Science -- Your Future, Scotland's Future
SCI-FUN News
Funding opportunities for schools
2011/12 fee reduced to £300

The cost of a visit in 2011/12 is £300 – for visits lasting for up to four sessions across two days. This represents a large reduction from £500 in 2010/11 and a significant discount from the £750 fee in 2009/10.

We are continuing to make proposals on behalf of schools to reduce this fee further. If we are successful, it is most likely that schools in the more rural parts of Scotland would be able to benefit. Therefore, if you are interested in a visit, but cannot afford the £300 fee, it is worth getting in touch with us just in case opportunities present themselves during the 2011/12 programme.

We truly appreciate that any fee is a difficult sum of money to find for all schools, particularly in the current financial climate. Over the past few years, we have worked closely with teachers to identify sources of funding that could enable the Roadshow to visit their schools.

Within the school

  • The budget for the science department may be able to contribute.
  • A general school budget might provide some funds.
  • The school’s Enterprise department could be supportive.
  • Your PTA may be willing to provide funding.

Outwith the school

The British Science Association

The British Science Association provides excellent advice on how to raise funding for various visits and projects. General funding pages can be found at this link.

On this page, there is also a link to a comprehensive document of useful sources (PDF) with some basic information about them all. We have contacted some groups mentioned within the British Science Association document to ask if they could support SCI-FUN school visits, and received further information from some as a result, listed below.

Waitrose Community Matters
(page 5)

Each month, every Waitrose branch around the country shares out £1000 to three nominated local causes (which can include schools). Causes can be nominated – using forms that are available from the Customer Service Welcome Desk in each branch – by any customer. Customers in store then use tokens to vote on how the money should be shared between the three available options. To locate your local store, follow this link.

Many high street chains will have similar schemes for local causes, so it could be worth investigating local branches for further details.

STFC and the Institute of Physics

Generally, the aim of the STFC and IoP scheme (click here) is to provide schools with grants of up to £500 for small-scale projects or events linked to the teaching or promotion of physics. There is, however, also some scope to support general science activities if overall funding allows. There are three calls for applications throughout the year, please check the link above for additional information, as well as the dates of the funding deadlines.

Holmes Hines Memorial Fund
(page 8)

This fund provides small awards to help individuals or organisations with activities related to science and engineering for which public funds are not available. Applications can be in any area of science and engineering.

In 2010/11, the Holmes Hines Memorial Fund supported six schools with a subsidy of £250 to help them secure a SCI-FUN school visit. We have made a proposal for follow-on support to the administrators of the Holmes Hines Memorial Fund, who will therefore not consider direct requests to support SCI-FUN visits from schools at present.

Awards for All
(page 3)

This scheme unfortunately cannot fund any projects that take place during class time and/or are linked to the curriculum or teaching.

Partnership Grants from the Royal Society
(page 7)

Partnership Grants allow the undertaking of one particular project or investigation, rather than taking part in an established programme. In addition, they do not fund fees for other schemes.

Help needed to evaluate additional funding sources and improve this information

If you have investigated options beyond those briefly described above, we would be very interested in the outcome of your approaches. This information can then be used to extend the details given on this website, hopefully minimising the time needed for teachers across the country to obtain funding for school visits.

Please send any details – either positive or negative – to us, by clicking here.