About the grant
Our Outreach Fund provides financial support to members, individuals and organisations in order to enable them to run chemistry-based public and schools engagement activities.
Through the fund we aim to support projects that:
- maximise our members' outreach and engagement contribution
- offer teachers a range of effective curriculum-enriching activities and opportunities to further engage their students with outreach
- provide hard-to-reach student audiences with inspiring chemistry engagement opportunities, delivered or coordinated by skilled people
- increase chemistry and chemists' influence in public discourse and decision-making in line with the findings of the Public Attitude to Chemistry research.
Tiers of funding
The Outreach Fund is split into two categories:
- Small grants - up to £2,000
- Large grants - between £2,000 and £10,000
This means that we can fund everything from a one-off event, all the way up to large programmes of activity.
Eligibility
The grant scheme is open to all (individuals and organisations). This includes, but is not limited to, members of the Royal Society of Chemistry, member-led groups, researchers in academia or industry, museums, community groups, not-for-profit organisations, arts groups and libraries. To be eligible for the grant scheme, applications must satisfy the following criteria:
- Applicants should seek to engage with members of the Royal Society of Chemistry and member groups (e.g. to inform the chemistry content, to develop long-term sustainability plans, to engage volnteers to take part in the activities). However the lead applicant is not required to be a member.
- Small grants are restricted to two per individual/group/institution. Those wishing to apply for larger numbers of events, for example, should submit a single application for a coherent programme to the large grant scheme.
- Previous recipients of any of our grants, including the Outreach Fund, are welcome to apply for funding. This can be scale-up a project that already exists or to fund the development of an original project. The assessment panel will take into account both plans to ensure sustainability of the project and the quality of all evaluations received for any projects for which we have awarded previous funding.
- Applicants should not resubmit an unsuccessful application unless invited to do so.
- Funding is only available for projects within the UK or Republic of Ireland.
Criteria
All applications will be judged on the following criteria and should clearly demonstrate:
- that the project has a significant aspect which is related to the chemical sciences
- that the project has a clearly identified target audience
- that the intended impact on the audience has been defined
- that evaluation plans are built into the project
Applications for schools engagement activities should demonstrate how the proposed activities will:
- enrich student's chemistry education and not solely deliver the curriculum
- provide students with opportunities to explore chemistry through local contexts, AND/OR
- demonstrate career opportunities and develop employability skills, AND/OR
- provide opportunities which would not normally be accessible to the students taking part, e.g for hard-to-reach student audiences.
Applications for public engagement activities should demonstrate how the proposed activities will:
- increase chemists' visibility as approachable people AND/OR
- increase the publics' confidence in discussing chemistry AND/OR
- demonstrate the relevance of chemistry to everyday interests and concerns.
In addition, all projects involving member and volunteer engagement activities in order to deliver the schools or public engagement activities above, should also:
- provide members with new opportunties to directly interact with the public
- allow members to communicate chemistry, and their roles within chemistry, with passion.
Restrictions on funding
Outreach Fund grants will not be awarded to:
- cover the cost of textbooks or equipment required to deliver the core curriculum in schools
- cover the cost of hardware, apparatus or equipment such as microscopes, digital cameras or computers etc., unless it is shown to be integral to the project, will be used beyond the project lifetime to communicate chemistry and does not make up the majority of the project costs
- cover the cost of supply cover for teachers, teacher stipends or salaries
- projects intending solely to develop or deliver teacher CPD
- projects whose primary aim is to generate a financial surplus
- projects where our support does not significantly enhance the activity
- projects which are part of an education institution's usual programme of activities, including Open Days and Taster Days
- projects which are part of a science communication organisation's existing programme of activities
- cover the salary costs of project staff
- cover the cost of consultancy fees for science communicators
Apply now
All applications must be submitted through our online application system. Applicants are encouraged to read the application guidelines before completing the online application form.
Small grants
To apply for a grant up to £2,000 please submit an application through our online application system. Applications are now open and will remain open throughout the year. We run a rolling application process and the next deadline is 12 noon on Monday 3 April 2017.
Large grants
To apply for a grant between £2,000 and £10,000 please submit an application through our online application system. Applications are now open and the deadline is 12 noon on Monday 3 July 2017.
For more information click "Further official information" below.
This opportunity has expired. It was originally published here:
http://www.rsc.org/awards-funding/funding/outreach-fund/