The Royal Academy of Engineering is offering up to £30,000 in funding for creative projects that engage the public with engineers and engineering.
Grants are available as part of the ‘Ingenious’ public engagement scheme, for which applications can be submitted until 4 pm on 18 September. The goal is to fund projects ‘that reach diverse and under-served audiences’ across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, and ‘connect members of the public, of any age, with engineers, and tell the story of the wide range of UK engineering’.
Since 2007, over 200 projects have been funded through the Ingenious programme, reaching over 2.5 million members of the public. For this round, the Academy is seeking ‘even more creative and imaginative ideas’ for projects to run from 2018.
Funding of between £3,000 and £30,000 is available for projects to:
- Inspire creative public engagement with engineering projects.
- Motivate engineers to share their stories, passion, and expertise, with wider audiences, and develop their communication and engagement skills.
- Raise awareness of the diversity, nature, and impact, of engineering among people of all ages and backgrounds.
- Provide opportunities for engineers to engage with members of the public from groups currently under-represented in engineering.
Engineer and broadcaster, Professor Mark Miodownik FREng, who chairs the Ingenious panel, said: OPTIONAL CUT: “Whether it’s a pre-school class in Armagh, or a group of retirees in Aberdeen, there are so many opportunities out there for UK engineers to share their fantastic work and engage with the great British public. I’m hoping we get flooded with applications from engineers, universities, schools, artists, writers, engagement professionals, and anyone else with a creative idea to connect whole new groups of people with the diverse world of engineering.”
Ingenious projects are intended to leave a lasting legacy by training and equipping the engineers who take part with new engagement skills, to enable them to continue working with the public long after the projects have been completed. Over 5,000 engineers have participated in Ingenious projects to date.
