Supporting museums to engage local communities with science through their heritage and collections.
Through the Places of science grant scheme in 2024, 36 small museums across the United Kingdom have received up to £3,500 to run projects that tell stories of science to their local community.
Explore the projects, including those in your local area, through our dedicated webpage and interactive map.
Applications will open on Wednesday 17 September 2025.
Scheme notes are available (PDF) and please get in touch with us if you have any queries.
About the scheme
The scheme provides grants of up to £3,500 to small museums, funding projects that tell the stories of science and scientists relevant to communities across the UK.
We want to fund projects that
- highlight the topics, stories and people that are relevant to your local community
- present science in new and interesting ways
- encourage participation and involvement of the local community
- provoke curiosity, interest and enthusiasm among those that take part
We are particularly interested in projects that
- explore the experiences of historically underrepresented people
- are led by organisations that don’t normally feature scientific content
- involve partners that can enhance the project’s outcomes, impact or quality
- reach audiences who do not normally engage with science
We love to hear about projects taking place at your museum and beyond; including but not limited to schools, community spaces, in nature, etc. We also encourage involving your local communities in any capacity – as participants, volunteers, or lived experience contributors and advisors.
We also strongly welcome applications from projects that align with the themes of the Natural History Museum’s Fixing Our Broken Planet programme. In April 2025, the Natural History Museum opened a new gallery which explores the biggest challenges facing the planet and science-backed, hopeful solutions which help us to create a more sustainable world. The gallery and associated programme delve into the themes of the food we eat, the energy we consume, the stuff we use, and the impact of all of this on our health. Through a Community of Practice, UK-wide organisations are supported to build best practice around communicating these themes through a skills and knowledge sharing programme.