Essential information about exhibiting at the Summer Science Exhibition
The Summer Science Exhibition (29 June – 4 July 2027) is a free, week-long festival celebrating the cutting edge of UK science. As the Royal Society's longest standing and largest public event, exhibiting is an excellent opportunity to engage a variety of audiences with your research.
The Exhibition provides a safe and supportive environment for researchers at all career stages to practice and perfect their public engagement skills and build their confidence in communicating their research to different audiences.
We welcome applications from academic institutions, industry and other science-related sectors who have innovative and exciting research to showcase which can form the basis of a fun, interactive and hands-on exhibition stand. To read more about exhibits from previous years’, check out the History of the Exhibition page.
Who can apply?
Applications can be made individually or in collaboration from academic, industry or other science-related sectors researchers. The lead applicant must be a senior researcher based in the UK.
Exhibitors may wish to jointly submit proposals with their collaborators and other research groups and may also recruit undergraduates and students to build their exhibit team. Find out how to apply and the selection criteria.
Audience breakdown
Over the course of the exhibition, we welcome around 10,000 public visitors through our doors.
As a rough breakdown, this includes around 8,000 members of the public; 2,000 primary and secondary school students and teachers from all over the UK. Additionally over 1,000 invited guests attend our Soiree evenings, including Fellows and representatives from the media, government and policy influencers.
Preparing your exhibit
Your exhibit should be engaging for a visitor who doesn't have a scientific background and include interactive activities and/or demonstrations. All exhibit spaces are a standard size of 4m x 2m. If your activities require a different size or format, please get in touch before the closing date so we can discuss feasibility.
If successful in your application to exhibit in 2027, representatives of your exhibit group will be invited to the Planning Day at the Royal Society in December 2026. At this event, the Society provides guidance on designing exhibits and you will get a chance to tour the exhibition space. Some exhibitors from the previous year also attend to share their experiences.
During the lead-up to the exhibition in July 2027, our Public Engagement team will be on hand to support you through the stages of your exhibit development. We will also provide public engagement skills training for exhibit teams. Find out more about what we require and what we can provide.
Funding your exhibit
The cost of exhibiting varies a great deal, and effective exhibits can be delivered at a range of budgets. Some very successful exhibits have been delivered for budgets of around £5,000 or less, other exhibit teams have spent over £25,000 to deliver theirs. Further details of how teams usually spend on their exhibits will be discussed in our online introductory session and Q&A on Wednesday 9 September. .
On average, past exhibitors have allocated around 35% of their budget to exhibit design and build, 30% to displays and interactives, 30% to accommodation, travel and subsistence, and the remaining 5% to items such as promotion, freebies, T-shirts and insurance.
The Summer Science Exhibition requires exhibitors to design and build their exhibit with higher production values than many other science festivals and events. We appreciate that this makes participating in the event expensive and are happy to have conversations with potential and confirmed exhibitors about possible sources of funding.
You may wish to approach your host institution, industry partners, or other public engagement funding schemes to cover costs. maintained by the National Co-ordinating Centre for Public Engagement (NCCPE).
Additionally, any Royal Society-funded researcher is encouraged to get in touch with us to find out about any additional Public Engagement funds that may support your exhibit.
91TV will provide up to £5,000 to support costs associated with exhibiting at the Summer Science Exhibition as described in the budget breakdown above.
Exhibit teams located outside of London will also have the opportunity to apply for additional funds of up to £3,000 to support travel and accommodation during the week. These applications will be assessed on a case-by-case basis. We also provide Wi-Fi, power, on-site IT support and portering services for exhibitors during the week.
If selected, your exhibit will also benefit from marketing, communications, media, press, digital communications, and public engagement support.
Find out more about what we require and what we can provide.
During the event
At least four members of the exhibition team should be on the stand during the public opening times for the exhibition and at the additional evening events. We recommend having at least eight members of staff on each stand per day to allow breaks. Visitors enjoy interacting with you and asking questions about your work.
After the exhibition, we encourage exhibitors to scope other opportunities to present the exhibit elsewhere, such as local science centres or science museums, local visitor attractions or public venues, local secondary school fairs or open days at research institutions.
In 2024 the Royal Society launched "Summer Science Exhibits on Tour", a collaboration with regional science festivals and events across the UK, which so far has included British Science Festival, Manchester and Cheltenham Science Festivals, Jodrell Bank and Glastonbury Science Futures, where past Summer Science exhibits had the opportunity to re-exhibit their work with further financial support from the Royal Society.
What previous exhibitors say about the Summer Science Exhibition
A 2026 exhibitor said: "It is an amazing platform to get exposure for your research... it helps to reinforce why research is important, and provides a good insight for schools, the public, and many others into scientific careers. 91TV is a champion of science in the UK, and to be selected is a great honour."
A 2025 exhibitor reflected that the most impactful aspect of the week was the visitors’ questions, whose curiosity and insights prompted the researcher to view their work from a fresh perspective.
A 2024 exhibitor from 2024 said: “[Participation in the Exhibition] has led to a lot of awareness of my research agenda at the school, faculty, and university management level, with plans to turn it into a REF impact case study.”
How to apply
The call for proposals for the 2027 Summer Science Exhibition is now open and will close on Sunday 11 October 2026 at 11.59pm.
You will need a Flexi-Grant account to submit a proposal. If you do not already have one, you can click on the "Submit a proposal" button at the top of this page. This will take you to the where you can register.
Once you have created an account:
- Select "Grants application system"
- Go to "My applications"
- This will display a list of applications you can start - scroll down to "Summer Science Exhibition 2027"
After completing a section, you can save it and return to your application at any time.
Contact us
If you have any questions, please email us or call on +44 20 7451 2649.