- About us
- Publications
- Scientific meetings
- Grants and funding
- Education and resources
- Policy
- Press centre
- Membership
- Public engagement
Funded activities
The Society fundeds a variety of public engagement activities through its two grant schemes: Public Engagement grants, and Outreach grants. Both schemes fund projects that are aimed at a public audience - school students, families, adults, online communities, amateur sports groups... the list goes on. Outreach grants are for small scale, one-off projects that are often a single event or activity. Public Engagement grants are for longer-term, large scale projects that have an element of collaboration between our members and public engagement and science communication experts as well as professional creatives.
Prior to setting up the Public Engagement grants, we funded projects of this type on an ad-hoc basis. Three of these are detailed below. You can read about Sports Lab and the Mobile Teaching Unit on separate pages, as well as the projects we have funded through our Outreach and Public Engagement grants.
Bright Club: Bodies
Bright Club is the place where funny meets brains, where researchers perform stand up comedy in front of audiences of members of the public and where content meets comedy. It’s a highly‐successful public engagement project that has won awards for its founders and has received coverage from broadsheet newspapers, BBC TV, the World Service and even BBC 6Music.
The Society has run Bright Club: Bodies at the Brighton and Edinburgh Science Festivals to great success. 12 academics have performed at each gig alongside professional comperes Angela Barnes and Andy Zaltzman, including 5 Society Members. You can read a review of the Brighton gig in the Spring 2012 edition of Physiology News, and see photos of the Edinburgh gig here. There's also a recording of our Outreach Manager, Louise Crane, giving The Society a plug at the end of the night here.
I’m a Scientist, Get Me Out of Here! Sports Zone
I'm A Scientist is an award-winning online engagement event that gets scientists and school students talking. The event takes place over two weeks and covers many topics in the form of "Zones". Five scientists in each zone write profiles, answer student questions, take part in live chats and face eviction based on the votes of up to 400 participants.
The Society spnsored the Sports Zone in March 2012. The winner of this zone was Fiona Hatch from the University of Hull. Fiona wins £500 to spend on a science communication project of her own. You can read her report of what it was like to take part in I'm A Scientist in Physiology News Spring 2012.
I'm A Scientist have produced an evaluation report on the Sports Zone, which you can read here.
Glasgow Science Centre: Bodyworks
Bodyworks is a new £2 million exhibition at Glasgow Science Centre (GSC) that will open in 2013. It's described as, “A unique and inspiring programme exploring the science underpinning health and wellbeing in the 21st century.”
The Society is sponsoring the My Physiology station within the exhibition and will be encouraging its members to take part in GSC's Meet The Scientists events.
Attachment:
