Physics education grants

In addition to our core funding programmes, the Trust awards a small number of grants (of up to £5,000) to schools, colleges and other organisations who wish to carry out projects or activities that support the teaching and learning of physics.

To apply for funding for a physics education project, you must register on our grant management system, Flexi-Grant. Once you have registered, select the Physics Education Grants from the available grants page. For more information on how to register, please read our flexi-grant user guide which can be viewed or downloaded here.

There is one round of funding each term; the current round of funding is now open and applications must be made before 4 December. Applications are made online via our grant management system. Please read the eligibility criteria below before making your application.

Successful applicants will be notified within two months of the closing date.

Eligibility criteria

All applicants must be based in the UK and working predominantly in England. Most applicants are expected to be charities and education establishments – it is rare that funding will be given to a profit-making organisation.

All applications should fit with the Ogden Trust strategy and target our priority audiences (visit our About us pages to find out more). Projects must be clearly based around physics and developed with current evidence in mind – part-funding may be considered for general science projects where there is a clear physics component. Projects may be for roll-out of an existing scheme, in which case evidence of impact to date should be included, or for a new idea, in which case there should be sufficient rationale for why it will achieve its goals.

Funding can be requested at any level up to £5,000 but the cost per person should be proportionate to the anticipated impact on that person. Lower priority is given to high impact activities for a very small number of individuals.

Our grants are split into two strands:

• Curriculum support: to support the teaching and learning of physics from 4-18 in the classroom, including equipment for teaching physics, teaching resources and teacher CPD.
• Enrichment activities: to support physics extra-curricular activities for school and college students from under-represented groups.

Curriculum support

Projects applying under the curriculum support heading should be for the teaching and learning of the core curriculum in England in the classroom. This may include equipment for teaching physics (including physical sciences topics in primary), teacher resources and professional development.

Priority will be given to projects targeting:

• Schools or colleges starting A-level physics,
• Schools or colleges in areas of high deprivation or other socioeconomic need, and
• Support for teacher development relating to core curriculum.

Projects which focus on activity that should be covered through central school funding, for example IT requirements and text books, will not be funded.

Enrichment activities

Projects in this strand of funding should support the extra-curricular activities of students who are under-represented in physics. This may include clubs run by the school or college, family activities or activities delivered by external providers.

Priority will be given to projects which:

• Engage a high proportion of students in areas of high deprivation, on Free School Meals, or other indicators of socioeconomic deprivation.
• Directly relate to and enrich the school curriculum in England.
• Provide a repeat or ongoing experience for the young people.

Cost per head for the anticipated impact will be a key selection criteria. Projects to evaluate existing well-established programmes may also be considered. Funding will not be offered for commercial provision of activities. All activities supported by the grant must be free for students to access.

Ineligible for funding

Through our education grants, we do not offer:

• support for individuals, for example scholarships, bursaries, or funding for summer placements, summer schools or international events. Our undergraduate scholarship scheme has now closed.
• support for projects similar to our other main funding schemes such as long term science partnership activities, primary science lab facilities and trips to CERN. This funding is only available within our School Partnerships programme.
• support for the cost of subscriptions for school-level quality marks, awards or similar, for example Primary Science Quality Mark.
• support for the buy-out of teacher time to run a project. This funding is only available through our Teacher Fellowship.
• support for projects which are led by, or have a heavy component of, a non-physics context.
• support to cover the cost of purchasing IT equipment or text books.
• funding for legal or contingency costs.

Capturing impact has been developed to help anyone working in physics education and outreach with evaluating their activities. You can download this evaluation guide in our publications and research section of the website. The models and approaches have been built around the theories of science capital. The publication includes a series of tools to help evaluate different aspects of activities and some pointers on analysis and ethics. You should consider your evaluation approach when making your physics education grant application.