This afternoon we apologised to 47 schools, telling teachers that we have not been able to offer their students a place in I’m a Scientist this March.

Graph showing funded places (colour fill) vs. places requested (outline) for I’m a Scientist

The graph shows the number of class places requested by teachers (box outline), against the funded places we were able to run (colour-fill) for each event. Demand has consistently exceeded places available for the past 8 events; indeed for the past 5 events, we could have run double the number of zones we did. Double the number of young people becoming more enthused about science. Double the number of scientists taking part in “the best crash course in science communication”.

Our limiting factor is funding. We need more funding to run more zones and increase the capacity of the events.

Unfortunately the Royal Society of Chemistry has withdrawn their funding planned for this year and the STFC funding we had has not been renewed, meaning spaces for chemistry and physics classes are especially limited.

If there are any funders with leftover budget, who might want to give students the opportunity to put their questions to scientists, engineers, and researchers, please do get in touch: shane@gallomanor.com

Update: 27th April 2017
Updated graph to make clearer funding levels vs. demand for places.