Public Engagement Grant Scheme

This Limit Less grant scheme supports projects that:

• Target the audiences prioritised by the IOP’s Limit Less campaign – families with young people under the age of 16 that identify with one or more of the following groups:
  girls and young women;
  disabled young people;
  LGBT+ young people;
  young people from disadvantaged backgrounds; and
  Black Caribbean young people.
• Develop relationships between physics and public participants to grow beyond initial contact.
• Reinforce messages being delivered by existing engagement schemes by adapting to new locations, communities or circumstances.
• Build strong relationships between physics, physicists and diverse communities through co-developed and co-delivered engagement projects.

The Public Engagement Grant Scheme (PEGS) has been updated to support Limit Less, which aims to encourage young people currently under-represented in the physics community to carry on doing physics post 16.

The new framework for the grant scheme is informed by the learning we have all accrued over the last couple of years with respect to equality, diversity and inclusion, the digital divide, and personal wellbeing.

Who can apply

The scheme is open to individuals and organisations passionate about promoting engagement with physics. You might be:

• a community group
• a not-for-profit organisation
• an IOP member
• a researcher in academia or industry
• a museum
• a library
• an arts group

How much you can apply for

The minimum grant award is £500. You can apply for up to £5,000 to run physics-based activities in the UK and Ireland.

How to apply

Applications for the 2023 grant scheme are now closed.

Our help and guidance

You can reach us by email on [email protected] or phone at +442045480044. 

A few of our recipients

• “We are grateful to the IOP for providing us with an outreach grant, which will enable Family Action to pilot a wide range of fun, hands-on and family-friendly, rocket-themed fun days for vulnerable and low-income families during the 2018 summer holidays.” Family Action, grant recipient 2018.

• “Careers in both theatre and physics require an active imagination and a great deal of creativity. We are excited to work with the IOP to engage young people, and to make them aware of the exciting possibilities of careers in physics.” Smoking Apples Theatre Company, grant recipient 2018.

• “In Wolverhampton, the IOP grants have been a huge success. They have enabled us to use physics learning opportunities to engage and also re-engage with marginalised men, women and young people across different ages, ethnicities and physical and mental health conditions.” BME Housing Consortium, grant recipient 2017, 2016, 2015.

More information

Email: [email protected]

Read our applicant guidelines (PDF, 131KB)

Check our FAQs page