Whether you are new to outreach, or an experienced practitioner, we are here to support you to engage different audiences with the chemical sciences.
What is public engagement?
"Public engagement” is an umbrella term that describes the variety of ways organisations, teams and individuals seek to involve the public in their work. At the RSC, public engagement is defined as an activity that aims to do one or more of the following:
Inspire, involve and inform the public
Actively listen to the public’s views, concerns, and insights
Work in partnership with the public to solve problems, drawing on each other’s expertise.
We use the term outreach to define an activity that inspires young people, along with their families, when making their education and career choices.
Why do public engagement and outreach with the chemical sciences matter?
Public engagement and outreach can play a vital role in the chemical science ecosystem by:
- supporting a diverse chemical science community in the student body and the workforce, through schools and community participation and outreach
- improving policy development through public voice
- strengthening research and innovation through public participation
By bringing the chemical sciences closer to people’s lives and people’s lives closer to the chemical sciences, our public engagement and outreach work contributes to strategic priorities in education, voice and influence, inclusion and diversity and sustainability, and enables RSC members to achieve public engagement and outreach related goals.
Engaging with the public has really helped me to grow my confidence, including in seeking and processing feedback from my peers on how to approach different people and describe things in different ways.
"The experience has given me more self-assurance to undertake projects from the design stage to completion, both with a team and individually. I feel more able to give seminars, talk about my work to non-scientists, and go to poster sessions, and not just shy away. I have also met some lovely people who I will definitely stay in contact with!"
What do public engagement and outreach look like?
RSC members and grant holders engage with the public through several RSC funds and programmes. We work with members and partners to support best practice public engagement and outreach through training, funding, guidance and evidence.
Learn more about how the RSC community has been engaging the public
Discovery Planet CIC
Since 2014, Discovery Planet CIC (RSC Outreach Fund grant holders, 2024 RSC Inclusion and Diversity Prize winners) has been working to engage their community, in the heart of Thanet, with how chemistry is contributing to developing responses to global challenges, and routes into the chemical sciences. Over twenty years, Discovery Planet CIC has engaged over 25,000 people in an area containing multiple deprived neighbourhoods through workshops, events and exhibitions. They have employed innovative approaches to engaging special educational needs schools and unaccompanied child refugees.
Learn more in our Prizes and Outreach Fund pages.
RSC Analytical Science Community North East Region
In 2022, the RSC North East Region Analytical Community was awarded an RSC Outreach Fund grant to develop and deliver an event in collaboration with Alnwick Garden, “Poisons in the Garden”. They went on to win the RSC Inspirational Committee Award in 2023. Through the development of new and engaging resources (including videos, chromatography activities, story boards and a sensory lab), over 2,200 visitors were engaged over one weekend in July 2022. The story boards created during the project have an ongoing legacy and are being used as part of the Alnwick Garden Drugs Education Programme for young people.
Find out more about the RSC North East Region Analytical Community
ChemBAM
ChemBAM is an award-winning outreach project established in 2017 to increase the public’s confidence in discussing chemistry. The ChemBAM website is home to a whole range of free resources, experiments and interactive activities to support teachers and learners. In addition to the website, the ChemBAM team have delivered teacher CPD sessions, workshops in schools and created ChemBOXes. In 2023, ChemBAM was awarded the RSC Inclusion and Diversity Prize for their work in developing chemistry activity for people with visual impairments, learn more about this project here
If you would like to learn more about our community’s activity, see the case studies on our RSC Outreach Fund page and our Community News articles.
Are public engagement and outreach for me?
Our members get involved with public engagement for various reasons from enjoyment and a desire to inspire, to skills development (including communication, project management, grant writing and collaboration) and gaining new experiences.
Read why some of our members value public engagement
Through engaging with the public, I developed the ability to communicate complex chemistry topics to people with varying levels of scientific understanding.
"I also learned to be resourceful in overcoming last-minute challenges. As a recent graduate and early-career research chemist, this experience has been invaluable in supporting my professional development, boosting my confidence in sharing information with new people in an engaging way."
Being able to speak in front of large audiences and to interact with all ages and abilities also helps me improve my teaching skills, which are essential for my career as a university lecturer.
“Through my public engagement work, I have met dozens of scientists outside of my field, these people are fantastic sounding boards for new ideas I have in my research group – complementary skills make for great collaborations!”
Join us to get access to the content mentioned above and find out about other benefits of our memberships.
Financial support through our Outreach Fund
This fund is available members, non-members, individuals and organisations to enable you to run chemistry-based public and schools engagement activities. If you are looking for funding for an activity in the UK or Ireland (up to £10,000) see our Outreach Fund guidance and deadlines to find out more and see if your idea is eligible.
91AV Week 2025– 91AV Taking Action
10 - 16 November 2025
Join us to celebrate 91AV Taking Action during 91AV Week this November and showcase the chemical sciences and its professionals making a difference to people, communities and the world we live in.
You can apply to the Outreach Fund to support public engagement and outreach activity during 91AV Week 2025. Please note the closing date for applications is 6 June 2025.
You can share your public engagement and outreach activity on social media during 91AV Week using #91AVWeek.
If you want to get involved but are not sure where to start:
- Explore our
- See our careers resources
- RSC members can find public engagement training and resources on the
Not sure where to start?
If you are still not sure where to go from here, don’t worry! Get in touch with us using the details on this page, we would be happy to hear from you and help support you however we can.
What else is in public engagement and outreach?
Evidence
Explore our evidence-based reports relating to the engagement of non-scientific audiences with the chemical sciences.
STEM career guidance
All young people must get the highest quality career guidance. See our resources to support career talks in schools.
Find out about our enrichment activities and competitions and meet local education coordinators.
Public attitudes to chemistry
The first in-depth study on how the UK public thinks and feels about chemistry, chemists and chemicals.