RSC Outreach Fund grant for Oxford Chemistry showcase at community events

Congratulations to the Department of Chemistry’s Educational Outreach Officer, Saskia O’Sullivan, who has been awarded a grant from the Royal Society of Chemistry’s Outreach Fund that will enable the department to run community events in 2023.

The new funding will support a collaboration with the Oxfordshire Play Association to bring Oxford's 'Creative Chemistry Tent' to community events across Oxfordshire in 2023.

The outreach team will collaborate with the Oxfordshire Play Association (OPA), an organisation that Saskia worked with on a Science Together project last year. Science Together linked researchers from Oxford and Oxford Brookes Universities with local community groups. The specific project Saskia facilitated looked at the importance of play in Oxfordshire, with the group producing a report and infographic for use with stakeholders in the country and national government. As a spin-off from this project, the outreach team developed a series of Chemistry at Home resources.

The money allocated from the RSC’s Outreach Fund will enable the department to run chemistry play activities for families attending OPA community days across the county, as well as promoting the department’s Chemistry at Home resources.

As part of The Creative Chemistry Tent, researchers from the Department of Chemistry will be able to meet with members of the local community and share their work – any interested members of the department should get in touch with Saskia O’Sullivan.