The British Science Association have just announced details of grant funding schemes for British Science Week in 2015.

Event dates: 13th to 22nd March 2015

As well as the usual grants by region in the UK, offering their traditional support to schools, this year (2015) sees the introduction of community organisation grants, offering those in the community sector working with ‘hard to reach’ communities the opportunity to build new work using science and discovery as a lever to engagement.

• Kick Start Grants – grants of £300 for school activities (and up to £700 for schools/communities) in the UK faced with challenging circumstances.
• Scottish Grant scheme – grants of £200 for schools and £350 for organisations in Scotland.
• Welsh Grant scheme – grants of £200 for schools and £350 for organsations in Wales.
• Community Grant scheme (new for 2015) – grants of up to £500 for community-based groups and organisations working with hard to reach groups in the UK whose targeted audience/participants include those not traditionally engaged with science.  (These might be people who “..are from the Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic community (BAME); not in education employment or training (NEET); or who live in a remote and rural location”…Ed.)

Although the sums are modest, it is possible with imagination, to see how the seed funding could be used to engage those interested in science, or to give the undiscovered young scientist a chance to take their first step on the road to research, for example.

The Association web site offers the following as eligible activities under the grant scheme.

• Presentations from invited speakers on science and/or engineering topics.
• Field trips to local science centres, museums or university science departments.
• Arranging a talk or workshop with a local STEM ambassador.
• Recruiting a freelancer to deliver an arts and science activity.
• Fete, family science days, mini festivals, science fairs.
• Busking displays run in public venues, such as a supermarket, park or high street.
• Hands-on workshops.
• Debates and discussions with scientists.

At conversationsEAST we really warmed to the idea of a cross disciplinary event, say using musicians, artists and electronic engineers to devise an event using music, graphics and an introduction to audio-visual or web technology. The output of the engagement and learning to be put on the web, or streamed live, or turned into a music CD, for example.

As always, if there any Fellows in the region planning an event, we’d be happy to donate web resources from conversationsEAST to contribute to the work. Just let us know?

  You can read more on the British Science Association Science Week web pages here...

  See the Science Week funding guidelines here...

  When ready, you can download activity packs and sample flyers too…

We are looking forward to our Science Week in March 2015 already.