Mid-tier accounting and law firms (with revenues between £5m and £250m) can improve productivity and enhance their services to clients and society if they use digital technology - including artificial intelligence - more effectively. But they are often reluctant to adopt technology. This is partly because they are uncertain about which technology to use, how to use it, and whether it will be of benefit. The partnership structures of accountancy and law firms, the traditional roles and identities of lawyers and accountants, and external factors such as education, training, regulation and career structures can also present obstacles to technology adoption. This project will provide structured methods and supporting resources to help selected accountancy and law firms accelerate their technology adoption. In doing this, the project team will also learn in more depth about how the various forms of support contribute to helping firms, and how the various obstacles can impede progress. This understanding will be used to develop templates, tools and support to help other firms in future. It will also be used to change the context in which adoption is undertaken, by bringing to the surface and reducing the obstacles presented by rules, regulations, assumptions and patterns of working that result from firms' interactions with other organisations such as professional bodies, regulators, government departments, clients and technology vendors. Overall, the project will create a market where technology adoption is less risky, complicated and potentially threatening, and therefore easier to do with confidence. The project will cater for firms at different stages of experience with technology adoption, from relative beginners to those who already use some technology but would like to extend its use. Three types of acceleration will be provided, depending on the starting-point of the firms. For beginners, basic training and advice will be provided to help them use software such as Microsoft 365 that they already have. The aim here will be to get the firms started by conducting a short project to implement the technology for one pilot application in the firm. For those who are a little more prepared, resources, technical advice and support will be provided, and a cohort of about eight to ten firms formed, who will help and encourage each other in their adoption projects. Mentoring will be provided as firms conduct their projects, and work towards a concluding event where they demonstrate what they have achieved within their firms, to the other firms, and to the wider project community. Two to four more advanced firms will get the technical or managerial help needed to further advance their technology adoption journey, and to build ways to demonstrate the value of innovation adoption more clearly. For all firms involved in the project, an innovation adoption acceleration fund will help de-risk investments in new digital technologies - this being crucial to secure participation in the project and create opportunities to learn about will create a sustainable market for innovation adoption in the future. The project team will draw together insights about which of the various forms of acceleration help are successful, for firms at different stages, and what can be done to remove obstacles in the wider social and business environment. By exhibiting outcomes widely, and consulting through workshops and roundtable meetings, the team will develop tools and roadmaps, and recommend policy changes that make adoption easier and less risky for firms, from beginners to more experienced adopters. This process of learning about how to make acceleration happen in these sectors will also lead to research findings and better theories about how innovation adoption can be accelerated more generally. It will also reveal how professions in general, and accountancy and law in particular, adapt to and sometimes resist the changes needed for digital adoption.

The ACORN network's mission is to bridge the gap that currently exists between the research in universities and the need of the financial services industry, its consumers and the regulator. ACORN wants to grow to well over 100 primary partners and 1000 associated partners, offering an inclusive, diverse and responsible research culture. Based on regional presence in Wales, Scotland, North-East England and London, it will harmonize technological know-how across regions and connect regional partners to nation-wide efforts. Real-life challenges in financial services are complex, combining responding to technology innovation with business ethics, green/environmental considerations and scarcity in the talent pipeline. This presents FS with wicked problems, which the industry cannot ignore, and which require people and researchers from across disciplines to come together. ACORN aims to address wicked problems in FS that are associated with innovation in technology, mathematics and sciences. ACORN provides a number of mechanisms to succeed in this mission. Central to ACORN's working is its 'commissioning framework', which provides the funding mechanisms for five types of collaborative projects between academia and partners. ACORN offers seed project funding, which aims to explore technological, mathematical and scientific solutions for real-life challenges in FS, prioritised through co-design sandpits. It then offers funding for larger multi-disciplinary feasibility projects, which may build on the seed projects, and expand to consider 'wicked' multi-disciplinary research problems. In parallel, ACORN offers funding for agile projects, which can be of any type, e.g., horizon scanning, population survey, a software prototype or a machine learning application. These have predetermined IP arrangements, so that they can be organised in agile manner and can start at any time for the duration of ACORN. Additionally, impact projects are offered to take any of the research projects further (e.g., to influence policy makers, or initiate commercialisation), and education/engagement projects allow to grow the FS talent pool and address the talent pipeline. To support researchers and partners in these project, ACORN establishes a number of services the community can use. The co-design service and the corporate digital responsibility service help researchers to consider these aspects in their proposals. The secure data vault, the shared code base, the experimentation sandbox and template IP arrangements are available to improve research, its impact and to lower collaboration barriers. We name the network ACORN, to signify that collaborations as majestic as an oak tree can grow from humble beginnings.