Nova wins Inspirational Partner Award from Imperial College London

It was the beginning of the pandemic, we were confined to our houses, parents were grappling with home schooling and entertaining their children 24/7.

We wanted to do something to keep the children engaged and stimulated. Meanwhile, Imperial college were looking for ways to utilise their resources thought the pandemic and put them to good use.

We put our brains together and piloted our “Ask A Scientist” programme — a series of sessions where children could connect with real Scientists and ask any questions they wanted. Last year over 200 children attended weekly sessions, meeting a range of experts, from astronauts to biochemists, and exploring diverse subjects, from dinosaurs to atoms and molecules. The sessions were fun and informative and started to be something children looked forward to each week, something to build into some sort of routine throughout lockdown.

From there, our partnership grew and grew… when lockdown was eased, we had sessions at their lab, The Invention Rooms; our staff were trained to be Youth Leader Science Champions and we are collaborating on the WellHome research project, exploring the impact of air pollution in our families’ homes.

The family programme wasn’t the only area we collaborated on, we worked together on our Reach Social Change work too. When the Black Lives Matter movement took off, we instigated a programme of Let’s Talk About Race conversations — a series of facilitated group conversations to support in becoming more comfortable to talk about Race. Looking at ways to implement actions, Imperial engaged with these sessions on both an individual and organisational level. During the height of Covid, the incredible Dr. Chris Jackson and Dr. Jess Wade also joined us for one of our TEDx Salon sessions, in which we discussed “What is the role of Science in a distrustful world?” You can see the full video recording below..

All of us at Imperial have really valued our engagement with Nova — you are such an impressive and deeply rooted local organisation, and we’re proud to have worked with you on a range of initiatives involving local families, including Ask Scientist and WellHome. We have also appreciated Nova involving members of the College community in other important local discussion and dialogue events and opportunities, for example Let’s talk about race.

We were awarded Imperial College’s 2022 President’s Awards for Excellence in Societal Engagement a couple of weeks ago. Mat, Head of our Children, Young People and Family programme attended to receive the award at the prestigious event.

It’s not often that small organisations get recognition for their tireless efforts supporting society. In reality, it’s organisations like Nova and the 1000s of others that are a lifeline — we’re incredibly proud to have been recognised by such a world class institution and are excited to keep creating more meaningful impact together.