Royal Society of Chemistry - Accessibility Grant

Overview

The Royal Society of Chemistry is making funding available to help people with disabilities and health conditions overcome access barriers when attending professional events.

The Accessibility Grant programme provides funding of up to £1,200 per year to help with the cost of specific support to attend a chemistry-related meeting, conference, workshop or professional development event.

Applicants can apply as often as needed until the maximum value of £1,200 per year has been reached. The Society aims to respond to applications within six weeks.

What can the funding support?

Accessibility Grants support attendance at online events as well as in-person events.

Individual requirements can be wide and varied, so the grant’s coverage is equally wide and each application is assessed on its own merits. For example, you might apply for funding to cover:

• extra travel expenses, such as wheelchair-accessible travel options, taxis, or to permit a carer or personal assistant to travel with you
• personal assistance costs
• communication support services, such as a sign language interpreter
• assistive software support, such as closed-captioning or text-to-speech software
• assistive hardware or mobility/sensory aids, such as adapted technology or adjustable tools

They also take an expansive view of what disabilities, health conditions, and impairments can be. Funding can support event costs related, and not limited to:

• sensory impairments, such as visual or hearing impairments
• mobility impairments
• long-standing conditions and illnesses, such as cancer, HIV, diabetes, epilepsy, fibromyalgia, autoimmune diseases, and severe allergies
• neurodivergence, such as ADHD, autism, and dyslexia
• mental health conditions
• in some cases, short-term support required as a result of injury or illness

Eligibility

You are eligible if:

• you are a chemist
• you are based in the UK or Ireland, or if not, you are a current RSC member (normally with three consecutive years of membership) or a former RSC member (with at least ten previous years of RSC membership)
• you will use these funds to cover, or partially cover, the cost of support or assistance that you personally require relating to a disability, impairment or health condition
• you will use these funds to attend and/or fully participate in a chemistry-related meeting, conference, workshop or professional development opportunity, and cannot access it via any other existing or statutory means

This grant is not intended to replace the responsibility of your employer, institution, venues or event organisers to make their events accessible to all attendees. Venues and event organisers have a legal duty to make reasonable adjustments to enable access to all attendees. For more information, see their quick guide to running inclusive events.

The arrangement of any support, care or assistance will remain the responsibility of the applicant and not the Royal Society of Chemistry.