Scottish Graduate School for Arts & Humanities

Host organisation: Scottish Government

Project title: Reviewing Scottish Government support to Scotland’s Science Festivals

Project description

Science festivals play a key role in towns and regions across Scotland in making science, innovation and creativity accessible to a wide public audience as well as inspiring young people. They support science learning, promote careers in STEM and help to inspire our next generation of scientists.

Following several years of support, we want to ensure that Scottish Government grant funding for science festivals (£220,000 per annum) remains fit for purpose in terms of meeting the government’s policy aims and objectives in relation to public science engagement and informal STEM learning.

The research intern will work with colleagues in the Office of the Chief Scientific Adviser for Scotland who lead on public science engagement. The project will involve collating and analysing grant monitoring reports from currently funded science festivals to determine how effectively they are meeting policy objectives. The project will provide an assessment of the current non-competitive funding model, identifying the pros and cons of this and examining other viable alternative models (e.g. an open, competitive fund).

The project will also involve a review of the current geographic spread of the current cohort of funded science festivals, identify regional gaps and, through desk-based research, identify opportunities to address those gaps, including whether there are other science festivals which are currently unknown to Scottish Government but which may warrant engagement and support.

Outputs

The deliverables will be a short internal report and presentation to colleagues in the Office of the Chief Scientific Adviser on the findings of the review and any proposed recommendations.

In person/remote/hybrid

Hybrid.

Benefits to the researcher

The researcher will gain an insight into working within government and develop an understanding of policy in relation to public science engagement and science learning. They will experience collaborative working with multiple internal teams across different policy roles, as well as a broad range of external stakeholders, partners and grantees who are delivering science festivals. This will develop communication skills as well as skills in presenting/communicating insights and findings from the review.

Key relationships

The primary relationships will be with internal stakeholders in Scottish Government including STEM Curriculum colleagues in Education and Culture policy colleagues who co-fund specific science festivals. There will also be opportunity to engage with the Chief Scientific Adviser for Scotland, Professor Calum Semple. External links include organisations, local authorities, universities and science centres who are delivering science festivals across Scotland. There is also the potential to connect with two other interns (yet to be confirmed) working on projects to develop cultural areas of research interest and examining the barriers to science centres accessing cultural funding.

Additional information - please read

All Scottish Government internships must last for 3 months FTE. Interns working in the Scottish Government will need to pass the Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS). This process takes around six weeks and must be completed before the intern can access Scottish Government systems. Part of this entails verifying that the intern meets the Civil Service Nationality Rules - see the Annex C flowchart to check eligibility for non-reserved posts. By applying for this internship, you are affirming that you have understood these requirements and expect to be able to pass BPSS.

Subject areas

This opportunity would be relevant to the following subject areas:

Museum and Gallery Studies; Museum Policy & Management; Cultural Geography; Heritage Management; Policy, Arts Management and Creative Industries; Information and Knowledge Management; Cultural History; History of Science/Medicine/Technology.

Person specification

A1. Knowledge Base

• Essential: Information Seeking.

A2. Cognitive Abilities

• Essential: Analysing; Critical thinking; Evaluating.

B1. Personal qualities

• Desirable: Enthusiasm; Self-confidence.

B2. Self management

• Essential: Preparation and prioritisation.

C2. Research management

• Desirable: Research Strategy; Project planning and delivery.

D1. Working with others

• Essential: Team working; Collaboration.

D3. Engagement & impact

• Desirable: Policy.

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First published: 28 September 2026