The phrase "a role in igniting" is correct and usable in written English.
It can be used when discussing someone's contribution or influence in starting or initiating something, such as a movement, idea, or event.
Example: "The scientist played a crucial role in igniting interest in renewable energy among the public."
Alternatives: "a part in sparking" or "a contribution to initiating".
Social and economic grievances of Tunisian youth played a major role in igniting the uprising in Tunisia, and more generally, the so-called Arab Spring.
Because the team's offense is not nearly as fluid or as dangerous without him, midfielders like Tab Ramos and Brad Davis will have to take on a larger role in igniting the offense.
Nemtsov's death was a bitter bookend to the hopes that had accompanied the dashing, Western-style politician in the heady years after the breakup of the Soviet Union as he took a lead role in igniting Russia's rocket-powered free-market economy.
In 2009, Miguel and colleagues published a controversial paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, arguing that spikes in temperature had played a dramatic role in igniting African civil wars.
Far-seeing leaders of this municipality, and here I will mention in particular Mayor and Party Secretary Guan Aiguo, were mindful that elsewhere in the world, universities have had a special role in igniting the sort of innovative, entrepreneurial culture that sustains economic vitality beyond the life of any single bright idea.
The brutality of the security forces, which played a huge role in igniting the revolution, remains the same if not much worse.
The inquiries highlight Wall Street's leading role in igniting the mortgage boom that has imploded with a burst of defaults and foreclosures.
The world rallied to confront cholera, too, but the mission was muddled by the United Nations' apparent role in igniting the epidemic and its unwillingness to acknowledge it.
For her role in igniting the successful campaign, which brought King to national prominence, Parks became known as the "mother of the civil rights movement".
From its role in igniting the First World War, via the occupation and resistance of World War II, and to the battles and barbarity that followed the breakup of Yugoslavia, the people of the region have suffered enough.
