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10 bursaries to attend this year's Little Event up for grabs! But get applying quickly because the deadline for applications is 18th December. 

Each bursary worth £100 covers an annual BIG membership, registration fees for the Little Event and £25 towards travel expenses.

The Little Event is for people who are relatively new to STEM communication, whether they work in a science centre or museum, volunteer for a festival, are involved in university outreach, or do anything else to engage people with sciences. It’s a lot like the BIG Event, but a bit smaller, and all crammed into one busy day. There will be several sessions, each focusing on developing a different skill, delivered by experienced science communicators following our usual hands-on approach.

But of course it isn’t just about the sessions, it’s the people you meet there too. The Little Event presents a great opportunity to meet people from across the UK working in similar roles and sharing similar experiences. The programme for the day will include sessions on Learning & evaluation, Interacting with the public, Managing your engagement project, Presenting and careers. 

If you wish to apply for one of the 10 free places, applying is simple.  Just email admin@big.uk.com by noon on Friday 18th December with the subject line "Bursary application Little Event" to tell us in no more than 200 words why you would like the opportunity to come to the Little Event and how you think it will benefit your personal and professional development. If you have already registered for the Event you can still apply for the bursary and we will refund your registration if you are successful.

Successful applicants will be notified by 23rd December by email.

For more information or to book click here 

Sarah Vining, Administrator

Wednesday 13th January 2016, 9.30am - 4.30pm

Thinktank, Birmingham

This one-day conference is for early-career STEM communicators who are keen to suck the knowledge and experience out of those who have been at it for ages. It is also an excellent opportunity to make professional and friendly relationships with others in similar work, or to update job-hunting skills for those hoping to take a next step in their careers.

The full programme is being finalised and will be announced in early December.

The price is £45 for BIG members. Non-members can join first for the annual fee of £30

Register (or find out more) here

How to train researchers event is now FULL

How to train researchers - BIG Skills Day - Tuesday 24th November - Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Find out more here.

Take a  look at the latest jobs posted:

CEO - Techniquest, Cardiff

Fundraising Manager - Techniquest, Cardiff

Head of Learning & Participation - National Media Museum, Bradford

Science Communicator (weekends only) - Glasgow Science Centre

To find out more, go to http://big.uk.com/jobs  

Andy is Chair in Science Communication & Future Media in the School of Environment & Life Sciences at University of Salford. Andy is renowned for his research into bioethics and emerging technologies and was recently a Google Glass explorer. Now developing virtual reality art installations and drone documentaries, Andy has published in such places as TIME, Wired, and regularly appears in the media, offering commentaries on new discoveries. His research has taken him to over 50 countries and spans such areas as genetics, nanotechnology, neuroscience, mobile health, wearable technologies, and digital innovations. He is particularly interested around the possibility of bringing creative digital media skills to the field of science communication and published one of the first articles to address the potential of digital media to create new kinds of public engagement with science possibilities. He is also part of the European City of Science steering group, set up to create a programme for Greater Manchester, as it hosts the European Science Forum in 2016.

“I am absolutely thrilled to be this year’s Josh award winner, not least because the BIG event happens in my home city of Norwich... I got into communicating science as a PhD student, trained myself on building websites and doing all I could to make academic discoveries reach more people and this work continues. I am passionate about open knowledge initiatives and believe firmly that there is no expertise that can’t be cultivated by anyone. I am really excited about the trend towards citizen science and in my own production of science communication programmes, I want to enable more people to find a way into nurturing their own scientific expertise. Programmes like the maker movement, FameLab, and hackathons do so much to make science and technology meaningful to people again, in a world where it can become even more difficult to grasp. Having worked in Manchester now for just 8 months, I’ve been amazed by the spirit of collaboration in the city and region, and the ambition of the people around here.”

“Over the last year, I’ve been working a lot with drones, experimenting with their creative possibilities, working with scientists to explore their potential as data capture tools. It’s an area that is completely exploding now and I’m not sure the world is ready for it. I’ve always been attracted to that kind of problem. Whether it’s genetic modification, stem cell technology, or wearable devices, what interests me is the ethical dilemmas they create and what they say about our future. Science communication through ethical debate has been a hallmark of my work and I’d love to foreground this during my year as Josh Award winner.”  

Many BIG members are freelance show presenters, workshop providers, exhibit developers and builders, trainers, coaches, evaluators, project managers, facilitators, consultants.

Whatever we call ourselves, freelancers are the people who generally get paid on a daily or sessional rate. We are working on adding new pages to the site to support freelancers.

See what we've done so far - click here

BIG is offering 3-4 bursary places to attend the BIG Event 2015, taking place in Norwich between 22-24 July.

The bursary covers conference registration fees and gives limited travel and accommodation support. This is open to BIG members who are in the first five years of their professional career and have not attended a previous BIG Event.

To apply for a conference place through the bursary, please download the form and guidelines here BIG Event 2015.

Deadline for application: 5pm on Wednesday 29th April 2015. Late applications will not be considered.

Submission of a review article of around 200 words for BIG’s enewsletter related to your conference attendance is a requirement of the bursary scheme and expenses will be issued on receipt of the article. We also hope you will be willing to give a hand at the conference where required; this gives you a great opportunity to create links with other delegates.

Early Bird registration for the BIG Event 2015 – with £50 off the standard conference fee – closes on 5 April 2015. Of course, you can still register for the BIG Event right up to the week before, but why not save some pennies by planning ahead? To view the latest draft of the programme, find out more and register, click here

Registration is now open to join more than 150 STEM engagement professionals at the BIG Event 22-24 July 2015 at the John Innes Centre in Norwich.

Find out more and register here