Here at the British Science Association, we were honoured to take over the running of the UK Science Festivals Network at the end of 2014. The Network represents 36 science Festival around the country, allowing us to unite, celebrate and develop science festivals in the UK. You can find out more about the Network and its members here.

As a Network and a sector, we provide people with opportunities to access quality science engagement right on their doorstep and we’re growing all the time.

To celebrate this, we’ve put together an infographic showcasing our achievements in 2015; the short version – as a Network we created nearly 1 million face-to-face interactions with a variety of audiences across the UK.

Science Festivals are unique in their reach and occupy a special place in the science communication and public engagement sector. Their ability to reach audiences outside of the usual ‘scientific’ spaces and their mix of formats and content, help break down lots of the barriers that can often exist between people and their engagement with science.

It’s always easy to look forward and think about how to be bigger and better, but it’s also good to sometimes stop and take a second to look back at what we’ve achieved. And of course, the stats can’t show the creativity, enthusiasm and dedication that’s found across all our Festivals!

We also know our Network, including some new members, have been doing some fantastic, innovative and exciting projects during 2016 – we’re looking forward to sharing that with you soon.