From: “Illsley, Melanie (STFC,SO,EOI)”

Colleagues may like to know of STFC plans for financial support planned for the rest of this financial year, to support researchers’ public engagement work.

We announce a round of the Small Awards Scheme, closing date 15 October 2009, with (reduced) maximum funding £7.5K per project. Full details at http://www.stfc.ac.uk/PandS/Fund/Sml/contents2.aspx. We expect to hold a further round with closing date in April 2010.

We expect to hold a round of Science in Society Fellowships in early 2010, and this would be announced in late October 2009. (The guidelines for last years round can be found at http://www.stfc.ac.uk/Grants/Fells/SandS/contents.aspx. Please note that some details may change slightly for the upcoming round).

Of interest to any schools you are in touch with, the Institute of Physics and STFC are jointly continuing to offer Small Grants for Schools (up to £500 for enrichment of physics) see http://www.iop.org/activity/education/Teacher_S

Because of the STFC overall financial situation, we are not planning to run the annual round of Large Awards for public engagement this autumn. We would hope to resume this scheme in 2010. However, researchers who were interested in this scheme and have ideas for projects are strongly encouraged to telephone the Office (in the first instance, Chris.Woolford@stfc.ac.uk , 01793 442098) to discuss their idea and see how STFC may be able to help.