Copus Grants - About






The Copus Grant Schemes were originally set up in 1987 by the Committee on the Public Understanding of Science, and have been funded and administered by the Royal Society since their inception. At the time, there was no other grant scheme in the UK exclusivly for science communication activities. The schemes provided modest sums (up to £3,000 for Seed Grants) to encourage small-scale science communication activities. In 1994, the Schemes were extended to offer larger Development grants, and simultaneously gained the financial support of the Office of Science and Technology, DTI, who have supported the Schemes with significant funding since then. These Development Grants, offering sums of up to £20,000 per year for up to two years, continued until the Copus Grant Schemes 2002/3, where the National Science Week, Seed and Development Grants were replaced by Large Grants, for sums of up to £20,000, and Small Grants, for sums from £500 to £8,000. For the Copus Grant Schemes 2003/4, we revised the Schemes to focus on larger-scale projects. We secured twice the total grant funding than had previously been available (£750,000 compared with £385,000 for 2002/3) and offered grants from £5,000 upwards, with no fixed upper limit.