Grants of up to £2,000 are available for community groups, museums, libraries, schools, researchers and members of the British Ecological Society for projects in England, Scotland and Wales that promote ecological science to a wider, non-academic audience.
The British Ecological Society is the oldest Ecological Society in the world, having been founded just before the start of World War 1 in 1913. The Society is inviting applications to its Outreach and Engagement Grants programme, which offers grants of up to £2,000 with no matched requirement (although the grant can be used as matched funding) for initiatives that help promote ecology and ecological science to a wider, non-academic audience.
Please note that, while applications from schools and museums are welcomed, projects must not be confined to a school or a museum and should involve a significant outreach element. Projects aimed solely at delivering curriculum activities to schoolchildren will not be considered.
This grant will support BES members to deliver independent outreach, public engagement and science communication activities that engage public audiences with the excitement, importance and relevance of ecological science or enhance the experience and skills of others to communicate ecology with public audiences.
All Grants must be for projects that meet at least one of the top-level BES aims:
- Communicate evidence-based messaging for what ecology is, how nature works, and the use of ecological science as a solution to local and global challenges.
- Increase the ability of others to deliver the above aims through outreach and engagement activities.
- Raise awareness and public understanding of ecological careers, their relevance and importance, breadth, and diversity, and show that anybody can become an ecologist, and
- Share how individuals can take action to benefit the environment, themselves, and society.
The Society normally makes between 10 and 15 grants each year.
The final application window for 2024 opened on 11 July with a deadline of 11 September 2024. Successful applicants are expected to be notified in late November/early December 2024.