Get involved

The deadline for submissions is Monday 2 November 2026.

After reading the guidance document, if you'd like to discuss your ideas further, please book onto our online Great Exhibition Road Festival advice session on 20 October 2026.

You'll hear all about the Festival from its organisers, learn about the proposals process, get feedback on your initial ideas and answers to any logistical questions you may have.

If your Festival proposal is successful, you will be contacted in January 2027. At this point we'll also give your point of contact within the Festival team and most likely a specific location across the Festival site where you will be based. 

• To create a unique Festival that connects some of the world’s most iconic institutions in an inspirational fusion of the arts and sciences.  

   

• To deliver a dynamic range of participatory visitor experiences that generate curiosity and a pioneering spirit among our audiences and institutions.  

   

• To engage 55,000+ people through events taking place on Exhibition Road and across partner institutions over the Festival weekend. 

   

• To engage communities and audiences who do not usually access our institutions through co-created projects that are part of the Festival weekend.  

   

• To celebrate diversity – the diversity of our communities, and that within art and science. 

The Festival programmes a wide range of content, and we're excited to hear your ideas for the types of activity you want to put on. The proposals from lists seven different types of experiences that we could offer visitors in 2027 (including talks, interactive exhibits, and performances) but there is also an ‘other’ option for ideas that don’t fit into these categories.

The guidance document outlines the existing options in full, detailing what we mean by them and the kinds of content we are looking for. 

The Festival attracts a broad audience, with most visitors new to the Festival and without a pre-existing relationship with Imperial or other Festival partners. By participating in the Festival you can inspire the next generation of science- informed citizens through sharing your research, knowledge, skills and personal journey in STEMB with members of the public. From our evaluation, we know that this is what all many visitors value as well as having an nice, enjoyable day out with their friends and family.

Past contributors also report a range of benefits on their research and engagement – for example in 2026 95% described it as a 'rewarding and motivating' experience, with 90% taking away new ideas for further public engagement work.

To find out more about how the Festival experience impacts visitors check the visitors section in the 2026 full Festival report (PDF)

Contributors in the previous years have said they took part:  

• For the opportunity to engage with and inspire the public 
• To improve their public interaction skills and to encourage others. 
• To showcase their research to a wide audience  
• To do this in a prestigious Festival and location. 
• To do something fun and rewarding 

99% of contributors in 2026 reported that they had a positive experience at the Festival, with 3 in 5 rating their experience as excellent.

“I couldn't miss an opportunity to pay back and share my knowledge. Also, I know that this is good for my research team for the future grant application, and it was fantastic way to introduce the new Hub at Imperial both to the public and for other groups.” - Imperial Professional Services staff member, first-time contributor

The Festival is very popular with families – most notably amongst those with children aged 12 and under. However, with more than half of our visitors in 2026 coming as part of an adult-only group, alongside an increase in the number of 16–25-year-old visitors, the insights show that the Festival truly is for all ages. 

London residents are the majority audience, with representation of residents of our closest three London boroughs (from Hammersmith and Fulham, Kensington and Chelsea and Westminster).  

Visitors tend to be highly educated, with the majority qualified to Masters / Doctorate level. This far exceeds the London average. 

18% of groups in 2026 included someone with a disability or long-term health condition, while 19% of groups included someone neurodiverse. 

The majority of visitors had a professional or personal interest in science, arts and culture.   

For more info on the Festival audience profile, see the Visitors section in the 2026 full Festival report (PDF)

Overall, people from Asian/Asian British and White ethnicities are over-represented in the Festival audience. Whereas, people from Black/African/Caribbean/Black British backgrounds continue to be underrepresented. People of mixed/multiple ethnic heritage are marginally over-represented in the audience profile. 

For this reason and to build trust with local communities on our doorstep, producers and the Inclusion Manager of the Public and Community Engagement team have established an ongoing community engagement programme as part of the Festival. This includes community-led visits.  

These initiatives were highly praised in the 2026 Festival delivering high impact experiences for participants.  Participants were enthused and said the Festival showed them a different side to the science they are taught in school. 

These groups felt welcome – a result of the ‘genuine commitment’ shown by community engagement staff to support inclusion, along with the friendliness of contributors and volunteers.  

Low awareness and a lack of perceived relevance is felt to underpin lower engagement within their wider communities. Therefore, we continue our grassroots community work to build trust and understanding and mutual benefit. 

A visitor’s perspective on the value of the Festival for local communities:  

“Look at the buildings. Come on. It's posh! But when we have events like these, and the museums are open to the public, it creates the impression that this area is not only for people who can afford it. It means that this is an area just like any other community in London, and it creates this feeling of possibility. Because sometimes when you visit an area, the things that you see and the vibe that you get of the place inspires you to think, this provides me with an idea of what more I can do to uplift or elevate myself from the station that I'm in.”

To find out more about the community engagement programme for the Festival, contact Sevinc Kisacik