2023 marks the 10 year anniversary of our partnership with Urenco. Our partnership began in 2013, 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.

After a decade of partnership, Urenco has grown to become a Strategic Partner of the British Science Association (BSA); their support now extending to three of the BSA’s programmes; CREST, Smashing Stereotypes and Future Forums.

New for 2023

As part of this new phase of our partnership, we are delighted that Urenco are supporting our Smashing Stereotypes campaign for British Science Week 2023. 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.

Additionally, Urenco are supporting our 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.

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 support across this range of programmes, which is helping us move closer to our goal of ensuring that science is more relevant, representative and connected to society.

Amy MacLaren, Director of 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 was piloted in Germany and the USA in the following years.

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.