New for 2024

This year, the British Science Association have announced three-year partnership extension with Urenco, solidifying their position as the Headline Partner of the CREST Awards from 2023-2026. This agreement marks the first of its kind at the British Science Association, showcasing our shared commitment to fostering scientific curiosity and innovation among young minds.

Our partnership with Urenco began over a decade ago, when we worked together to develop new CREST resources, bringing key components of Urenco’s Richie programme to primary school-aged students.

Urenco's Richie programme is an international educational programme aimed at teaching children about energy topics in a fun and engaging way. The Richie programme is a core element of Urenco's school and education outreach and a key component of Urenco’s sustainability approach.

Urenco’s partnership with the BSA entails a history of core support for the BSAs programmes over the years, including CREST, Smashing Stereotypes and Future Forums.

As we celebrate the 30th anniversary of British Science Week in 2024, Urenco remains a stalwart supporter of our Smashing Stereotypes campaign. The campaign aims to dispel restrictive stereotypes of science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) and uses individual stories of professionals from diverse backgrounds, in unusual roles and /or who may have come into STEM via a non-traditional route, to highlight the diversity of people and jobs in STEM.

Previous Partnership Activity

In 2023, Urenco supported the Future Forums programme, which gives young people a chance to have their voices heard on science and technology issues that have an impact on their lives and the world around them.

The next generation are tasked with solving the greatest challenges in our time, yet our research has found that they do not feel able to have their say on the issues affecting their future and they don't feel that politicians, scientists or business leaders are addressing their ideas or concerns.

In 2023, Urenco supported the Future Forums programme, as part of their commitment to education and skills development. The data shows that young people are open to careers in nuclear energy, but don’t feel they are well enough informed about it in the classroom, via media or wider society.

Future Forum provides organisations, who want to engage young people and hear their views, an opportunity to find out more about what they are interested in and think is important.

The BSA would like to thank Urenco for its continued support to the British Science Association, and for agreeing to a landmark, three-year commitment to support the CREST Awards. Their support is key to ensuring that science is more relevant, representative and connected to society.

Vijay Jassal, Director of Development & External Relations

Find out about Smashing Stereoytpes

Find out more about Future Forum

Find out more about CREST 

Previous partnership activity

In 2016 we launched a brand new CREST Discovery Award resource with Urenco, Enrich my classroom, which enables students to learn about a range of science, engineering and technology topics through group work, interactive activities and a challenge that asks them how they can enrich their experiences in classrooms of the future.

The 2016 Richie Lecture was given by BSA Honorary Fellow and broadcaster, actor and author, Dallas Campbell.

The CREST Awards are the UK’s largest national award scheme for project work in Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) and aim to enrich students' interest in STEM subjects and careers.

2018 was a big milestone in our CREST partnership, as the programme opened its doors to international markets for the first time. Working closely with Dutch teachers and pupils, the BSA and Urenco ran pilots and training sessions with educators to gain feedback on how best to adapt the resource for Dutch schools. Following the success of this introduction to the international stage, the Richie programme now runs workshops in the UK, the Netherlands and the USA and relevant content can be downloaded for teachers everywhere.

The BSA hugely values Urenco's long-standing support for CREST, which in the last academic year (2021/22) saw almost 60,000 young people aged 5-to-19, from across the UK, achieve CREST Awards. 

Find out more about Urenco's Richie Education programme.