The recently opened Who Am I? gallery at the Science Museum, London, is just one example of the many projects supported by the Wellcome Trust, which has an annual budget of £600m.
The trust, which gave £2.5m towards the gallery, has a range of funding programmes that support museums and galleries to explore biomedical science and the history of medicine.
The money for the Who Am I? gallery came from the Wellcome’s capital strand for large-scale construction or refurbishment projects that generally cost more than £200,000. But most of the museums and galleries that the trust funds will receive money from its public engagement strand.
Its Engaging Science grants programme offers more than £3m a year to support projects that aim to inform and inspire the public about biomedical science and its social and historical contexts. Within this strand, funding is divided into six areas, with “arts”, “people” and “society” awards the most relevant to museums.
A recent example of a people award was the Wellcome’s support for last year’s Darwin Festival at the Manchester Museum.
On the arts side, UCL’s Museums and Collections received £30,000 in 2009 for a huge team of researchers to explore one item in its collection.
There are four deadlines a year for applications for grants of up to £30,000.
The next ones are 12 October for the people and society awards and 29 October for the arts awards. The arts awards include grants of more than £30,000 and there is a deadline early next year.
Simon Stephens
The trust, which gave £2.5m towards the gallery, has a range of funding programmes that support museums and galleries to explore biomedical science and the history of medicine.
The money for the Who Am I? gallery came from the Wellcome’s capital strand for large-scale construction or refurbishment projects that generally cost more than £200,000. But most of the museums and galleries that the trust funds will receive money from its public engagement strand.
Its Engaging Science grants programme offers more than £3m a year to support projects that aim to inform and inspire the public about biomedical science and its social and historical contexts. Within this strand, funding is divided into six areas, with “arts”, “people” and “society” awards the most relevant to museums.
A recent example of a people award was the Wellcome’s support for last year’s Darwin Festival at the Manchester Museum.
On the arts side, UCL’s Museums and Collections received £30,000 in 2009 for a huge team of researchers to explore one item in its collection.
There are four deadlines a year for applications for grants of up to £30,000.
The next ones are 12 October for the people and society awards and 29 October for the arts awards. The arts awards include grants of more than £30,000 and there is a deadline early next year.
Simon Stephens
