Call for proposals: 2016 Creative Workshops

The Francis Crick Institute is a world class centre for biomedical research that will be opening soon the in King's Cross area of London. It is a partnership between Cancer Research UK, the Medical Research Council, the Wellcome Trust, University College London (UCL), King's College London and Imperial College London.

The Crick will have a regular programme of exhibitions, which will be open to the public and held in the Manby Gallery within our new building. Our first pilot exhibition, titled How do we look?, will examine ways in which scientists visualise their research, from microscopy techniques to computer aided design, and will showcase some of the cutting-edge research currently being undertaken by Crick scientists. It will feature 10 images and films generated by Crick researchers.

To coincide with How do we look?, the Crick's Public Engagement team is looking to deliver a programme of engaging and creative workshops for local community and public audiences. It is envisaged the workshops will take inspiration from the exhibition, by relating to imaging tools used in biomedical research and highlighting the importance of creativity in scientific discovery. They will thereby engage audiences with at least one aspect of the exhibition, bring the community together, and draw links between creativity, art and science.

We invite proposals from companies or individuals to develop and deliver the following:

• An arts-based workshop that links to How do we look?and can be delivered to local community, family and adult groups. Participants should be able to create tangible objects, which can be taken home or incorporated into a collaborative piece for display.

Timeframe:

• A maximum of 10 workshops will be delivered between November 2016 and January 2017.
• Community groups will be recruited in September, and public workshops will be open for booking one month in advance.
• Each workshop should last no longer than 90 minutes.

Participants:

• The workshop should be easily adaptable for community, family and adult-only audiences.
• The Crick will be responsible for recruiting our target community groups.
• The workshops will be delivered in the public spaces within the institute and in community centres within one mile of the Crick, in the King's Cross and Euston area.

Further guidelines:

• The workshop should be delivered by the applicant, although the Crick is able to provide some support. For example we can provide volunteer scientists to help with the delivery and advise on the scientific content. However the workshop should not rely on volunteers to function.
• Applicants are welcome to submit proposals for new workshop ideas, or for workshops that have been run in the past. If the latter is the case, please include in your application any outputs from previous projects such as photographs or evaluative findings.

Budget:

• A fee of up to £3000 is available for the successful applicant to cover development time, materials, travel costs and delivery of the workshops.

Please provide in your application:

• A description of the workshop
• The scientific content to be explored
• Ideas for evaluation of the workshop
• A detailed budget. Please include your costs per workshop, based on travelling to the Crick and community groups in Euston and Kings Cross, and delivering the workshop 10 times to groups of up to 20.

The deadline for proposals is 5pm Wednesday 7 September 2016.

Shortlisted applicants will be invited to an informal interview at the institute during the week commencing 12 September 2016.

For further information or to submit a proposal, please contact Esther Osarfo-Mensah at the Francis Crick Institute: esther.osarfo-mensah@crick.ac.uk.