About the scheme
The Royal Society has long advocated for the place of practical activity at the heart of science education. Experiencing how science is practiced in real-world contexts is key to fostering engagement, enjoyment, and inspiring a lasting interest in STEM in young people, helping them to develop core skills and competencies for future employment, and life, in general.
The Science Community Grant aims to empower teachers, boost STEM confidence, and embed more practical science learning across participating schools and colleges. Funded organisations will create collaborative communities where teachers can share best practices, receive peer support, and work closely with the organisation and STEM professionals (actively working within academia and industry), to enrich STEM education and hands-on learning. The Royal Society intends to play an active role in this collaborative community of schools and colleges from the outset. It is envisaged that a significant portion of the schools and colleges taking part in the Science Community Grant will build the capacity to apply for a full Partnership Grant.
The aims of the Science Community Grant are to:
- Support UK schools and colleges in undertaking more hands-on, inquiry-based learning and investigative STEM projects
- Allow students the opportunity to experience how science is done in practice
- Provide continuing professional development (CPD) training for teachers to enhance skills and confidence in running practical investigations
- Embed a collaborative community among schools and colleges to help support the delivery of practical science activities and to develop practical investigation and technical skills within students
- Embed a culture of lasting partnership between schools and colleges and STEM professionals
- Embed an outreach culture within universities or industry and develop the engagement skills of early-career STEM researchers
Evaluation and impact reporting is integral to this grant award and grant recipients will be required to collect data to understand the medium-long term impact on beneficiaries, and to provide evidence of sustained partnerships and communities between schools/colleges and STEM professionals, and the integration of practical learning in schools/colleges.
All grant activity, including reporting, should be completed within 39 months of the project start date.
What does the scheme offer?
There are ten Science Community Grants available. The grant amount is a maximum of £105,000 payable over three years.
While the grant cannot be used to support direct staffing costs, it can be used to support coordination and administration of the grant by the organisation.
Funds may also be used for:
- Equipment to enable schools to undertake small-scale investigations
- School and college expenses related to their participation, such as teacher cover and travel costs
- STEM professional costs associated with training and travel costs for school/college visits
- Data collection and evaluation
Full details about the funding and payment schedule, and examples of allowable costs, can be found in the scheme notes.
To help organisations learn more about the grant, online information sessions will be held throughout November, December, and January. Sessions can be booked through the Royal Society’s Event portal.
To find out more about The Julia Rausing Trust, please visit www.juliarausingtrust.org.
The grant is open to applicants from UK-based STEM institutions or organisations that can demonstrate a significant track record of engagement with both schools/colleges and STEM professionals. Applications are welcomed from organisations as a whole, or from groups/departments/faculties within organisations.
Applicants must:
- Consist of a team capable of supporting a minimum of 25 schools/colleges and STEM professionals throughout the three-year period of the project
- Have the capacity to create and maintain an active community of schools/colleges and their STEM professionals, with regular engagement to promote, support and share best practice
- Be capable of fully supporting schools/colleges and STEM professionals to undertake successful, small-scale investigative projects, in partnership
- Have experience of providing continuing professional development (CPD) for teachers and STEM professionals
A statement of support from the head of the organisation (or department head, as appropriate) must be included as part of the application.
Please read the scheme notes carefully for further information on eligibility, to ensure that you meet all eligibility requirements before applying.
Grant recipients will commit to working with their cluster of grant schools/colleges for the full three-year grant period to encourage lasting and impactful partnerships to be formed between the organisation, schools/colleges, and STEM professionals.
The following are the key deliverables of the grant:
- Recruit a minimum of 25 schools/colleges
- Work with multiple cohorts within each school/college over the three-year grant period, supporting a minimum of 30 students per cohort
- Recruit appropriate STEM professionals to work with each school/college and facilitate at least two to three in-person school visits over the course of the small-scale investigative project
- Devise small-scale investigative STEM projects which last at least an academic term and are then repeated with additional cohorts within schools/colleges
- Create, maintain, and nurture an active, collaborative community within the grant schools/colleges
- Provide a programme of teacher-focused CPD to improve skills and confidence in working scientifically and/or to develop key technical skills related to the small-scale investigation
- Provide a programme of CPD for STEM professionals to introduce them to the practicalities of working with and within a school/college and to support them in delivering school engagement activities
- Maintain a grant risk register to monitor and mitigate any risks to the grant delivery
- Collect data and outcomes to support the evaluation of the grant including administering surveys and collecting case studies and outcome data
- Provide information and application support (in conjunction with the Royal Society’s Schools Engagement team) to help schools/colleges apply for a full Partnership Grant at the end of the grant period
- Provide regular contact points between the organisation, schools/colleges, STEM professionals, and the Royal Society Schools Engagement team
- Attend annual meetings at the Royal Society and support schools/colleges and STEM professionals to exhibit at Royal Society events and showcases, as required. Additional funding will be provided to support these activities
See the ‘Application and assessment process’ page for a general overview of the application and selection steps and below for details specific to this scheme.
The grant will open for applications from 4 November 2025, with an application deadline of 27 February 2026.
Applying for the Science Community Grant is a two-stage process.
Interested applicants should first complete the Stage 1 expression of interest application within Flexi-Grant®. This stage is intended to demonstrate the applicant’s eligibility and to provide an overview of the applicant’s grant proposal.
Eligibility checks are undertaken by the Schools Engagement team after the Stage 1 expression of interest has been submitted. Only those organisations that sufficiently demonstrate their eligibility within the Stage 1 expression of interest application will be invited to complete the Stage 2 full application via the Flexi-Grant® system.
Please ensure you read the eligibility criteria carefully. Both stages of the application will need to be completed before the grant deadline. Applicants should ensure that they discuss their intention to apply with their organisation as soon as possible.
Details of the information that should be included in the application are provided in the scheme notes.
Each application will be assessed by at least two members of the Partnership Grants Allocating Panel who will score the application against the criteria listed in the scheme notes. Successful applicants will be given a conditional offer of funding, dependent on an offer letter and agreement to the terms and conditions of the grant award.
The Royal Society welcomes applications from disabled applicants and provides support and adjustments to ensure that they can participate fully in the selection process.
If you require support or an adjustment when accessing the application form or for any other part of the application process, please contact the Schools Engagement team via education@royalsociety.org or call +44 20 7451 2586. All requests for adjustments are made in confidentiality.
Any request for an adjustment will not normally be shared with panel members unless it becomes relevant to the assessment process itself. If we need to share your request with anyone, we will ask for your permission first.
Adjustments can include but are not limited to:
- Extension of the deadline
- Additional support to complete the application form
- Receiving the application form in a different format, such as in a Word document
If you have further questions regarding the scheme, please contact the Schools Engagement team on education@royalsociety.org or call +44 20 7451 2586.
