We're excited to announce the recipients of this year’s British Science Festival community grants. We have awarded funds of £500 each to five community organisations in Hull & the Humber. The grant will enable them to run events which help grow and diversify the range of people interested and involved in the Festival.  

The grant scheme supports community events which diversify Festival participants

The organisations are wide-ranging and do fantastic work in their communities – we can’t wait to see the events they put on over the Festival! Find out more below:  

Seeds of Change, Wilberforce Sixth Form Students Union 

Seeds of Change, a group ran by the student’s union at Wilberforce Sixth Form, will run an event where they will promote healthy lifestyle choices to the students of the college. They will run a pop-up pizza and smoothie shop, using it to educate students about how to choose and cook healthy ingredients. They’ll also have a number of scientists from the University of Hull coming into speak about health issues such as obesity.  

Community Forward 

Community Forward is a non-for-profit organisation that helps hard to reach communities with basic catering skills, educational and recreational activities. They run projects that include equipping long-term unemployed people with basic employability skills, as well as running various social activities to increase their personal resources. During the Festival they will hold some drop-in photography sessions that aim to use creativity to engage young people in science and technology.  

Community Forward will run drop-in photography sessions over the Festival

St Stephens Neighbourhood Centre 

St Stephens Neighbourhood Centre offers a wide range of activities and events for the local community. Following the success of their City of Culture events, they will be running some events looking at the science behind flight. They will explore what materials and shapes are best for making kites and how weather affects flight. They will run these sessions for their regular weekly groups which include those with disabilities, the elderly, and young people.

Toranj Tuition  

Toranj Tuition is a not-for-profit community organisation in Hull, set up to stimulate social mobility and to facilitate equal educational opportunities. They help do this by providing free educational activities to people from low-income families. For the Festival, they will be running scientist-led seminars for refugees and asylum-seekers in Hull, looking at the challenges and opportunities in the science sector for these groups.  

Best Hope 

Best Hope is an organisation in Hull that actively promotes social cohesion, community integration and access to services for disadvantaged people. During the Festival, they will run a two-day project for the young people they are working with to learn more about food science and nutrition.  

The British Science Festival 2018 will be hosted by the University of Hull between 11-14 September 2018, transforming Hull and the Humber into a vibrant celebration of science, engineering and technology. 

The community events are all closed events but our programme features over 100 free to attend talks, workshops, debates and more. Take a look at the full line-up here.