- To inspire and empower young people from diverse and disadvantaged backgrounds to collaborate with university researchers and participate in creative science learning activities and research. By promoting wellbeing, knowledge, skills and agency in the development of co-created content, we can overcome barriers of educational inequity in STEM and encourage more young people to pursue interests and careers in STFC research areas. We The Curious has a track record in delivering participative programming activities with diverse and disadvantaged audiences and with university researchers. In this project we will bring these two groups together, to co-create educational STEM resources, strengthen our existing public engagement programme, engage young people with STFC achievements and make our science centre programme more inclusive. This project will provide new creative learning experiences for young people, unlocking the excitement of STFC research and reframing STEM as an imaginative, collaborative, rewarding career choice. By handing over decision making to audiences themselves, they will learn new skills in science communication, content development and collaborative working whilst STFC researchers will gain an opportunity to see their work from an audience-driven perspective. - To broaden the impact and reach of our existing public engagement in research programme, highlighting STFC achievements and the value of STEM to the UK. A particular focus on astronomy, cosmology, astrophysics and solar and planetary science responds to audience feedback that they would like to see more space-themed content in our online and in-venue offer. Our existing public engagement programme - Open Source Science - seeks to go further than simply providing a platform for researchers to tell the public about their research. We create unique opportunities for people of all ages to contribute to active research. By establishing things that researchers have in common with young people - particularly their shared ability to ask powerful questions - the research process becomes demystified. When young people find role models in STEM who they can identify with, they are far more likely to pro-actively seek out the ways in which science learning is relevant to them. Interactions with researchers can also change perceptions of science - we have seen how children have changed the language they use to describe science after working with a researcher, from using nouns like 'lab' and 'test tube' to using more behavioral adjectives like 'creative' and 'curious'. We have over 10,000 questions asked of us by the public, the majority from children and young people. We would like to use these as a starting point for our future programme development. Our initial assessment has shown that questions about space are by far the most frequently asked. We have also made a concerted effort in the collection of these curious questions, to ensure proportionate representation of the bottom 10% of the indices of multiple deprivation, in addition to question gathering activities with other underrepresented groups (BAME, disabled people, young people aged 13-25), making this a resource for the city that is representative and inclusive. The social and economic landscape has rapidly shifted in the past few months and is only likely to continue to change in the future. We The Curious must digitise more of its outputs than it does currently if it is to continue to pursue its diverse participation strategy and reach new audiences. It is more important now than ever that science centres consult with audiences every step of the way and involve them in decision making and evaluation processes, to ensure they are keeping ahead of audiences' educational and social needs.

How would you like to have your house cleaned automatically by a robot? Would you trust a robot babysitter? Do you think you would fancy a robot partner? How far do you think present-day robotics technology has actually advanced - can you tell the difference between science fact and science fiction? If a fully-functional, thinking robot could be developed, would you consider it human?How many of us have really considered the technical challenges and ethical issues of robotics research? Robot Thought? - Thinking about Robots is an event designed to enable family audiences to consider and convey their opinions on issues relating to science and engineering. The event uses the format of short dramatic vignettes to highlight important practical, personal and social issues relating to robotics. During each vignette a particular concept or issue is presented to the audience, who are then encouraged to express their opinions and concerns about the issues, and debate the implications of robotics on future society.The event format has already been trialled in Bristol, to great acclaim. This project will involve taking the highly popular and thought provoking performances to family audiences across the country. Eight science communication venues and four robotics research laboratories have signed on as partners to enhance the delivery and dissemination of this exciting event format over the course of the two-year project.

It is almost impossible to ignore the profusion of information currently in the media regarding environmental issues. In particular, with the recent announcements from leading retailers declaring their commitment to becoming carbon neutral, consumers' awareness of these issues is continuing to grow. However, to what extent do they understand the science behind these claims and are they able to access an easy-to-understand and balanced source of information to answer their queries? It is increasingly being recognised that the application of green chemistry will be fundamental to the production of environmentally friendly products that have both the confidence and trust of consumers. The emergence of green chemistry has been one of the most significant developments in the chemical sciences in recent years. However the awareness and understanding of green chemistry amongst the general public is limited, and it is commonly perceived that chemistry is the cause of environmental problems rather than the solution. This lack of confidence in chemicals could be at least in part attributed to current concerns highlighted in the press and pressure from NGOs, and can only be resolved through directly engaging with consumers and connecting them with chemicals in a positive way. The Green Chemistry Centre at the University of York in partnership with Boots the Chemists, At-Bristol and Glasgow Science Centre, seek to address this issue through the creation and delivery of a hands-on and informative display using touch screen technology to explore products consumers typically use daily e.g. shower gel, moisturiser, toothpaste etc. By entering a virtual bathroom and selecting one of these products, the visitor will experience a series of multiple-choice picture-based and animated questions tailored to uncover what the product is made from, how it is made, how it works and what happens after we use it, and will incorporate the steps that can be taken to improve their sustainability through the application of green chemistry. The display will be hosted at both At-Bristol and Glasgow Science Centre, and will be designed to appeal to both adults and children. Through this activity the project team aim to engage the public and get them thinking about the environmental implications of the products they enjoy as part of everyday life and promote a positive connection between green chemistry and consumer products.

Robotics, Animatronics and Artificial Intelligence are ideal vehicles for building public engagement in science, engineering and technology; they are subjects that are intrinsically compelling and engaging.A major step needed to achieve effective engagement with the contemporary issues in these areas is the building of the required skills and relationships amongst the scientists and engineers, and the facilitators and deliverers of events. However, engineers have identified the need to spend more time on research as a major drawback for engaging with the public , so finding the time to develop these skills and produce high quality public engagement activities is difficult.In September 2007 an EPSRC stage award funded the 3-year Walking with Robots (WWR) programme to provide support for those in robotics and related research to deliver public engagement events. However, in order to deliver innovative public engagement activities based on their research, WWR network members must seek additional funding from external bodies (e.g. industry, government, charities and learned institutions). WWR is now a continually expanding network of engineering researchers and public engagement experts. Over the last eight months the WWR has had a considerable amount of success in running a number of small-scale, repeatable activities as they involve a more achievable commitment for the majority of active researchers in this field.This project will devise and run a residential workshop with the aim of efficiently developing a number of these small activities, at the same time as strengthening the public engagement skills of both existing WWR network members and new researchers.* Over the course of a 3-day workshop, participants will experience the lifecycle of a public engagement event from conception through delivery to evaluation. The running of the workshop in such a condensed format seeks to reduce a prolonged pressure on research time in order to devise and deliver a reusable public engagement activity under the theme of Robotics, Animatronics and Artificial Intelligence. * The delivery phase of the project will capitalise on the momentum such a workshop will generate the applicants seek to use the output of the workshop at a number of science festivals during 2008. The festivals have been deliberately chosen as they have large numbers of attendees and are spread both geographically and over time. This means that regardless of the location of the researcher they should be able to attend a festival.

The Bristol Centre for Functional Nanomaterials (BCFN) is an EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training at the forefront of creative graduate training, equipping students to meet global grand challenges. The BCFN focus is to produce the highest quality students capable of designing, measuring and understanding advanced functional materials from their fundamental components, to their real-world applications. This is achieved by breaking down the traditional boundaries of chemistry, physics, biology and engineering, and providing training in a highly creative, adaptive and flexible way. Functional materials, and their characterisation, are vital to the UK economy, and are found in a very diverse range of application sectors including medicine, energy, food and coatings, in a wide range of high value products and are key to fundamental aspects of science. Understanding materials across all length scales and application areas is pivotal to our success - there is therefore a clear need for highly-skilled graduates, and an understanding of materials across all length scales is pivotal to our success. The global market for advanced materials is predicted to be $957bn by 2015, and we are committed to providing cohorts of skilled scientists who can lead innovation in both academia and industry. Our approach is to embed the training program into every aspect of the student experience. This means that the students receive the strongest possible scientific foundations through taught courses and research projects but also develop a fully rounded set of skills, including communication, team working, entrepreneurship and creativity. We have a proven track record of excellence in graduate training and have pioneered innovative tools where the needs of the student are at the core. These have included new online learning tools, a mixture of short- and long-term research projects to promote choice and a wider research experience, and intense involvement with industry which allows students to be exposed to "realworld" problems, ensuring that their creativity is always directed towards finding solutions. We have an extensive expert network of supervisors who deliver the training, whilst collaborating to create new research areas. Our network has more than 100 academics from 15 departments across four faculties at the University of Bristol, aswell as industrial partners. This ensures that the BCFN research and training can adapt to the changing needs of both the UK and global demands for materials. Our centre is located at the nexus of funding council priority areas, and has studentship support (3 p.a.), staff funding, and dedicated space support from the University. From 2014, we will build on our strong foundations and evolve our training. Our links with industry will be strengthened further and via our Bristol-Industry Graduate Engagement (BRIDGE) program we will build sustainable, long-term research platforms to ensure a true benefit to the economy. We will take our successful training model and create a distance learning platform which can be used by partners overseas and in industry through innovative e-learning. We will run summer schools with these partners to expand the training experience for both BCFN students and partners alike. We will continue our extensive public engagement with schools, the general public and policy makers, ensuring that at all stages we communicate with our stakeholders and receive feedback. We have a strong student-focussed management team to ensure quality and delivery. This team, composed of a Director, Principal, co-Principal, Teaching Fellow, Industrial Research Fellow and Manager, and a wider Operational Team drawn from our core departments of Physics, Chemistry and Biology, represent a wide range of research experience from Fellows of the Royal Society to early career fellows, covering a range of strengths in functional materials with proven leadership and research track records.