STFC Public Engagement Spark Awards 2024B

Overview

The Science and Technology Facilities Council’s (STFC) Public Engagement Spark Awards has re-opened for applications.

Awards of up to £20,000 are available for high-quality public engagement activities that inspire and involve target audiences.

Almost anyone can apply for a Spark award so long as your work for an organisation is:

• is based in the UK
• produces annual accounts certified by an accountant

Eligibile entities include:

• grant funded researchers
• STFC scientists, technicians and engineers
• STFC facility users
• schools
• museums
• science communicators
• universities & colleges
• community interest companies
• libraries
• community groups
• amateur astronomy groups

The project lead must be eligible to apply on behalf of the organisation that would hold the award.

If you have any questions about applicant eligibility, please contact the public engagement team: stfcpublicengagement@stfc.ac.uk and they will advise on how you may proceed.

They are committed to achieving equality of opportunity for all funding applicants. They encourage applications from a diverse range of researchers. Find out more about equality, diversity and inclusion at UKRI.

Activities

Proposals must have clear links to the STFC’s remit and include a subject matter expert (SMEs) in an STFC funded area. Activities within the remit of the STFC science programme includes:

• astronomy, solar and planetary science
• particle physics
• particle astrophysics
• nuclear physics
• accelerator science
• computational science

While these SMEs often play an active role in delivering the engagement activities, this is not mandatory. They may act as an adviser on the scientific content. The SME can be any one of these core team roles holders:

• project lead (PL)
• project co-lead (UK) (PcL)
• specialist

What are they looking for

They are looking to support projects that do one or more of the following:

• deliver high-quality public engagement activities in the areas supported by us
• introduce STFC science and technology to new audiences
• highlight the achievements of STFC science and technology
• demonstrate the value to the UK of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM)
• work with their public engagement and communication teams

Spark awards encourage ‘novel approaches’ to engagement and audience. However, applications that use established engagement methods are welcomed.

Funding

A total of £120,000 in funding is available in this round.

The scheme is not subject to the full economic cost (FEC) process. The cost of your project can be up to £20,000. STFC will fund 100% of the project cost.

Spark awards and STFC’s Wonder Initiative

The Wonder Initiative is about giving under-served communities an equal voice by listening, understanding, and responding to what people want to know about science and technology. Wonder marks a long-term commitment by STFC public engagement to move our focus towards audience driven public engagement with under-served communities in the most socio-economically deprived areas of the UK. Financial support through Spark awards is an important part of the Wonder Initiative.

The target audience for Wonder is defined according to indices of multiple deprivation. Specifically, they are interested in supporting audience driven engagement that works with audiences, particularly those eight to 14 years old and their families and carers, from the 40% most socio-economically deprived areas of the UK.

They define the 40% most socio-economically deprived areas of the UK as those areas listed in the bottom two quintiles of the indices of multiple deprivation for the respective part of the UK.

You are explicitly invited to submit Spark applications that work with the Wonder target audience.

• They encourage applications that propose engagement with audiences considered to have low ‘science capital’.
• You may choose which audiences to engage with and the methods of engagement. These must be outlined in the proposal.

Spark awards will not be awarded for the sole purpose of authorship and publication of books and novels, though proposals in which the production of a book is an output of a wider programme will be considered.