Thank you for your interest in the Antarctica in the Community Grant!

This funding scheme has been designed, in partnership with the UK Antarctic Heritage Trust (UKAHT), to help communities run their own event or project to explore and celebrate Antarctica and its important role in climate science.

Would your community group be interested in learning more about Antarctica? Can you reach people who currently don’t engage with science?

If the answer is yes - we’re thrilled to be partnering with UKAHT to provide community groups with grants of £500 to help them do just that.

The UKAHT preserves historic buildings and artefacts in Antarctica. They do this to help people discover, understand, value, and protect the ground-breaking scientific research that has happened over the last century in this extraordinary place. Find out more about their public engagement programme, Antarctica In Sight here.

For more background information on the scheme, visit the Antarctica in the Community webpage:

Antarctica in the Community webpage

• Applying for a grant
• Eligibility
• Developing your project idea
• What can the grant money be spent on?
• What will be asked for in your application?
• Terms and conditions of the funding

Applying for a grant

The Antarctica in the Community Grant is now open for proposals from members of our Community Engagement Network! Members can apply for £500 to run an event or project between November 2022 and March 2023.

The deadline for applications is 5 pm on Monday, 26 September 2022.  Please only apply after reading the full guidelines.

All applications should be made online via this application form:

APPLICATION FORM

Applicants will be notified of the outcome of their application by email by late October. If successful, payment of the grant will be made directly into a nominated bank account. Payments will be made by early November.  

When completing the application form, please ensure that all email addresses, telephone numbers and bank account details given are correct. Any mistakes in these will delay payment of the grant. As we will communicate with you primarily by email, please ensure you give an email address that is checked regularly by the person who applies for the grant. 

We understand that this type of activity planning may be a new experience or different to your usual work. If so, do not hesitate to contact the BSA’s Community Engagement team if you have any questions regarding the application procedure or what type of activity might be suitable for your audience. Please email [email protected].  

Eligibility

To be eligible for a grant, you must represent a community-based group or organisation that works directly with audiences who are traditionally under-represented and currently not engaged in science activity. Our definition of groups that are underrepresented in science includes: 

• people identifying as being from minority ethnic backgrounds
• people living in communities which face multiple deprivation, including people disadvantaged in terms of education and income
• disabled people (people who identify as being disabled)
• people living in a remote and rural location, defined as settlements of less than 10,000 people.

Groups must run an event or project based on one of the following themes: 

• Hidden Treasures – the historic sites and scientific artefacts we protect in Antarctica
• Amazing Lives – the climate scientists and researchers who have worked in Antarctica
• An Extraordinary Place – the amazing natural environment of Antarctica and the effects of climate change

Developing your project idea 

As community leaders, we recognise that you know your communities best. We therefore encourage you to design activities that best respond to your community’s particular needs and interests. The BSA Community Engagement Team will be on hand to support you in developing your ideas.  

For inspiration, you can find out more about the history of scientific research in Antarctica on the UKAHT website: https://www.ukaht.org/heritage/. 

You can also listen to UKAHT’s Voyage to Antarctica podcast here: https://www.ukaht.org/antarctica-in-sight/podcasts/.  

Possible topics to research include: 

• Scientific equipment used in Antarctica to measure the climate
• Living and working in extreme conditions through the ages, for example at Port Lockroy
• Major discoveries and scientific breakthroughs that have happened in Antarctica, such as the hole in the Ozone Layer
• Antarctic wildlife and biodiversity
• The impact of climate change on the Antarctic landscape
• The future of climate research in Antarctica and how it impacts the rest of the world.

What can the grant money be spent on? 

 The grants can be used for:   

• materials 
• room hire  
• audio-visual hire 
• publicity 
• reasonable volunteer expenses 
• speakers, trainers and freelancers 
• project-specific staff costs (salaries or fees for people who are essential to the project and whose salaries aren’t already covered by another grant) 
• transport or other costs of activities/events. 

The majority of grant money cannot be spent on refreshments or project-specific staff costs.   

Grant money cannot be spent on:  

• large competition prizes 
• large non-consumable equipment (e.g. microscopes, computers, cameras) 
• on-going salary costs 
• costs that are already covered by other funding 
• general running costs and overheads that are paid for by other income. 

What will be asked for in your application? 

You will be asked to provide the following information in your application: 

• a description of your organisation (200 words maximum)
• who you are going to work with for this event/project (150 words maximum)
• a general description of the event or activities (300 words maximum). This does not need to be a complete, fully formed plan, but an overall idea of what form the activities will take and how they will run.
• which theme your event will fall under: 1) Hidden Treasures, (2) Amazing Lives, or (3) An Extraordinary Place. 
• a description of the impact your activities will have on those taking part, including how it will help communities to discover, understand, value and protect Antarctica
• proposed event date(s). All activities must be completed between by 31 March 2023. 
• a rough budget outline (in bullet points) of costs associated with your activities and how the grant money will be used
• details of the bank account into which the grant will be paid at the time of applying for the grant, including the account name, number and sort code. The grant must be paid into a UK based bank or building society account which has the same name as that of your organisation, and the account name on the application form must match the bank account name exactly.

Financial information is stored on a secure cloud-based service and will only be used to pay successful grant applicants. Unused details will be deleted. Providing your account details at this stage allows us to pay successful grant applicants immediately, making it easier to organise events. 

Please note, if the bank details supplied in your application are incorrect, this will significantly delay the payment of your grant and may result in the grant being withdrawn. Please ensure that you have the correct bank account details before applying. 

Terms and conditions of the funding 

1. By submitting an application to the British Science Association, the organisation named in the application (referred to as ‘you’ in these Terms and Conditions) agrees, if awarded a grant, to:   

1.1 hold the grant on trust for the British Science Association (referred to as ‘we’ or ‘us’) and use it only for your event/activity as described in your application or otherwise agreed with us, and only for expenditure incurred after the date of the grant award;    

1.2 hold your event/activity between November 2022 and March 2023. If for whatever reason you are not able to run your events/activities during this time, the grant money will have to be returned to the British Science Association. For these reasons, you will have contingency plans in case of illness or unforeseen circumstances;   

1.3 complete an organiser feedback survey (provided by the British Science Association);   

1.4 distribute a short feedback form (provided by the British Science Association) to your event/activity participants and return the completed forms to the British Science Association head office after the event/activity;   

1.5 act lawfully in carrying out your event/activity, in accordance with best practice and guidance from your regulators, and follow any guidelines issued by us about the event/activity or use of the grant;    

1.6 correctly acknowledge the UK Antarctic Heritage Trust and the British Science Association in any press releases or marketing material. Please contact the British Science Association for additional information.     

1.7 use the UK Antarctic Heritage Trust logo on any marketing materials produced, either in print or online. The logo will be provided by the British Science Association;   

1.8 hold the grant in a UK based bank or building society account which has the same name as that of your organisation;   

1.9 immediately return any part of the grant that is not used for your event/activity or constitutes unlawful state aid;    

1.10 where your event/activity involves working with children, young people or vulnerable adults, adopt and implement an appropriate written safeguarding policy, obtain written consent from legal carers or guardians and carry out background checks for all employees, volunteers, trustees or contractors as required by law;    

1.11 comply with data protection laws and obtain the consent of your beneficiaries for us and you to receive and process their personal information and contact them;    

1.12 keep accurate and comprehensive records about your event/activity both during the event/activity and for seven years afterwards and provide us on request with copies of those records and evidence of expenditure of the grant, such as original receipts and bank statements;    

1.13 allow us reasonable access to your premises and systems to inspect event/activity and grant records;   

1.14 the UK Antarctic Heritage Trust and the British Science Association publicising and sharing information about you and your event/activity including your name and images of event/activities. You hereby grant us a royalty free license to reproduce and publish any event/activity information you give us. You will let us know when you provide the information if you don’t have permission for us to use it in this way.    

2. You acknowledge that we are entitled to suspend or terminate the grant and/or require you to repay all or any of the grant in any of the following situations. You must let us know if any of these situations have occurred or are likely to occur:   

2.1 you use the grant in any way other than as approved by us or fail to comply with any of these Terms and Conditions.    

2.2 you fail to complete the feedback forms or your activity/event differs greatly to that outlined in your application.   

2.3 you have match funding for the project withdrawn or receive duplicate funding for the same project costs as funded by the grant.    

2.4 you provide us with false or misleading information either on application or after award of the grant, act dishonestly or are under investigation by us, a regulatory body or the police, or if we consider for any other reason that public funds are at risk or you do anything to bring the British Science Association or the UK Antarctic Heritage Trust into disrepute.    

2.5 you enter into, or in our view are likely to enter into, administration, liquidation, receivership or dissolution.   

3. You acknowledge that:   

3.1 the grant is for your use only and we may require you to pay us a share of any proceeds from disposal of assets purchased or enhanced with the grant;    

3.2 we will not increase the grant if you spend more than the agreed budget;    

3.3 if the provided bank account details including account name, account number and sort code, are incorrect, your grant payment may be significantly delayed or your grant offer may be withdrawn;   

3.4 the grant is not consideration for any taxable supply for VAT purposes;    

3.5 we have no liability for any costs or consequences incurred by you or third parties that arise directly or indirectly from the project, nor from nonpayment or withdrawal of the grant, save to the extent required by law;    

3.6 the British Science Association will not be held responsible or liable for any consequences, whether direct or indirect to any loss or damage, personal or otherwise, injury or death however arising in grant-funded events and activities. Grant recipients are responsible for taking out any public liability or other insurance necessary to cover the activities.   

3.7 these Terms and Conditions will continue to apply for one year after the grant is paid or until the project has been completed, whichever is later. Clauses 1.6, 1.7, 1.9, 1.12, 1.13, 1.14, 3.5 and 3.6 shall survive expiry of these Terms and Conditions; and    

3.8 if the application and grant award are made electronically, the agreement between us shall be deemed to be in writing and your online acceptance of these Terms and Conditions shall be deemed to be a signature of that agreement.   

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If you have any questions or require any assistance, please get in touch at [email protected].