local contact (as below) can provide information on academic expertise, funding schemes and current projects:
Aston University email: L.Atwood@aston.ac.uk
University of Birmingham email: esrciaa@contacts.bham.ac.uk
University of Leicester email: esrciaa@leicester.ac.uk
Loughborough University email: enterprise@lboro.ac.uk
University of Nottingham email: esrciaa@nottingham.ac.uk
University of Warwick email: ESRCImpactAccount@warwick.ac.uk