Edinburgh Science Foundation benefits from joined up funding approach

Foundation Scotland's coordinated approach to community benefit distribution plays an important role in maximising the impact of distributing community benefit across Scotland's rural communities. Through a linked-up approach, Foundation Scotland manages multiple community benefit funds simultaneously, enabling strategic cross-fund collaboration and the ability to maximise resources. This integrated approach ensures that educational initiatives can benefit from coordinated funding streams, reducing the administrative burden on applicants while maximising geographic reach and educational impact.

Community benefit funding can play an important role in addressing educational challenges faced by rural schools, for example in delivering specialist STEM experiences that would otherwise remain inaccessible due to geographical isolation and limited resources.

Rural primary schools often struggle to provide enriching educational opportunities beyond the core curriculum, as they can be constrained by distance from cultural and educational centres, high transport costs, and limited budgets for external programmes.

The strategic alignment of the Drone Hill and Langhope Rig Wind Farm funds through Foundation Scotland's administration, illustrates how linked-up approaches can address funding needs across broader geographic areas. Rather than operating in isolation, these funds work together under Foundation Scotland's coordination to support initiatives that serve multiple communities simultaneously. Their joint support for Edinburgh Science Foundation's ‘Generation Science’ programme highlights how community benefit funding can directly support these challenges. This targeted approach has ensured educational equity, enabling rural children to receive the same quality of STEM engagement as their urban counterparts, while supporting teachers with resources and training that extend the programme's impact.

Organisation Summary
Edinburgh Science Foundation Ltd (ESF) is a charitable company established in 1989. Its mission is 'to inspire, encourage and challenge people of all ages and backgrounds to explore and understand the world around them'. The organisation delivers hands-on activities, workshops and festivals nationally and internationally, with the Edinburgh Science Festival being its flagship event. ESF operates two major educational programmes: Generation Science, providing touring science workshops to children aged 5-11 years across Scotland's 32 local authorities, and Careers Hive, encouraging STEM career exploration for young people aged 11-14 years.

The Challenge
Primary schools across Scotland face challenges in delivering quality STEM education, particularly in rural areas. According to the Wellcome Trust, only 53% of UK primary schools met the recommended minimum of two hours of science teaching per week in 2020, highlighting systematic under-resourcing of STEM subjects. Research indicates that 44% of primary pupils perceive science as exclusive to individuals deemed clever’, potentially discouraging future engagement with science-related qualifications and careers.

Rural schools in the Drone Hill Fund area and Langhope Rig Fund area, face additional barriers to accessing STEM enrichment opportunities due to their remote location, limited transport links, and associated costs. These geographical disadvantages create educational inequalities, limiting pupils' exposure to inspiring, hands-on science experiences that could foster lifelong interest in STEM subjects.

Foundation Scotland's regional cross-fund coordination capabilities enable the identification of shared challenges across different community benefit fund areas and used a linked-up approach to show how community benefit funding can respond to genuine need, rather than operating reactively to individual applications.

Project Scope
To help alleviate these geographical barriers, ESF created their Generation Science programme, which set about delivering interactive touring science workshops directly to primary schools into both of the Fund areas in the first part of 2025. The project specifically targeted pupils aged 5-11 years across Cockburnspath & Cove, Coldingham, and Reston & Auchencrow primary schools in the Drone Hill Fund area and Yarrow, Lilliesleaf and Kirkhope Primary Schools in the Langhope Rig Fund area.

The programme employed trained Science Communicators to deliver theatre-style performances incorporating drama, music, live science experiments and demonstrations. Schools could choose from ten different workshops, each aligned with the Scottish Government's Curriculum for Excellence outcomes for scientific learning. Two specific workshops were delivered in the area: ‘Our Changing Climate’, introducing planetary climate systems through interactive experiments, and ‘Fizz, Boom, Ban’, focusing on chemistry concepts.

Funding Application
Edinburgh Science Foundation requested funding to contribute towards the overall project costs to deliver six Generation Science workshops to primary schools within the Drone Hill and Langhope Rig fund areas. The application to each fund covered delivery, staffing, travel, and equipment expenses. The funding request aimed to benefit over 250 pupils.

Panel Consideration & Award Decision 
Both of the decision-making Panels recognised the application's alignment with addressing educational inequalities in rural communities and supporting the delivery of under-resourced STEM subjects. They also noted ESF's established track record and integration with the Scottish Government's Curriculum for Excellence framework.

Panel members appreciated the application's emphasis on reaching rural schools and providing teachers with ongoing support resources through comprehensive follow-up materials was viewed favourably, and they agreed to award the full requested amount for both funding applications with a combined total of £3,930.

Outcomes and Impact
The Generation Science programme successfully reached 180 pupils across the six funded schools, with an additional 21 pupils benefiting from a school-funded supplementary workshop. Participating schools provided exceptional feedback, with teachers rating their experience as 10 (excellent) and confirming they would both recommend the programme to colleagues and rebook if funding permitted.

‘We are very grateful for the funding from Drone Hill Wind Farm Community Benefit Fund towards the delivery of Generation Science in your community.’

The coordinated delivery across both Fund areas demonstrated the effectiveness of Foundation Scotland's linked-up approach in achieving community benefit impact.  By enabling cross-fund collaboration, Foundation Scotland helped ESF deliver a more efficient and cost-effective programme, with shared travel costs and coordinated scheduling reducing overall project expenses while extending reach to additional schools.

The project helped pupils develop scientific inquiry skills and understanding of the material world through hands-on experimentation. Teachers received comprehensive resource packs enabling continued STEM learning using readily available materials, extending the project's impact beyond the initial visit.

The programme particularly benefited pupils with additional needs who responded well to the hands-on approach, improving accessibility of STEM topics and building self-confidence through practical learning. Rural educational inequalities were directly addressed by bringing high-quality STEM experiences directly to isolated school communities, eliminating travel barriers and associated costs.

Final Thoughts - Broader Implications
This case study demonstrates effective community-led decision-making in addressing rural educational disadvantage through targeted grant-making.

Foundation Scotland's linked-up approach to community benefit distribution represents a significant advancement in rural development funding, moving beyond traditional siloed fund management to create strategic partnerships that amplify impact across geographic boundaries. This coordinated approach enables community benefit funds to address shared challenges collectively, creating greater value for rural communities than individual funds could achieve independently.

Community benefit funding uniquely positions itself to understand and respond to local educational needs, making strategic investments that strengthen educational provision within specific geographic communities.

The success of this initiative demonstrates Foundation Scotland's linked-up approach as a replicable model for addressing rural challenges through coordinated community benefit distribution, offering a framework for future cross-fund collaborations that can maximise impact while maintaining community-led decision-making principles.

Read more about the Drone Hill Wind Farm Community Fund

Read more about the Langhope Rig Wind Farm Community Benefit Fund