Getting Funding

So, you have a really good idea for an activity to encourage interest in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) subjects in your school. Maybe it is a piece of equipment or an external activity provider, a school trip or maybe a club. It’s a brilliant idea, you are keen, your peers think it a good idea and then you hit the big pothole in the road – funding.

Funding is always an issue in the education environment especially now with increased demands and increasing costs. So how do you get funding? This quick guide outlines a pathway to funding STEM activities, but it broadly applies to getting any funding.

If you cannot get internal funding, for example tapping into pupil premium funding, then you have to look externally. Those sources are local STEM employers, national STEM employers, specific educational programmes from governmental, industrial or charitable sources, parents – especially PTAs and others such as fundraising events.

Local Businesses are often very receptive to offering support to schools, especially small amounts of money. They might be able to supply surplus lab or engineering equipment to the school, or they might be willing to allow staff to go into the school to help with activities or to give career talks. Such activities are often seen by businesses as a means to improve staff communication skills and morale as well as engagement with the community. Check to see what the company’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) goals are if they have one. Make sure that what you are asking them for aligns with their CSR goals, and make sure you tell them how it is helping them reach them. STEM recruitment and in fact recruitment in general, is a major problem in the UK – school activities help improve the pool of potential staff.

Local Government and Government departments as well as organisations such as the Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEP) may be open to applications for funding. Talk to your local LEP and council to see what they can offer. Most LEPs have some kind of educational programme and they will be looking at trying to build and promote the key areas that are needed in your region.

Educational charities, industry professional bodies and large corporations will all have school engagement programmes that you might either be able to join or get funding through. There is a list of some of them at the end of this article.

Don’t forget local educational establishments. Secondary schools are often willing to help their feeder primaries to improve attainment through several pathways. Likewise, FE colleges also like to support their feeder secondary schools. Universities are obliged to have engagement programmes. Your local university will have a widening participation team who are employed to get more students from underrepresented groups into the university. Individual university departments might well have their own public engagement and outreach programmes. In fact, in recent years, government funding has, in part, depended on the quality of their public engagement programmes. Governmental research bodies, such as the UK Space Agency and the Science and Technology Facilities Council, have small and large engagement funding for outreach for which you can apply as long as you have a partner doing research funded by that agency.