Funded Society Awards summaries

Recently funded awards

2010 Open Call

Michael John Gorman
Science Gallery, Dublin
‘HUMAN + THE FUTURE OF OUR SPECIES’
€225 000
What is the next step for humankind? Will we learn to take control of our own evolution or enhance our senses to allow us to see ultraviolet light, feel magnetic fields or hear ultrasound? Can we defeat ageing and extend our lives indefinitely? What would be the consequences for the environment and for our social relationships? These questions are explored in HUMAN+, a major new exhibition, supported by the Wellcome Trust at Science Gallery, Trinity College Dublin. HUMAN+ includes works by Stelarc, Eduardo Kac and John Isaacs and invites the public to participate in real research into robot human interactions and the genetic predisposition to risk taking through donating a sample of their DNA at a lab set up specifically in the Gallery.

Ben Johnson
Graphic Science
‘Smarter UK’
£194 400
Smarter UK is a facilitated discussion event for 13-16 year olds, designed to engage young people with the issues arising from cognitive enhancement. The event, which will be introduced by a short dramatic scenario, will be delivered to 9000 students in schools across Bristol, Cambridge, Cardiff, Edinburgh and Oxford. It will be delivered by a network of professional science presenters, with active neuroscience researchers from within the City Neuroscience network. It will be coordinated by Graphic Science who will also develop a suite of resources to support the programme, which will be freely available to all schools across the UK.

Beau Lotto
Lottolab Studio
‘The Box’
£127 334
In March 2010, Wellcome Trust awarded Lottolab Studio £127,334 via the Society Awards for a 12-month research & development phase for a project with the working title “ The Box”. This was to support; (1) The realisation of two events at the Science Museum during their Lates programme (which was to include thinking about perception in education and architecture), (2) Demonstrate the ability to work collaboratively with London’s Science Museum, (3) Create a strategy for realizing a live lab at the Science Museum, informed by the R&D phase.

Beau Lotto
Science Museum & UCL
‘Centre of Perception Research’
£150 000
Lottolab Studio is creating the world’s first Centre of Perception Research (CoPR – previously called ‘The Box’). CoPR will be a science lab housed in a large, open and prominent space in London’s Science Museum. CoPR’s ambition is to enable the public to become integral to the process of scientific research into perception. With this in mind we have devised 7 programmes that put the public at the heart of the process of discovery. Lottolab seeks to trial these programmes at London’s Science Museum, which will result in critical research into a fundamentally different form of science engagement in public spaces.

2010 Theme: Grey Matters

Sharna Jackson
Tate Kids
‘Wondermind’
£186 618
Wondermind will be a website that includes games, interactive films and opportunities for discussion and debate. Aimed at children aged 8-12, who may not normally engage with biomedical science, the project will introduce key neuroscience concepts in brain development, using works from the Tate Collection and visual illustrations of Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland. Tate will produce Wondermind in collaboration with Dr. Michelle de Haan, of UCL’s Institute of Child Health, games studio Preloaded, and interactive filmmaker, Martin Percy. The project will be supported by Tate Liverpool’s exhibition, Alice in Wonderland (4 November 2011 – 29 January 2012).

Katrina Nilsson
Science Museum
‘Senseless: Anaesthesia, Consciousness & Pain’
£150 000
The Science Museum’s Contemporary Science team will develop a pioneering process to deliver an exhibition on current research in anaesthesia. This involves collaboration with Consultant anaesthetist Dr Andrew Morley who will set up an expert network. Experts will engage in dialogue with a public audience to scope content for the exhibition. Further events will engage two smaller, separate audience groups to each co-create an exhibit that provides different perspectives on contemporary anaesthesia. These exhibits will feature in an Antenna science news gallery exhibition. The exhibition and post-launch events will enable a wider audience to engage in dialogue on anaesthesia.

2009 Open Call

Anthony Cleaver
The Engineering & Technology Board
‘The Big Bang’
£100 000
The Big Bang is developed in partnership with over 70 organisations from business & industry, government and the science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) community - with support from across the political spectrum. Featuring the National Science and Engineering Competition, The Fair aims to celebrate the achievement and excellence of young people through the competition, while educating and inspiring young people not yet engaged about STEM in their future careers.

Phil Winfield
INTECH Science Centre & Planetarium
‘Genetics in a Planetarium’
£271 190
The immersive medium of a planetarium presents facts and their contexts in a clear, exciting, inspiring and memorable way. Building on its observed ability to convey scale in space science, this project will create a planetarium show in another field where it is impossible to travel and where scale is equally difficult to grasp - molecular biology. School and public audiences will be taken on a 24 minute journey through the human body examining cells, nuclei, DNA and genes. The planetarium show will be followed by an interactive presentation and schools will be supported by online pre and post visit resources. The show and resources will be made available to all digital planetaria in the UK and it has the potential to reach one million people in the first two years.

Sophia Collins
Gallomanor Communications
‘I’m a Scientist, Get Me Out of Here!’
£209 910
I’m a Scientist is a science dialogue event where school students talk to real scientists online for two weeks. Young people choose which scientist gets £500 of science communication funding. Taking part is memorable, exciting and develops the skills and confidence of young people, scientists and teachers, promoting future engagement. The event is supported by teaching materials – lesson plans, information sheets, interactive quizzes to test understanding – which draw out How Science Works (HSW) issues and get young people thinking, while developing their debate and discussion skills.

Jane Turner
Association for Science Education
‘Primary Science Quality Mark’
£200 000
The project will scale up the Primary Science Quality Mark (PSQM) award scheme nationally, building on the successful outcomes of the PSQM pilot phases one and two, to develop a robust regional infrastructure, web support and processes for management, administration, coordination, training, mentoring and quality assurance. The Primary Science Quality Mark offers schools the incentive and framework to invest time and effort into developing science; improving the quality of science teaching and learning, extending the breadth and richness of the science curriculum and stimulating teachers’ and children’s excitement in the subject. A roll-out of a national Primary Science Quality Mark will have a significant and strongly desired impact on science education in primary schools. Over 500 schools have already signed up to take part.

2009 Theme: Eating

Iona McCleery
University of Leeds
‘You Are What You Ate: Food Lessons from the Past’
£176 725
The project encourages public debate and reflection on eating behaviours by combining historical and bioarchaeological research on how medieval and early-modern people ate with biomedical research on modern nutrition and food science. Participants use history to engage with issues that affect health in the 21st century such as obesity, alcohol consumption, dental care, nutritional disorders, famine and the role of food processing, preservation techniques and seasonality. Events funded by the grant include schools and youth activities, exhibitions, talks, festival attendance, cooking demonstrations and osteology workshops, many of which take place at historical sites in West Yorkshire. Project partners include Wakefield Council and Archaeological Sciences, University of Bradford.

2008 Open Call

Chris Smith
The University of Cambridge
‘The Naked Scientists’
£125 000
Over the next four years the Cambridge University-based Naked Scientists will use funding from a Society Award to maintain and extend their existing public engagement initiatives, which include the production of science radio programmes and podcasts, interactive web pages and live science discussions and debates. The team will build upon their previous work through the development of a new range of compelling visual media packages, including video podcasts, new specialist science programme strands that target under-served areas of the biomedical science arena, and the use of other forms of new media and social networking as tools for public engagement with science.

Helen Della Nave (née Penny)
At-Bristol
‘Embedding Dialogue and Debate’
£228 000
Embedding Dialogue and Debate is a two-year project lead by At-Bristol working in close collaboration with Ecsite-uk, Thinktank, Centre for Life and Glasgow Science Centre. The project aims to embed dialogue about science within the culture of science and discovery centres, and to encourage science centres to make relevant training a part of the ongoing professional development programme for all staff. The project will deliver training for facilitators to deliver dialogue and debate activities with visitors confidently through the development and delivery of four facilitator academies. Focusing on the skills needed to discuss contemporary science issues with audiences, the Facilitator Academies will equip centre staff to enhance dialogue opportunities in their home venues. The Academies will encourage participants to share training with their colleagues, create a buddy system for ongoing support and share dialogue resources for the sector online. Ultimately, the project will help to create a culture of discussion where Science and Discovery Centre visitors can be supported to consider and question key issues within science.

Donna Renney
Cheltenham festival Ltd
‘Expanding Horizons: Breaking down festival boundaries’
£200 000
The Cheltenham Festivals sell over 150 000 tickets and have a culturally rich network of individual performers associated with each festival. Performers often comment on how much they enjoy meeting people from other disciplines in the Green Room at the festivals. This three-year project focuses on harnessing the creative energy of those individuals in a more formal way through the appointment of a Biosciences Project Manager for the festivals. The aim is to embed bioscience in the programming mind of all the festivals. The project will provide us with the resource to follow up, develop and deliver as innovative events, the many ideas that are generated at a Cheltenham Festival. We will disseminate the work through our media partners and through the creation of a group of leading thinkers and scientists.

Meurig Bowen
Cheltenham Festivals
‘Sound Mind’ – extension to ‘Expanding Horizons’ project
£30 000
2010 marks the anniversary year of thre composers, Carlo Gesualdo (b.1560) Robert Schumann (b.1810) and Hugo Wolf (b.1860) whose lives – and music – were deeply affected by mental instability and an extremity of emotional experience. This presents a compelling opportunity in 2010 for the Cheltenham Music Festival to undertake a critical exploration of the relationship between brain disease and music. Drawing on the lives of our anniversary composers in particular, we will explore through music performances and associated talk, debates and films, the connections of the mind, the brain and music.

2008 Theme: Genetic Variation(s) and Health

Peter Finegold
Nowgen, The University of Manchester
‘Nowgen Schools Genomics Programme’
£218 319
The Nowgen Schools Genomics Programme, led by the Manchester-based centre for genetics in healthcare, is a programme of work aimed at embedding human genomics, (the study of genetics and the human genome) in UK science lessons. The programme will bring current scientific research into schools, exciting pupils about the pace of discovery and engaging them in thinking about how advances in genetics will affect their future lives - narrowing the gap between genomics research and classroom genetics. The programme includes working with examiners on how to draw on the latest developments in genomics and healthcare. It offers students opportunities to visit research establishments as part of assessed coursework and will result in the co-production of three new Teachers’ TV programmes for students and teachers. As well as influencing how genetics is taught in schools, the project will look at new ways of integrating contemporary content into traditional science and within science related courses such as A-level Science in Society and the Perspectives on Science Extended Project.

Sally Montgomery
W5 at Odyssey
‘Can I Blame It On My Genes?’
£127 978
Over two years W5 will work with Professor Frank Kee at the Centre for Excellence for Public Health Research and Dr Gary McKeown, School of Psychology at Queen’s University to use the theory and practical applications of biomedical science to raise the importance of public health genetics, highlighting not only the evolving capacity of new genetic technologies, but also the implications for individuals, their understanding of health risks and their lifestyle choices. This will be achieved by exploring young peoples’ attitude to risk through a programme of interactive workshops and by raising teachers’ knowledge in relation to the theory, and practice of public health genetics and the emerging bioethical context to develop a tool box of resources teachers can use to explore genetics, risk and life style choices in the classroom. The programme will focus on two topics skin cancer and high blood cholesterol.

Jeffrey Teare
Tinderbox Consultants Limited
‘‘Not My Fault’ - Genetic Predisposition or Personal Responsibility?’
£125 000
‘Not My Fault’ - Genetic Predisposition or Personal Responsibility?’ is a long-term project involving new and established writers, scientists, clinicians, students and theatre practitioners in the creation of exciting and engaging new work on the subject of genetic variation and health, which will be presented at the Eden Project (Cornwall, UK) in late 2010. Audiences will attend announced performances and ‘guerrilla’ shows will also be staged to the general public. Post show discussions and public engagement events will be held to support every performance, and published scripts and video material will be available. More information can be found at the Theatre Science website.