The Wolfson Foundation has today announced £16 million in grants to over 80 projects.
The new awards stretch across the UK: from refurbishing science classrooms in Truro to widening public access to industrial heritage at John O’Groats Mill.
Sixty percent of the organisations funded in this round are receiving their first grant from Wolfson.
Our funding supports new builds, refurbishments and equipment for organisations working in a range of areas – with a strong emphasis on research and education – including science, heritage, humanities and the arts, health and disability.
Students in the science lab at Truro & Penwith College.
New plant research facilities at Durham University and Lancaster University aim to improve the resilience of crops. Grants of £1 million and £965,000 respectively will be used to set up controlled environment facilities to study how plants respond to different environmental conditions. In turn, this will help to develop solutions to improve food security in response to the climate crisis.
Our funding for education also extends to secondary level. In this round, we have awarded £1.5 million to 19 schools for facilities for performing arts, science, design technology and music. This includes supporting Ysgol Friars in Bangor, Gwynedd, to update two physics laboratories, enhancing the learning experience for A-level students.
We are also pleased to support cultural heritage projects across the UK, including museums, galleries, historic buildings and landscapes and libraries and archives. The Africa Centre in London will use their grant of £100,000 to create a new exhibition space. They will showcase stories of culture and heritage from their archive, celebrating the diversity of Africa and its diaspora.
An event at The Africa Centre.
And through our funding for organisations working with people with disabilities, we have awarded funding to Compass Advocacy Network (CAN) in Northern Ireland. CAN support children, young people and adults with learning disabilities, autism and mental ill-health. £100,000 will help to build a space for social enterprise and woodcraft activities at a farm near Ballymoney, creating work and training opportunities. CAN hope that their project will, in their words, ‘put down roots for the next generation, enabling us to grow as a community, in confidence, in opportunities (and in potatoes)!’