EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

  Catalyst Science Discovery Centre is an Independent Discovery Centre and Museum offering a great range of Science lessons and interactive shows, along with 4 award winning galleries, to a wide audience from the North West and beyond.

  The Catalyst team aim to provide a stimulating and memorable visitor experience which is based on 3 key principles of being fun, relevant and tangible. Research has shown that these principles help to engage with the audience and really make a difference.

  The Catalyst mission is to:

—  To engage and excite the audience about Science and its importance on our lives.

—  To provide high quality and stimulating information to help impact on peoples lives, specifically in the areas of Science is all around us, Science based careers and Science and its impact on the environment.

—  To provide a unique and clearly defined Museum component focused on Chemistry and the History of the Chemical Industry and its impact in the locality.

  We believe that the work of Catalyst is vital to promoting the understanding of science in our population and provides an additional exciting route to the enjoyment of scientific discovery.

  We see our role as delivering sound scientific knowledge to our visitors, be they classes of young children or senior citizens, to allow them to evaluate the tabloid approach to science of "grey goo" and "Frankinstein foods" and consider its validity or indeed, hysteria.

  Revenue funding of Catalyst is subject to constant risk of the changing economic climate and the fortunes of our donors and sponsors with whom we work. Whilst the trustees seek constantly to find regional/national funding, this is constantly a challenge which takes up a disproportionate percentage of the management time.

  If we are to provide this essential service to deliver the "wow" of scientific discovery to a growing number of visitors, new and sustainable funds must be made available. Only with dependable funding will we be able to inspire the scientists and innovators of the future.

1.  BACKGROUND TO CATALYST SCIENCE DISCOVERY CENTRE

  Catalyst Science Discovery Centre is an Independent Discovery Centre and Museum offering a great range of Science lessons and interactive shows, along with 4 award winning galleries, to a wide audience from the North West and beyond.

  Catalyst Science Discovery Centre is operated by Halton Chemical Industry Museum Trust. The Centre is located in Widnes in Cheshire and is easily accessed from all major motorway networks giving great accessibility for the whole of the North West and surrounding regions.

  The Trust has been in operation some 25 years with Catalyst starting its life as the Museum of the Chemical Industry. Science Education specialising in Chemistry became an increasingly important part of the offer and the Trust extended the building come 15 years ago. This enabled Catalyst to offer a new Education department with a suite of Educational studios and supporting ante rooms. The philosophy of offering high quality Science Education and inspiration to take an interest in science for young people has continued and the Trust has again recently added three new facilities with the support of the NWRDA and Millennium ReDiscover.

  The Catalyst team aim to provide a stimulating and memorable visitor experience which is based on three key principles of being fun, relevant and tangible. Research has shown that these principles help to engage with the audience and really make a difference.

  The Catalyst mission is to:

—  To engage and excite the audience about Science and its importance on our lives.

—  To provide high quality and stimulating information to help impact on peoples lives, specifically in the areas of Science is all around us, Science based careers and Science and its impact on the environment.

—  To provide a unique and clearly defined Museum component focused on Chemistry and the History of the Chemical Industry and its impact in the locality.

  Catalyst opens its doors to some 30,000 visitors per annum. 65% of these visits originate from schools, who come to work on aspects of the curriculum which are either difficult to cover or are of a specialist nature. 80% of these visits are of Key stage 2 and 3 level. The remaining visits are made up of KS1, KS4 and special needs visitors.

  The remaining 35% visits are made from the general public who visit mainly at the weekend or in school holidays. Visitors from the general public usually consist of family of group's typically 1 or 2 parents/grandparents with children from 0-14 years.

  During school holidays, a range of additional activities is offered daily; typically these are interactive science shows and/or workshops in addition to make and take activities. Activities are varied from week to week in order to encourage families to make return visits.

  The Trust operates with a Board of Trustees, chaired by Dr Tony Bastock OBE. The board of trustees oversee the operation and management of the operation. Day to day operations are lead by CEO Julie Burgess-Wilson who has also been appointed to sit on the Board.

  Catalyst operates with just 12 staff, the majority of whom are part time employees. As you would expect, costs are kept to an absolute minimum with out detracting from the professional and high quality of the offer and the service level provided. Being a charitable trust with limited funds available, it is imperative the cost model is tightly managed to deliver the maximum possible at minimum cost.

  The teaching staff are lead by a highly qualified Education manager who having trained as a scientist, later went into teaching and then to be an educational advisor. The trust feels it is essential that the Educational standards are not only high, but are inspirational to all who participate, as encouraging people into science is the key raison d'etre.

2.  REVENUE FUNDING

  The Trust is entirely independent and is funded by a combination of Donations, Industry Sponsorship and self generated revenue income; however generation of sufficient funds is a constant challenge and takes up the majority of the director and trustees time.

  The main building is leased to Catalyst by Halton Borough Council on a peppercorn lease with ownership of the newer section of the building by the Trust.

  Revenue funding of Catalyst is subject to constant risk of the changing economic climate and the fortunes of our donors and sponsors with whom we work. Whilst the trustees seek constantly to find regional/national funding, this is constantly a challenge which takes up a disproportionate percentage of the management time.

3.  A TENUOUS FUTURE?

  The trust recognises that to deliver the vision well and to continue to inspire young people, the facilities must be state of the art and project an exciting, vibrant and modern image.

  In 2002-03 Catalyst worked with L&R consultants to establish a vision and feasibility plan for the future. This was developed with funding from the NWRDA. Whilst the vision proposed was recognised to be first class, there was a lack of funding to see the project through to completion.

  Following the lack of availability of funds to complete the vision, and hence low prospects for improvement, there was a time when closure of the facility was a very real option. In early 2005 falling visitor numbers and lack of investment saw Catalyst only days away from Closure. At the eleventh hour, funds were negotiated by the new Chair and Director to provide enough breathing space to redevelop the business plan with the view to attract inward investment.

  In July 2005, funding from Millennium ReDiscover was granted; the gave enough funding for part of the grand plan to be executed, providing the Alchemy Theatre, The Catalytic Discovery Lab and The World of Opportunities Careers corridor.

  The trust continues to seek funding to support completion of this plan.

  As indicated, Catalyst relies heavily on grant funding to make improvements to the fabric of the building and to be able to offer new and modern facilities.

4.  THE CATALYST COMPONENTS

Birth of an Industry

  A museum gallery, charting the development of the Chemical Industry, supported by a large and growing collection of artefacts and papers relevant to the Industry and locality.

  Catalyst plans to continue to enlarge the collection with a focus on the industry specifically and develop artefact handling sessions to engage the public and encourage relevance and develop interpretations for all.

Scientrific

  A deeply popular hands on gallery for all visitors, Scientrific offers individual exhibits which demonstrates Scientific principals and encourages visitors to discover and probe new concepts. We plan to redevelop this area to incorporate more contemporary interactive learning with ground breaking science at its core and to have clear themes focused on the Science of the world around us and its sustainability.

Observatory

  A unique rooftop Observatory gallery affords stunning views from the Welsh hills to the Pennines and is accessed by a wonderful scenic glass lift. The observatory provides a fantastic space for learning about the environment and for viewing Science and Engineering in the locality.

Education Centre

  This purpose built Education suite provides two teaching studios and one multifunctional room in addition to dedicated resource/cloakrooms. This space is used predominantly by schools but hosts the family science sessions in the school holiday periods.

A World of Opportunities—Championing Science Based careers

  A unique careers gallery featuring young scientists who give a valuable insight into their jobs and career prospects via DVD clips and interactive displays. 30+ young scientists profile their career, their path to success, providing advice for other young people.

  Young ambassadors tell it like it is and what you want you most want to know: Salary, the type of work involved, holidays, the good and the bad bits!

Alchemy Theatre

  The state of the art interactive Alchemy Theatre provides stunning 3D virtual tours, currently providing young scientists with a unique insight in to Chemical plants, Pharmaceutical development paths and recycling plants—completely unattainable by other means. A groundbreaking and unique concept in Education and public engagement combines interactive voting with a "live" tour of facilities impossible to visit and 3D imagery.

Catalytic Laboratory

  The exciting, state-of-the-art "Catalytic Discovery Lab" hosts a wide range of hands-on activities and experiments carefully designed to involve and inspire all. Catalyst actively encourages Pupils to participate in laboratory activities as soon as possible for example pupils of c. 8 years are invited to "Become a Scientist", where they learn how do conduct an experiment.

5.  SCIENCE EDUCATION

Key Stage 1

  Workshops are offered I the following areas:

—  An introduction to electricity in "Simple Circuits", a workshop specially designed to introduce the subject.

—  "The Science of our Senses" looks at taste, smell, touch and hearing in a challenge based hands on workshop.

—  "Fabulous Fabrics" teaches dyeing and screen printing with both natural and synthetic dyes.

—  "Soap Suds" looks at the materials needed to make soap, where they come from and completes with a hands on session making a bar of soap.

Key Stage 2

  A range of scheduled activities are offered throughout the year to complement the national curriculum. These range from "Investigating Science skills", Science Investigation Week, Light Crazy Changes—looking at heating, cooling, burning and mixing, Forces, Environment week and Habitats.

  "Math-a-Magic" is designed in SATS style and offers maths themed days, along with "The Big Revision Room", a further innovative session designed to support schools with challenging but fun maths revision.

  During National Science Week Catalyst offers a programme looking at materials—Solids, Liquids and Gases.

Key Stage 3

  Building on the foundations of the key stage 2 programme, a wide range of activities are pre planned into the calendar, again covering a side variety of interactive shows and hands on workshops. It is the aim of the team to keep children switched onto and excited by science, as take up of the subject is declining. This is done by offering lively and exciting shows such as "Partying Particles" a show designed to link the particle model with strange materials and by staging the "Catalyst Industry and Enterprise week" where industry and pupils get a chance to interact.

Key Stage 4

  Keeping the theme of exciting and inspiring pupils to aspire to science based qualifications and activities offer further complimentary workshops and shows.

Careers

  Working in tandem with the films provided in the World of Opportunities careers gallery and with agencies such as Cogent, the IChemE, RSC, Chemicals Northwest and Setnet, Catalyst champions Science based careers.

6.  VISION FOR CATALYST

  The Catalyst team believe passionately that inspiring young scientists is a vital service and need of the region, especially a region that has a heritage in science and innovation. Indeed it is projected that In the Cogent SSC report, there is a projected need for an additional 12,000 jobs in the Cogent skills sector alone in the North West, of which 33% are management level, requiring a science education/background.

  Not only has the region a need for more scientists in the future, currently industrialist constantly report that there is a serious lack of scientific graduates to fill current posts.

  Catalyst has a vital role to play in attracting young people to science and to help educate the public to the wonders of science and its importance on all our lives. We know that by inspiring people at a young age, there is a higher propensity to continue with an interest in Science and what possibilities Science has to offer in a chosen career.

  The trust believes passionately in widening access to science and breaking down some of the barriers, perceived or real, can only enhance peoples lives. It is vital to help provide a broad understanding of science, particularly in the days of ever increasing controversial science and the issues surrounding it.

  Catalyst has made a step change in the last three years to change form ailing science centre to a dynamic centre with a great future, but sadly that future is dependant on provision of adequate funding to able to continues its work.

  Accolades have been plentiful in the last year, with Lord Sainsbury commenting that the centre was a model for all science centres and of Catalyst "It makes such a difference if children, from the very youngest age, are able to see what chemistry can do, and how much it plays a vital part in our lives. These new facilities will encourage even more children to open their minds to what chemistry can do in the future and how it can enrich lives still further."

  HRH the Duke of Kent said: "I would just like to congratulate everybody who put this great project together. It seems to me a brilliant formula and it's doing enormously important work in encouraging children, particularly children but other people too, to be interested in science. It's very impressive, thank you all very much!"

  Judith Donovan CBE said: "It's over four years since I first came here. I didn't know this place existed—thought it was an absolute unsung hero, a hidden jewel. The only collection in the country with a history of our chemical industry and the vision to talk about chemical careers for youngsters going forwards".

  Kevin Burke, regional director of Setnet said: "Catalyst is a superb resource to support the aims of the After School Science & Engineering Clubs that have been selected for the pilot project."

  Mervin Dadd of Cogent—SSC said "We work in partnership with Catalyst to deliver enthusiasm and excitement in science based careers and feel this is an important part of our process to deliver our objectives. It is very clear that Catalyst having a winning formula and a talented team to deliver the vision which is so important in informing and inspiring every visitor about science".

  Diana Caldwell said: "The relationship we have with Catalyst holds so many exciting opportunities for Novelis. Recycling has never been presented in such an original way!"

7.  VITAL SUPPORT

  We believe that the work of Catalyst is vital to promoting the understanding of science in our population and provides an additional exciting route to the enjoyment of scientific discovery outside of school. We cater for all ages, all abilities and for special needs. Further, we believe that Catalyst can be a model for science discovery centres around the country.

  We do not expect to discover great scientists or provide the wider population with a thorough science education, but we do believe it is essential that enquiring minds are stimulated to consider the challenges of this increasingly technological world. Informing and educating the community, especially children, in science and science-based industries is vital to making sure that the public are equipped to make informed decisions about the safety, ethics and the desirability of new technology, such as nanomaterials, GM foods, biofuels etc. It is equally important that we all have at least the basic understanding of the challenges of climate change, sustainable development ozone depletion and other pressing problems. More people attracted to tertiary education in science appears to be spin-off from our work, but that is not our only objective.

  We also see our role as delivering sound scientific knowledge to our visitors, be they classes of young children or senior citizens, to allow them to evaluate the tabloid approach to science of "grey goo" and "Frankenstein foods" and consider its validity or indeed, hysteria.

  Committed teachers and helpers, often working as volunteers, even at weekends, funded by erratic and unpredictable revenue income deliver these programmes, at low cost and high efficiency. This is not sustainable, as it does not allow for the development of our programmes and the growth of our scientific influence. We cannot even be sure of survival, with funding on this basis.

  If we are to provide this essential service to deliver the "wow" of scientific discovery to a growing number of visitors, new and sustainable funds must be made available. Only with dependable funding will we be able to inspire the scientists and innovators of the future.

June 2007