Funding Opportunities

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.

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. 

• 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. Proposed engagement programmes must clearly align to the remit of the STFC science programme, science, technology and engineering work of STFC’s national and international laboratories and facilities, and the aims of the STFC public engagement strategy. The STFC science programme funds research in these core areas: astronomy, solar and planetary science, particle physic, particle astrophysics, nuclear physics, accelerator science, computational science. 
• Nucleus Public Engagement Awards: STFC Nucleus grant holders undertake high quality programmes of public engagement that inspire and involve target audiences with stories of STFC science, technology and facilities. Grant holders may also use Nucleus awards to create and sustain public engagement networks that develop communities of practice. Proposed engagement programmes must either clearly focus on the remit of the STFC science programme or clearly and demonstrably align to the science and technology work of the STFC's national and international laboratories and facilities. STFC's remits are: astronomy, solar and planetary science, particle physics, particle astrophysics, nuclear physics, accelerator science, computational science, quantum technologies.  

The UKRI Creating opportunities: rethinking economic (in)activity is a UKRI-wide funding opportunity to deliver an interdisciplinary project that will identify ways of supporting economic activity in places experiencing high rates of ill-health, disability, and informal care in the UK. The project lead for this funding opportunity must be based at an organisation eligible for UKRI funding for the duration of the grant. 

The full economic cost (FEC) of your project can be up to £1,200,000. UKRI will fund 80% of the FEC. Funding is for a single award.

The project must begin by 12 January 2026 and run for 24 months.

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 towards new buildings, refurbishments and equipment with the aim of producing the following outcomes:

1. Increased numbers of visitors and engagement of new audiences
2. Improved educational experience and understanding of science
3. Improved financial stability of the organisation 

• Anatomical Society: Members of the Anatomical Society can apply 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. 

• Biochemical Society: The Society wishes to support scientific outreach activities that communicate the excitement of molecular bioscience to young people and the community. Applications are invited for sums up to £1000 to assist with the direct costs associated with an event and expenses incurred. 

• British Ecological Society: Support projects that increase public understanding of, and engagement with, ecology. The maximum award is £2,000. However, 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 £1,500 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.
   

• 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 for the promotion of plant pathology, with the aim of stimulating interest in, and knowledge and awareness of, plant pathology to people who do not normally come into contact with the subject. Who can apply: All members of the BSPP.

• British Society for Immunology: The aims of the BSI's Communicating Immunology 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 grants are awarded quarterly. There are deadlines throughout the year.

• The Endocrinology Society: Public engagement grant to support organisation and delivery of outreach activities, aimed at school children and/or the general public to engage them with the subject of hormones and the impact of endocrinology. 

The European Society for Evolutionary Biology (ESEB) welcomes applications to the ESEB Outreach Initiative Fund for projects that promote evolution-related activities. The goal of this initiative is to improve public knowledge about evolution globally. Applications for funding will be accepted for educational initiatives that promote evolution, translation of evolutionary material (books, films, and websites) intended for a general audience, public outreach seminars, public exhibitions, etc.

There will be a single call per year with a total budget of 20,000 €. A single project can be funded with up to 4000 €, but smaller projects are welcome.

• Genetics Society: Grants 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 or event, feature the Genetics Society Centenary logo in any new promotional items produced. Applications are currently accepted on a rolling basis and will be sent to reviewers at the start of each month for assessment. Applicants are encouraged to send their applications at least three months in advance of the project start date, where possible, and should normally expect to receive a decision on their application within four weeks of the application being put forward for assessment.

• Healthcare Infection Society: We provide funds 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). Priority for funding will be given to activities/events that would not go ahead with HIS support.

• Public Engagement Grant Scheme: This scheme provides two funds: a) a 'Seed Fund' up to £500 to bring together non-physicist and physicist participants and develop a full 
  grant application and b) the 'Main Fund' which provides up to up to £4,000 to run physics-based activities in the UK and Ireland.

• Microbiology Society: Education and outreach grants of up to £1,000 are available to support relevant science teaching or promotion initiatives, or to support developments likely to lead to an improvement in the teaching of any aspect of microbiology.

• 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 £15,000 will be considered. 

• The Pathological Society: Support for activities related to the promotion public awareness and understanding of pathology. A maximum sum of £3000 per application. Deadlines are 1 March, 1 June, 1 September and 1 December.

• The Physiological Society: Provides funding to support Society Representatives and members to co-host events at their organisation, including internal conferences, teaching symposia, seminars or outreach events.

• Royal Academy of Engineering: Ingenious is an awards scheme for projects that engage the public with engineers and engineering. It has funded over 189 projects to date, providing opportunities for over 2,000 engineers to take part in public engagement activities, to gain skills in communication and to bring engineering to the very centre of society. The scheme is currently closed.

• Royal Society: Partnership Grants of up to £3000 are available to schools to enable students, aged 5 – 18, to carry out science, technology, engineering or mathematics (STEM) projects.

• Royal Society of Biology:We look to fund a wide range of public engagement and outreach events and activities. We are keen to support people who are experienced in event delivery, people hoping to organise their first event, and everyone in between.

• 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. It is split into 2 categories, with rolling deadlines throughout the year; small grants of up to £2,000 and large grants of £2,000 to £10,000.

The Royal Society is the independent scientific academy of the UK, dedicated to promoting excellence in science for the benefit of humanity. The Royal Society provides various funding opportunities including the Public Engagement Fund: this scheme provides between £500 and £10,000 for Royal Society Research Fellows to create and lead innovative public engagement projects to engage audiences with their exciting research.