Funding Opportunities

The Societal Engagement Seed Fund aims to support staff in getting new engagement projects up and running. Applicants can request funding in the range of £500 to £2500 to support projects that involve innovative, two-way, creative approaches to public engagement with Imperial's research.

The Collaboration Kickstarter is a new seed fund that supports Imperial researchers and partners to deliver research collaboratively. Funds of up to £10,000 are awarded to projects which involve participatory and co-produced approaches to research in which communities can influence the direction that research is taking. 

Read about the first recipients of the Collaboration Kickstarter in 2024-2025.

The EDI Seed Fund offers applicants up to £2,000 each year to help nurture and stimulate our community's creativity so that it might have the maximum impact, helping to build a fully inclusive institutional culture at Imperial.

Find out more about the EDI Seed Fund.

Imperial College London has identified Home Black students as underrepresented in its undergraduate student population. It has therefore committed in its Access and Participation Plan to double the intake of Black heritage students by 2025. Access and participation plans set out how higher education providers such as universities will improve access to, success during and progression from university, specifically for groups that are underrepresented.

The Outreach Seed Fund for Recruiting Black Students* will support students at the College to develop and deliver Outreach initiatives targeted at engaging Black UK students with our research and education to inspire the next generation of Black UK students to make a successful application to the College.

Find out more about the Outreach Seed Fund for Recruiting Black Students.

Funding of up to £500 is available to enable more staff or student driven EDI events within the Faculty of Natural Science. This fund aims to build a more diverse and inclusive community within the Faculty of Natural Science and is available to any staff or students within the department to apply throughout the academic year.

Read previous success stories and find out more about the Faculty of Natural Science EDI Seed Fund.

• Public Engagement Spark Award: The Spark Award will support high quality public engagement programmes that inspire and involve target audiences with stories of STFC science, technology and facilities. This scheme will fund projects that are 12 to 36 months duration up to £20,000.
• Nucleus Public Engagement Awards: STFC Nucleus grant supports high quality public engagement activities within the  remit of astronomy, solar and planetary science, particle physics, particle astrophysics, nuclear physics, accelerator science, computational science, quantum technologies.  The proposed engagement programme must clearly focus on the the remit of the STFC programme and align to the work of STFC's laboratories and facilities. The award can also be used for activities that are dedicated to developing community networks or capacity building in public engagement.  The STFC will fund a maximum of £100,000 for projects that have a duration of 24 to 36 months.
• Public Engagement Legacy Awards: Legacy awards allow the holders of previous Spark and Nucleus awards to apply for funding to continue their programmes, and evolve those programmes based on learning and evaluation. The duration of this award is up to 36 months, the maximum funding available varies depending on whether you are applying for your first or second Legacy award related to the original Spark or Nucleus award.
• Leadership Fellowships in Public Engagement: This fund aims to support talented people in all career stages to deliver STFC focused public engagement activities that support capacity building within relevant networks and organisations. Typically, the fellowship would be for 20-40% of the fellow's time for between 24 to 36 months, and will fund up to £180,000.

• BBSRC standard research grants are for researchers at eligible organisations that include: higher education institutions, research council institutes, approved independent research organisations, and sector research establishments. Funding can support a range of activities from research projects to technology development, new infrastructure and equipment, use of equipment and facilities, networks, and summer schools.

• ESRC new investigator grant: Awarding new investigator grants to support new researchers at the start of their careers, based at research organisations eligible for UKRI funding, to become independent researchers through gaining experience of managing and leading research projects and teams.

As the UK's leading public funder of environmental science NERC is committed to communicating its work as widely as possible, to inform and enthuse non-scientific audiences about environmental science and to demonstrate the economic and societal benefits that science brings. 

• NERC urgency funding – This fund allows researchers to respond quickly to transient and unexpected scientific opportunities. These may be events affecting the environment like earthquakes or volcanic eruptions. The aim is to help researchers collect valuable data at the start of the event before other events and actions affect the data collection. You can apply if you are a research group or an individual based at a UK university or other approved institution. 

• Holmes Hines Memorial Fund - Small grants of up to £1,500 are available to support individuals or organisations with any scientific or engineering based activities where public funds are not available. This fund is entirely supported by a charitable bequest from a retired head mistress of a girl's school, Miss Hines.

Alzheimer's Research UK's Inspire Fund provides grants of up to £5,000 to engage and empower the public by improving understanding of dementia and sharing the benefits of dementia research.

The Foundation's interest in engaging the public in science complements its funding of scientific research infrastructure. They support institutions conducting high quality scientific research or in possession of important scientific collections to engage with the public. 

Wolfson Foundation Grants are awarded for new buildings, refurbishments and major equipment. Grants of a minimum of £100,000 are also awarded to improve access and research libraries or to improve public engagement in science. 

The Esmée Fairbairn Foundation Funding Plus scheme supports capacity building within selected organisations to help them achieve greater impact. Grants of up to £9,000 enable organisations to make the most of opportunities and to receive support they might not otherwise be able to afford or prioritise. 

The theme for this year's Pride in STEM Small Grants Programme was "Strengthening Queer Community in STEM." The scheme offered up to £1,000 in 2025-26 to support projects across the UK that engaged with this theme in meaningful ways within their local communities. Pride in STEM looked for proposals that expand on their mission, encouraging applicants to explore new engagement approaches that go beyond talk-series.

The Take the Lead community grants enable community groups across the UK to apply for £500 to £1500 to deliver a standalone project, event or series of activities between January - March 2026. The grant supports community-led projects in exploring how data can support health and wellbeing, particularly in under-served audiences.

• Anatomical Society: Members of the Anatomical Society can apply for up to £500 to support outreach and public engagement activities that ignite curiosity in young and old audiences about the anatomy of humans and animals. Applicants must be members who have been elected to membership by Council for at least a year. 

• The Association of the Study of Animal Behaviour is offering Public Engagement grants of up to £2000 to support innovative outreach activities. These activities should communicate the science of animal behaviour to audiences of young people and/or the general public.

• The Biochemical Society supports public engagement and outreach activities that communicate the excitement of molecular biosciences to young people and the community. The Scientific Outreach Grant offers two tiers of funding, with up to £1,000 for one-off smaller events, or up to £2,500 for repeat events that are sustained over a longer period of time.
• The Biochemical Society also supports a representative scientific community with the Diversity in Science Grant, which offers up to £1,000 to individuals, groups, charities or not-for-profit organisations. This fund is intended to support any successful applicant with issues relating to inclusion and diversity in science.

• British Ecological Society: Support projects that increase public understanding of, and engagement with, ecology. The maximum award is £2,000 and the award may be used as part-funding for larger projects involving other sponsors. 

• British Pharmacology Society: Our goal is to support and promote engagement with all forms of pharmacology and drug discovery research. With our Engagement grant, we want to support our members who are also working towards this. This grant provides up to £2,000 for creating or developing high quality, in person or digital, engagement and outreach activities that will reach a variety of public audiences. You can also apply for smaller 'Seed Funding' grants (up to £250) that can be used for high impact, low cost activities, or for the design and testing of activities that have potential to grow.
   

• The British Society for History in Science offers Outreach and Engagement Project Grants to support initiatives that engage with the history of science, technology and medicine in exciting ways that are appliable to the intended audience. Grants of up to £500 are available, and new ideas and formats are encouraged. The grant is primarily intended as a seed fund for new initiatives and to support small-scale projects or events. 

• British Society for Immunology: The aims of BSI's Communication and Engagement Grants are to stimulate interest, discussion and understanding of immunology amongst a wider audience.  Each grant is worth up to a maximum of £1,000 and are awarded quarterly.

• British Society for Plant Pathology: BSPP wishes to promote an understanding and awareness of the importance of plant pathology to a wider audience than its membership. To that end it has established a fund of up to £2,000 for the promotion of plant pathology, with the aim of stimulating interest in plant pathology to people who do not normally come into contact with the subject. Who can apply: All members of the BSPP.

• Society for Endocrinology: Offers an Outreach grant to support the delivery of outreach activities aimed at the public or patients to help engage more people with endocrinology and its impact. Grants of up to £750 are offered for a wide scope of engagement activities.

• The European Geosciences Union (EGU) launched an annual Public Engagement Grant scheme to celebrate and recognise excellent science communication in the Earth, planetary and space sciences. Grants of €1500 are awarded to the top three innovative projects each year to enable them to further develop their idea and put it into practice. Grant winners will also receive a free registration to attend the EGU General Assembly to present on their projects the year following the end of their grant period.

• The European Society for Evolutionary Biology (ESEB) welcomes applications to the ESEB Outreach Initiative Fund for projects that promote evolution-related activities. Funds of up to €4,000 are offered to successful projects with the aim of improving public knowledge about evolution globally. Applications for funding will be accepted for an array of educational initiatives that promote evolution, including the translation of evolutionary material (books, films, and websites) intended for a general audience, public outreach seminars and public exhibitions.

• Genetics Society: Grants of up to £1,000 are available to members of the Genetics Society to cover costs associated with travel and materials for public engagement activities relevant to Genetics.  Successful applicants must acknowledge Genetics Society support at their activity, feature the Genetics Society logo in any promotional items, and abide by the Genetics Societies' EDI principals and report back to the society with participation numbers. 

• Healthcare Infection Society: Provides funds of up to £1,000 to support events where aspects of clinical microbiology, infection prevention and control, and healthcare-associated infections (HCAIs) are promoted to the public and other relevant stakeholders. Events eligible for support can be diverse (pieces of art to popular music) or funds may be used to aid individuals to exhibit at public science festivals. The main criterion is that the event/activity must promote the science of microbiology in the context of (HCAIs). 

• The Institute of Mathematics & Its Applications offer a University Liaison Grants Scheme to give university student mathematical societies funding for activities that will promote mathematics and enhance their programmes. Grants of up to £400 can be used to support with the delivery of mathematical activities, promotional materials and networking events.

• Public Engagement Grant Scheme: This grant scheme aims to support projects that meaningfully engage whole family groups to improve their relationship with physics. This scheme provides either a Seed Fund of up to £500 to bring together non-physicist and physicist participants to then develop a full grant application, or a Main Fund which provides up to up to £4,000 to run physics-based activities in the UK and Ireland.

• Microbiology Society: Outreach and engagement grants of up to £1,000 are available to support relevant science outreach or public engagement initiatives that engage new audiences in any aspect of microbiology. Activities should inspire and educate people about the importance of microbiology and its advances.

• Palaeontological Association: Engagement Grants are made to encourage educational outreach, public engagement, and related initiatives in palaeontological themes. Grants are awarded up to £5,000, however under exceptional circumstances a budget of up to £8,000 will be considered. 

• The Paleontological Society offer an Outreach and Education Grant that provides support to their members for programmes and activities involving outreach and community engagement. Grants of up to $2,500 are awarded to projects that encompass a range of sub-disciplines within paleontology/paleobiology.

• The Pathological Society runs a Public Engagement Scheme that funds activities related to the promotion, public awareness and understanding of pathology. There are four deadlines throughout the calendar year and a maximum of £3,000 offered to successful applications. 

• The Physiological Society offers an Institutional Engagement Award to support members to host events at their organisation, including internal conferences, teaching symposia, seminars or outreach events. Funding of up to £500 is available for a range of activities that promote both The Society and physiology.
• The Research and Knowledge Exchange Award supports members to conduct pilot studies, develop a new technique or deliver activities that promote knowledge transfer and impact. Funding of up to £10,000 is available and must be used within 12 months of the grant award date.
• The Physiological Society also provides the opportunity to deliver engagement activities on the history of modern physiology with The Paton Historical Studies Fund. Funding of up to £1,000 is available and a wide range of projects, activities and approaches that promote the history of physiology will be considered.

• Royal Academy of Engineering: The Ingenious public engagement grants scheme is for projects that engage the public with engineers and engineering. The scheme offers funding from £3,000 to £30,000 and prioritises projects that reach diverse and unrepresented communities that engage with engineers and people of different genders, ages and ethnic backgrounds. The scheme has resulted in the funding of over 330 projects across the UK, and provided over 10,000 engineers with the opportunity to take part in public engagement activities so far.

• The Education & Outreach Small Grants Scheme provides funds of up to £5,000 for a range of activities, including public events, workshops, broadcasting and the development of educational material. Successful projects will promote a greater understanding of astronomy or geophysics and increase interest of the topic for the wider community, particularly young people. 

• The Public Engagement Fund supports Royal Society-funded researchers to design and deliver public engagement projects based on their research. Funding between £500 and £10,000 is available for a two-year period, and up to £5,000 can be requested for a one-year project. The fund aims to encourage creative and innovative engagement that facilitates collaboration and reaches people that are currently underrepresented in the Society's public engagement work.
• The Partnership Grants scheme funds UK schools to work in partnership with STEM professionals from academia or industry to run an investigative STEM project. Funding of up to £3,000 is available to all levels of education supporting students aged between 5 -18 years old.
• The Royal Society supports museums to engage local communities with science through the Places of Science scheme. Funding of up to £3,500 is available to support small museums to tell stories of science and scientists through their heritage and collections.
• The Professorship in Public Engagement in Science is available to support an exceptional scientific communicator. The appointment is for five years in the first instance with the aim that the successful candidate will use their communication and media skills to support the Society's public engagement work.

• Royal Society of Biology: The Outreach and Engagement Grant Scheme is exclusively for applications for funding of up to £1,000 to run a citizen science project. This grant is suitable for any biologist who has a research question that can be constructed into a study that anyone can take part in, whether it is to collect the data or analyse the results.

• Royal Society of Chemistry: The Outreach Fund provides financial support to members, individuals and organisations in order to enable them to run chemistry-based public and schools engagement activities. There are smaller grants of up to £5,000 available, and larger grants of £5,001 to £10,000.