Engagers' Digest - 18/8/10

Dear all,

Lots of interesting opportunities in the sciences and arts in this Digest, as well as the disappointing news that EPSRC are closing their major public engagement funding scheme - the Partnerships for Public Engagement. We'll be discussing 'public engagement in difficult times' at Engage 2010 on 23 September, and will also have contributions from RCUK. Places are running out, so register now at www.bristol.ac.uk/engage2010

1. EPSRC Partnerships for Public Engagement - no further calls
EPSRC recently announced that they will no longer be funding public engagement activities via the Partnerships for Public Engagement (PPE) scheme. As a consequence, the PPE call planned for this autumn will not go ahead. While this is very disappointing news, EPSRC and the other research councils remain committed to funding public engagement as part of research grants, as well as through the remaining schemes. For more information, please see the EPSRC press release:
http://www.epsrc.ac.uk/newsevents/news/2010/Pages/publicengagementagenda.aspx

2. Grant opportunity: SportForce - deadline 3 September
Applications are invited from HEIs involved in teaching and/or research in science, education and medicine in sport to develop and co-brand a public event aimed at the communication of science and medicine in sport linked to the 2012 Games. This forms part of SportForce, the Public Engagement programme for the International Convention on Science, Education and Medicine (ICSEMIS) in Sport 2012 and is supported by Research Councils UK and Podium. Selected institutions will be allocated £1,000 to contribute to the delivery of an event between October 2010 and January 2011. Applications close on the 3 September. Please go to http://www.podium.ac.uk/opportunities for more information.


3. The Colwinston Charitable Trust - deadline 30 September
The Colwinston Charitable Trust distributes grants to UK registered charitable organisations working predominantly in the areas of Opera, Classical Music and the Visual Arts. They offer grants of between £5,000 and £25,000 to enable organisations achieve higher standards of performance and/or presentation. The trust will give priority to high quality projects, and projects that help people to better appreciate the possibilities the arts can offer, especially in Wales. There next application deadline is 5 pm on the 30th September 2010.
http://www.colwinston.org.uk/index.htm

4. Calouste Gulbenkian/UnLtd Engage Awards - deadline 30 September
In response to the increasing ageing of the population and the challenges this will bring, UnLtd and the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation have teamed to offer 30 Start-Up Awards of £2,500, and 3 awards of £15,000 to individuals and informal groups to improve the social issues faced by older people in their community. For more information: http://www.unltd.org.uk/template.php?ID=202&PageName=caloustegulbenkianfoundation

5. Royal Society Partnership Grants - deadline 5 November 2010
Grants of up to £3000 are available to support teachers, scientists and engineers to develop science projects. More here

6. Engagement Opportunity: BBC1 Bang Goes The Theory
BBC1's primetime family science entertainment show is back, and along with it the ever popular Beacons Q&A – where academics from the beacons and Open University work together with the BBC to answer questions from the viewers - www.bbc.co.uk/bang/ask_yan/ If you've been involved before you'd be very welcome to return; if you've not, and you fancy trying your hand at drafting pithy and memorable answers to the amusing, oblique, frequent, or plain funny questions viewers send in - please do join us. The best place to start is: http://beaconsqanda.com/start Here, you'll find some more detailed introductory notes and links to the registration page.

7. Staff development course - Science writing for popular publication
Staff Development is offering a half day science writing for popular publication course on 24 November (SD1WPP) - sign up here

Finally, take a look at the new lifelong learning events and courses on offer in English, and the accompanying booklet with a range of inspiring stories - http://www.bristol.ac.uk/english/lifelong/shorts.html

Best wishes,

Philippa

Engagers Digest

The Engagers Digest is a regular e-mail listing of public engagement opportunities, which we send to interested staff and students at the University of Bristol. We're going to start posting it on the blog so people can refer to it easily; here's last week's edition:

1. Answer questions for Bang Goes the Theory. It's based on an online forum, so is a great way to engage with the public in a supportive environment where you can also get constructive feedback about communication.
2. The British Science Festival takes place at the University of Surrey on 5-10 September 2009.
3. The British Interactive Group's Little Event takes place on 7 September at Thinktank in Birmingham.
4. The inaugural meeting of the Physics Communicators Group takes place from 10.30 to 4.30 on 9 September at the Institute of Physics in London.
5. The first ever Festival of Innovation takes place at the Science Museum near Swindon. To get involved, contact Cheryl Hewer
6. Communicate 2009, the conference for environmental and conservation communicators, takes place in Bristol on 21-22 October 2009.
7. Some forthcoming deadlines for public engagement grant schemes:

• ESRC Festival of Social Science activity sponsorship (up to £2,000): 9 October 2009
• Wellcome Trust Society Awards (over £30,000) and Broadcast Development Awards (up to £10,000): 9 October 2009
• Wellcome Trust Public Engagement Awards in the History of Medicine (over £30,000): preliminary application 20 October 2009
• Wellcome Trust Arts Awards and People Awards (up to £30,000): 23 October 2009
• National Science and Engineering Week Awards (up to £2,000): 2 November 2009


• Royal Society Partnership Grants (£250-3,000): 6 November 2009
• BBSRC Public Engagement Awards (up to £5,000): 15 January 2010