## **EXETER SCIENCE CENTRE** **ANNUAL REPORT AND ACCOUNTS FOR THE PERIOD ENDED 26TH APRIL 2022** **CHARITY NUMBER: 1194239** **EXETER SCIENCE CENTRE ANNUAL REPORT AND FINANCIAL STATEMENTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 26TH APRIL 2022** ## **CONTENTS** |**TRUSTEES’ REPORT**|**3**| |---|---| |**INDEPENDENT EXAMINER’S REPORT**|**18**| |**STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL ACTIVITIES**|**19**| |**BALANCE SHEET**|**20**| |**NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS**|**21**| 2 **EXETER SCIENCE CENTRE TRUSTEES’ REPORT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 26TH APRIL 2022** ## **INTRODUCTION** Exeter Science Centre is a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO) dedicated to public engagement with STEAMM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Mathematics and Medicine). The Trustees are pleased to present their annual report, together with the consolidated financial statements of the charity, for the first year of the charity from 27th April 2021 to 26th April 2022. ## **ADMINISTRATIVE DETAILS** ## **Charity name:** Exeter Science Centre ## **Registered Charity Number:** 1194239 ## **Charity’s Registered Office Address:** Exeter Science Centre Kaleider Studios 45 Preston Street Exeter EX1 1DF |**Trustee name**|**Role**|**Dates acted if not for whole year**| |---|---|---| |Prof. Justin Dillon|Chair|| |Dr Sarah Usher||| |David Solomides||| |Dr Celia Oxlade||| |Prof. Pete Vukusic||| |Olga Petrakova-Brown||| |Charles Young||| |Stephanie Amil|Treasurer|11/5/21 to 6/2/22| 3 **EXETER SCIENCE CENTRE TRUSTEES’ REPORT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 26TH APRIL 2022** ## **STRUCTURE, GOVERNANCE AND MANAGEMENT** Exeter Science Centre is a Charitable Incorporated Organisation with a CIO Foundation Model Constitution. It is managed on a day-to-day basis by the two founders and directors, Dr Natalie Whitehead (1 FTE) and Dr Alice Mills (0.6 FTE), and overseen by the board of trustees. We transitioned from a CIC to CIO in April 2021 (having been a CIC from February 2020 to April 2021). ## **Appointment of trustees** The current trustees were the founding trustees of the charity. The charity governing document sets out that there must be a minimum of three trustees and a maximum of 12. Apart from the first charity trustees (the founding trustees), every trustee must be appointed for a term of three years by a resolution passed at a properly convened meeting of the charity trustees. In selecting individuals for appointment as charity trustees, the charity trustees must have regard to the skills, knowledge and experience needed for the effective administration of the CIO. For the appointment of future trustees, roles will be widely advertised. Candidate applications will be reviewed by the directors and by the existing trustees and new trustees will be selected by election to the post. We are currently advertising for a new trustee with an accounting background to take on the role of treasurer. ## **CHAIR’S AND DIRECTORS’ INTRODUCTION** Exeter Science Centre has had a highly successful first year as a charity, providing engaging educational events, activities and resources for a broad audience across the South West and beyond, both virtually and in person. These innovative projects have demonstrated how we intend to develop the future science centre – reaching all ages and backgrounds, and finding new ways to engage underserved 4 **EXETER SCIENCE CENTRE TRUSTEES’ REPORT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 26TH APRIL 2022** communities – and we intend to develop and grow our project work in future years to have an even greater impact. The organisation has also demonstrated good financial stability and grown strong relationships with partner organisations and networks. In the next year, we aim to grow our partners & supporters and establish the principal partners for creating the physical science centre building, whilst fundraising towards this aim. In terms of governance, the charity aims to recruit new trustees and employees in the coming months to grow their capabilities and impact. We are hugely grateful to our volunteers for their time and dedication in helping us over the past year, and our partners & supporters for their support, advice and opportunities. We look forward to doing more great things with you in the coming year! _Prof. Justin Dillon Dr Natalie Whitehead, Dr Alice Mills_ Chair Directors ## **OBJECTIVES AND ACTIVITIES** Our mission is to educate, motivate and empower the public to make a difference in the world. Our vision is an exemplary STEAMM Discovery Centre in Exeter for the educational, social and cultural benefit of the city and the whole of the South West region. ## **CHARITABLE PURPOSES** Our main charitable purposes (as described in our CIO governing document) are: To advance the education of the public, particularly in the South West of England in Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, Mathematics and Medicine (STEAMM), in particular but not exclusively by: - providing interactive activities, events and information media; - establishing, developing and maintaining a physical STEAMM Discovery Centre (‘Science Centre’) for public benefit; 5 **EXETER SCIENCE CENTRE TRUSTEES’ REPORT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 26TH APRIL 2022** - developing the public understanding of and engagement with STEAMM; - developing public access to current scientific and technological advancements particularly in the South West of England. ## **PUBLIC BENEFIT** The Trustees confirm that the objectives and activities for the year have been developed with due regard to the guidance issued by the Charity Commission on public benefit. ## **BENEFICIARIES** Our beneficiaries are people of all ages and backgrounds, particularly in the South West of the UK. We work with schools, the general public, and specific communities of people depending on the projects that we are working on. For project work where we have limited resources and thus have to limit the direct beneficiaries, we aim to prioritise those from underserved and disadvantaged communities. When identifying underserved or disadvantaged communities, we prioritise those with less access to STEAMM-related opportunities and in locations that rank highly on the Indices of Multiple Deprivation (IMD, typically within the top 20% most deprived regions in the UK, deciles 1-2). When working with schools, we prioritise those with more than 30% of pupils entitled to free school meals, or with a postcode ranking highly on the IMD. Where possible, we try to make our work publicly accessible, to increase our reach and impact. This involves making public-friendly YouTube summaries of our activities, making our project resources freely accessible on our website and sharing our work via social media. ## **FUNDRAISING** We do not yet have a dedicated fundraiser and the directors have spent some of their time applying for grants and carrying out fundraising activity, which is estimated in the accounts. We are hugely grateful to The Steel Charitable Trust for supporting our core costs, and academic staff at the University of Exeter, The Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC), The Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE), The Institution of 6 **EXETER SCIENCE CENTRE TRUSTEES’ REPORT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 26TH APRIL 2022** Engineering and Technology (IET), The Association for Science and Discovery Centres (ASDC) and The Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) for enabling us to deliver exciting engagement projects that benefit schools and the public and help to fulfil our charitable aims. We are also very grateful for donations from members of the public, which have contributed to our core costs and supported our development as an organisation. ## **ACTIVITIES** This year we have developed and delivered a series of virtual and in person activities, both with schools and the public. ## **Public Engagement Programmes:** We have collaborated with three academic researchers at the University of Exeter to develop programmes to better connect schools and the public with their research. This has provided an income (which is paid to us from their academic grants), whilst also working towards our charitable purposes. ## _Dr Yulei Wu: 5G network design_ We endeavour to provide trustworthy information sources to the public, in particular around themes for which there is significant mis and dis-information, such as the 5G network. In this project, we produced online resources that discussed the basic science of 5G, but also explored the research being carried out locally into using AI to improve the 5G network. The project outputs include a webpage for the research team, infographics, simplified paper summaries and YouTube videos to make the research understandable at every level, which can all be accessed here: https://wu-lab.exeter.ac.uk/. Note that this project commenced whilst we were a Community Interest Company (CIC), and we spent the originally-costed time on this project fully as a CIC. However, more time than originally predicted was required to complete the project work, so this was spent as an in-kind time contribution in this financial year, as a charity. The resulting resources have been helpful in gaining views and subscribers to our YouTube channel, and the additional time has enabled us to develop our skills in 7 **EXETER SCIENCE CENTRE TRUSTEES’ REPORT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 26TH APRIL 2022** video editing, website and infographic design, which we can now deliver as part of our charitable work. ## _Prof. Francesca Palombo: Imaging techniques to improve early detection of oesophageal cancer_ Through our work we strive to highlight the importance of multidisciplinary teams in solving global issues. This project is an excellent demonstration of this: bringing together experts in the fields of chemistry, physics, biology and medicine to establish better cancer detection methods. For this project so far, we developed a series of demonstrations to support the researchers in describing their work, and designed and delivered a hands-on workshop entitled “Poking cells with light”, for schools and the general public. This was principally aimed at KS4-5 students, and has been delivered to 130 students at four schools across Devon and Cornwall, along with 60 members of the public at the Festival of Physics event in November 2021. At the end of this financial year, this project is still ongoing. Next year, we will be making the resources into a downloadable resource pack for our website, and working with Cancer Research UK (CRUK) to help share this research with their supporters. This will involve a small in-kind time contribution, but we are keen to support the important work of this research team and CRUK, and this will also be useful in building the free-to-access resource we can offer to schools. _“The host was incredibly friendly and the activities were engaging. I learned a lot from this workshop and have been further inspired to work in the field of medicine and cancer research”. -Year 10 student_ _“Students were able to gain an understanding of a really complex topic and how it has the potential to improve cancer treatment”. -Teacher_ ## _Prof. Ben Temperton: Citizen Phage Library_ This research aims to tackle the global issue of antimicrobial resistance by searching for alternatives to antibiotics, in the form of bacteriophage; viruses which attack bacteria. This project directly involves the public through Citizen Science, and our role has been to educate the public on the science and recruit and work with citizen scientists. 8 **EXETER SCIENCE CENTRE TRUSTEES’ REPORT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 26TH APRIL 2022** For this project we have developed hands-on demonstrations; produced videos about the research team (ongoing), the research (ongoing) and how to take part in the citizen science project; created a webpage (https://exetersciencecentre.org/resources/phage-therapy-citizen-science/) to explain the science behind phages and phage therapy at an accessible level; produced a programme for schools to take part in the research, involving workshops in four schools across Plymouth, Devon and Somerset for 170 students between the ages of 10 and 16. We are currently awaiting the final results of the sample analysis but many students have already discovered previously undiscovered phages, which they will get to name and which will become part of the Citizen Phage Library stored at the University of Exeter for use in clinical trials and potential treatment of patients. The next phase of this project engages community groups across Devon in phage hunting. We are determined to ensure that this project gains the participation, awareness and further funding that it deserves, with its huge potential to save lives now and in the future. As such, we will be contributing as much in-kind time to this project as we reasonably can in the following financial year. ## **Projects:** ## ESC Live: Virtual out of the classroom events connecting school children with engineers This project is funded by the IET/IMechE Engineering Education Grant Scheme (EEGS). We believe it is crucial to build public understanding of where our energy comes from and where our waste goes, and highlight the exciting and impactful career opportunities in engineering. Many facilities do not allow school group visits, and field trips have been particularly difficult for schools during the COVID pandemic. We therefore wanted to provide a window into these facilities direct from the classrooms and give the opportunity for students to see engineers in action and ask them questions live, whilst providing a lasting educational resource for others to access in future. As part of this project, we live-stream into schools from renewable energy engineering and waste processing facilities across Devon, Somerset and Cornwall. We were awarded the funding in January 2021 (as a CIC) and have carried out five out of nine planned events (including a pilot event) between March 2021 and April 2022 with the remaining four events planned for May to July 2022. Including the pilot event in March 2021, we have so far engaged 1340 students from 10 schools and 14 9 **EXETER SCIENCE CENTRE TRUSTEES’ REPORT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 26TH APRIL 2022** engineers from research and industry. The live event videos were edited into a 3-minute summary version for social media and an edited full version to be part of a package of free downloadable teaching materials on our website: ## https://exetersciencecentre.org/resources/learning/esc-live-resources/. _“I learned that an engineer isn't just someone who fixes things, there are many other definitions.” -Year 5 student, Creacombe Solar Farm event._ _“The fact that you guys answered the children’s questions live (and followed up the ones that were missed) really drew the children in and made them enjoy it more. It was great for them to find out about renewable energy in their local area.” -Teacher, Creacombe Solar Farm event._ _“The session was extremely well planned and very professionally delivered. The supporting resources were useful and well aimed.” -Teacher, Fullabrook Wind Farm event._ _“Really good live! Explained lots. Learned lots of things today!” -Year 9 student, Totnes Weir event._ ## - - Exeter Science Centre: Breaking the Ice. Climate themed pop up exhibition Our first pop-up exhibition was funded by a Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) Spark Award and was a great success, taking place over two long weekends between the 11th and 21st March 2022. The theme of the pop-up was climate modelling, highlighting the research of local scientists working to better understand the climate on Earth and other planets. We used this as a way to emphasise how habitable our own Planet Earth is, and how we need to better protect it. We collaborated with scientists from the University of Exeter and the Met Office, local artists and with Space Youth Services in developing the content for the exhibition. We also had over 30 volunteers (nearly all local scientists – academics and students) who contributed their time as ‘mediators’ for the public to talk to throughout the exhibition, which was very well-received. We see this as an important way to build trust in science and scientists, to make science seem less intimidating, and to give people a meaningful and memorable experience in the exhibition, and this will be an important component of the future science centre building. We had originally planned for the exhibition to take place in Summer 2021 but due to a peak in COVID-19 cases we re-scheduled it to Spring 2022. Due to COVID-19 we 10 **EXETER SCIENCE CENTRE TRUSTEES’ REPORT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 26TH APRIL 2022** decided to have bookable morning and afternoon slots for visitors, whilst allowing walk-ins, but still had over 1,250 visitors and were fully booked for most of the days. Most of the visitors were young families but we also had a lot of people visiting on their own or in small teenage/adult groups. _“Brilliant exhibition, great for adults and children alike. Let's hope you can get a permanent home!”_ _“Great exhibition which I hope proves the desire and need for something more permanent that showcases science in Exeter.”_ _“Amazing how the exhibits appealed to all ages!”_ _“I will take away from this how little I knew, and could learn from this, as well as how engaged my children were. That science can be so fun! And the children aren’t scared to investigate.”_ _“I was so impressed with the time, energy and patience of the experts (with my 11 year old home educated daughter) and the thoughtful and dedicated organisation it must have taken to develop such a coherent exhibit within such a limited space.”_ _-Feedback from public visitors via “Ideas Tree” leaves and feedback forms._ Before the pop-up we asked a few questions to people when they booked their tickets, including whether they knew that Exeter is widely recognised as a global centre for climate science research and more than 50% of people asked were not aware of this. After the event, 92% of people felt more connected to scientists, 70% of people felt more motivated to make small positive changes in their own lifestyle for the benefit of the planet, 77% of people said they had learnt more about climate science and 84% of people said they had learned more about exoplanet science. Images, resources, and a 360-degree virtual tour of the event are all available on our website: https://exetersciencecentre.org/events/climate-pop-up/, and we now have kit which we have continued to use for pop-up events and smaller workshops in schools. ## Links to a Life In October 2021, Dr Mills (director) was invited to be the science lead for the ‘Links to a Life: Henrietta Leavitt day’, which involved advising on the scientific content and designing and delivering the science workshops. Links to Life is a creative learning collective with science enrichment at its core. This project brought together teachers, a playwright, actors and scientists to explore the 11 **EXETER SCIENCE CENTRE TRUSTEES’ REPORT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 26TH APRIL 2022** life and work of Henrietta Leavitt. The team developed a play and accompanying science workshops to tour around 5 schools (150 students in Years 9-11) in the South West. Over the course of a day, students practised GCSE Maths skills, carried out some of the calculations that Leavitt did more than 100 years ago, watched the biographical play and met inspiring visiting female STEM professionals. ## Low Carbon Devon Internship During October-December 2021, we took part in the Low Carbon Devon internship scheme, run by the Sustainable Earth Institute at the University of Plymouth. This scheme funded a recently-graduated Masters student to be employed by us for a total of 55 days across the 3 month period. The intern’s project was entitled “The environmentally-considerate design of the Exeter Science Centre”, and involved investigating and making suggestions on low-carbon and environmentally-considerate construction techniques, materials and technologies for the future building. Dr Whitehead (director) oversaw this work, drawing on her previous experience as a building services engineer. The resultant report is a useful starting point for our feasibility study, and we hope to work with a student and engineering consultancy in future to finish this work and provide it on our website as a source of inspiration for others. ## **Other events:** We have delivered a number of unpaid events this year as part of our charitable activities, which help to connect more people with our project work and our charity generally: - Sidmouth Science Festival, October 2021: As part of the Super Science Saturday we had a stand about the plans for the science centre, a stand about what the scientific process is and a stand about the citizen science project that we are supporting: the Citizen Phage Library. - Institute of Physics Festival of Physics, November 2021: a stand about the plans for the science centre, gathering opinions and ideas from the public as well as delivering workshops based around our public engagement project with Prof. Francesca Palombo, focussing on new methods for detecting cancers. - Presentation at the virtual ASDC conference in September 2021 on our plans for Exeter Science Centre. 12 **EXETER SCIENCE CENTRE TRUSTEES’ REPORT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 26TH APRIL 2022** - February 2022: a workshop on light for 25 Year 3 pupils at Bishops Tawton Primary School, North Devon. - COVID-19 Science: Schools’ Questions: We produced YouTube videos answering questions about COVID-19 asked by children from local schools. ## **UPCOMING PROJECTS / ACTIVITIES** In the coming year we will be applying for funding to run more projects focused on important global challenge areas, as well as developing our work with underserved communities. Our upcoming projects so far include: - Completing the ESC Live project and our existing Public Engagement Programmes. - Public engagement programmes with: - Dr Stephen Thomson, “Isca Climate Modelling”: engaging Key Stage 3 and 4 students with the research team’s climate model ‘Isca’; - Dr Jude Meakin, “Image-driven, subject-specific spine modelling”: working with schools and the public to improve understanding of the importance of spine health, and how new multidisciplinary research is developing a patient-specific tool to model the spine. - Operation Earth: In early 2022 we were granted £3000 of funding from the UK Association for Science and Discovery Centres (ASDC) and Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) to be part of the Operation Earth programme. This funding will enable us to purchase all the kit necessary to deliver the programme, which involves a family show and interactive activities centred around environmental science. The programme particularly looks at the themes of climate change, biodiversity, ocean acidification, air pollution and marine plastic pollution. We are now seeking funding to deliver this in schools and community venues. ## **Growing the organisation** We have used our “Tree of Ideas” and chalkboard tablecloth at various events as a means of collecting the opinions, ideas and perspectives of the people that we interact with. This is part of our public consultation and the comments feed into our business plan. 13 **EXETER SCIENCE CENTRE TRUSTEES’ REPORT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 26TH APRIL 2022** The words “interactive”, “participation”, “hands-on”, “sustainable”, “sensory”, “play”, and “accessible for all” feature strongly in comments – all themes that are core to our ethos. Next year, we aim to increase our public consultation work significantly, especially in appointing a Community Lead to work directly with underserved communities in the region, exploring what these communities need from our organisation and how our work can enhance their lives. Much of the directors’ time has been spent on public and schools engagement project work over the last year, and this has demonstrated our ideas and abilities in delivering innovative projects for a broad range of beneficiaries. In the next year, the directors intend to focus on fundraising to grow our team to continue running projects, developing the organisation and its policies and procedures, and fundraising and planning for the physical building. ## **SUMMARY OF ACHIEVEMENTS AND PERFORMANCE** Although our team is small, with the majority of the day-to-day running of the charity (including the development and delivery of activities) being undertaken by the two paid directors, Exeter Science Centre has established itself this year as an ambitious, competent and trusted educational charity. We have helped to improve both access to and understanding of STEAMM research and industry in the South West, for hundreds of school children and members of the public. The following figures correspond to the first year of the charity from 27th April 2021 to 26th April 2022: - We interacted with 1070 school students across Devon, Somerset and Cornwall through 4 live virtual events in our ESC Live project. - We have interacted directly with over 586 school children across the South West at in-person school workshops. - 100% of the schools students we have interacted with have been from state schools (with 12% of those being from selective state schools). The large majority of the schools we work with have had high proportions of children receiving free school meals or are in an area which is in the top 20% most deprived regions in the UK (Indices of Multiple Deprivation decile 1 or 2). - We have interacted directly with 1315 members of the public through our public exhibitions and workshops. 14 **EXETER SCIENCE CENTRE TRUSTEES’ REPORT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 26TH APRIL 2022** - We have gathered the views of over 500 people through our consultation work, in particular through our public survey and our touring “Tree of Ideas” which has informed our business plan. - We have hosted four interns through schemes funded by the University of Exeter (SETsquared Exeter IKEEP Project: stakeholder mapping) and the University of Plymouth (Low Carbon Devon Internship, described earlier). - We have had over 40 volunteers supporting our events, fundraising and developing our social media and website content. - Our YouTube videos have collectively had over 3,300 views and we have had over 15,000 visitors to our website over the year. - We have had 6,484 direct engagements with our posts on social media (Twitter, Facebook and Instagram) and have reached over 128,000 people. 15 **EXETER SCIENCE CENTRE TRUSTEES’ REPORT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 26TH APRIL 2022** ## **FINANCIAL REVIEW** At the end of the period 27th April 2021 - 26th April 2022, Exeter Science Centre is in a secure financial position, able to sustain the salaries of the two directors (1.6FTE) to the value of the real living wage (£363/week) and continue with funded project work, with some additional funding to work more responsively with schools and community groups and to work on developing and growing the organisation. In the next year, we intend to pay the directors up to the median salary for the South West, and employees a fair salary up to this level. The charity’s principal funding sources are: grant income (covering project costs and support costs); unrestricted (core-costs) income; some income from donations; a small amount through savings interest. We are also registered with Easyfundraising, Amazon Smile and Paypal Giving. ## **RESERVES POLICY** Our reserves policy is regularly reviewed and updated to fit the financial situation of the charity. Currently and for the next financial year, we intend to retain 2 months of running costs (approximately £5000) in case of unforeseen delays in payments from grants or other income, to ensure that salaries, fees and other costs can be paid on time. The directors are flexible on payment dates for their modest salaries, as they are dedicated to ensuring the charity's success and stability, so this allows for some additional flexibility. When taking on employees in the near future, these will typically be for fixed terms and fully funded via grants. In future, when we have established sustainable income streams, we will need to revise this policy to ensure stability for permanent staff members. The reserves are retained in an interest-paying savings account. ## **RISKS AND UNCERTAINTIES** The trustees maintain a risk register which is reviewed and maintained regularly. The main risks at current are the dependence of the charity’s activities on the two directors, and the risk of insufficient funds to pay their salaries. The impact of these risks are controlled through: 16 **EXETER SCIENCE CENTRE TRUSTEES’ REPORT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 26TH APRIL 2022** - having operations which are transparent to both directors and trustees (so that if either director is unable to fulfil their responsibilities, their work can be accessed and continued by their replacement); - the directors being flexible on their salary payments. The trustees are confident that the directors’ management of the organisation will enable the organisation to grow and achieve its ambitions. ## **Going concern** The trustees are confident that the charity has sufficient funds to continue as a going concern for the foreseeable future, and prepare the accounts on this basis. ## **DECLARATIONS** The trustees declare that they have approved the trustees’ report above. ## **Signed on behalf of the charity’s trustees:** ## **Signature:** **Name:** Prof. Justin Dillon **Position:** Chair of the board of trustees **Date:** 8th December 2022 17 **EXETER SCIENCE CENTRE INDEPENDENT EXAMINER’S REPORT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 26TH APRIL 2022** ## **Independent Examiner’s report to the trustees of Exeter Science Centre Charitable Incorporated Organisation (‘the CIO’)** I report on the accounts of the CIO for the year ended 26 April 2022, which are set out on the following pages 19-26. ## **Responsibilities and basis of report** As the charity’s trustees you are responsible for the preparation of the accounts in accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011 (‘the Act’). I report in respect of my examination of the charity’s accounts carried out under section 145 of the Act and in carrying out my examination I have followed all the applicable directions given by the Charity Commission under section 145(5)(b) of the Act. ## **Independent examiner’s statement** I have completed my examination. I confirm that no material matters have come to my attention in connection with the examination giving me cause to believe that in any material respect: 1. accounting records were not kept in respect of the charity as required by section 130 of the Act; or 2. the accounts do not accord with those records; or 3. the accounts do not comply with the applicable requirements concerning the form and content of accounts set out in the Charities (Accounts and Reports) Regulations 2008 other than any requirement that the accounts give a ‘true and fair view’ which is not a matter considered as part of an independent examination. I have no concerns and have come across no other matters in connection with the examination to which attention should be drawn in this report in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached. NAME: Sam Blackford ACA OF: On Target Accounting Ltd ADDRESS: 105 Chineway Gardens, Ottery St. Mary Devon, EX11 1JJ 18 **EXETER SCIENCE CENTRE STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL ACTIVITIES INCLUDING INCOME AND EXPENDITURE ACCOUNT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 26TH APRIL 2022** The financial statements were approved by the board of trustees on 8th December 2022 and were signed on its behalf by: Prof. Justin Dillon Chair 19 EXETER SCIENCE CENTRE BALANCE SHE￿ AS AT 26TH APRIL 2022 2022 Notes Fixed assets Tangible assets Current assets Debtors 5.614 Stock Investments Cash at bank and in hand 20,595 26,209 Total Current assets Liabilitles Creditors.. amounts falling dve within one year 15911 Net Current assets 25,618 25,618 Total assets less Current Ilabllltles Creditors.. amountsfalling dve after more than oneyear Net assets 25.618 The funds of the Charlty. Unrestricted funds Flestricted funds 16,943 8,675 25,618 Total funds 20 **EXETER SCIENCE CENTRE NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 26TH APRIL 2022** ## **1. ACCOUNTING POLICIES** ## **Basis of preparation** The charity is a public benefit entity as defined by FRS 102. The accounts have been prepared in accordance with the Charities Act 2011 and ‘Accounting and Reporting by Charities: Statement of Recommended Practice (SORP) applicable to charities preparing their accounts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102) second edition’. The financial statements have been prepared under the historical cost convention. ## **Income** All income is recognised and thus included on the Statement of Financial Activities when the amount can be quantified accurately and the charity is legally entitled to the income. For grants or other income which is paid in advance, the income is stored in a savings account and can accrue interest, which is allocated to that same fund, as required by trust law and highlighted in the Charities SORP. Any unspent income at the year end is retained in that fund, and will be noted as funds carried forward in the following year. Since we converted from a CIC to a CIO, the existing funds from the CIC were treated as income to the CIO on the day of its establishment; the 27th April 2021. This is described in Note 11. ## **Expenditure** All expenditure is accounted for on an accruals basis, and has been classified under the headings that aggregate all costs related to the category. We recognise an expenditure as soon as a transaction has occurred, or if a quantifiable amount is due to be spent on a particular item or service; in the latter case, the expenditure is listed as a liability (creditors). If funds are expected to be spent in the future – for example on a restricted funding grant that needs to be fully expended in a certain period – but the purchases have not yet been determined, then the amount is retained in the fund and not listed as a liability. The actual expenditure will be acknowledged in future accounts, once the funds are expended. 21 **EXETER SCIENCE CENTRE NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 26TH APRIL 2022** ## **Tangible fixed assets** Items with a cost price of £500 and above will be included in fixed assets. At current, the charity has no items in this category. ## **Taxation** The charity is exempt from corporation tax on its charitable activities. ## **Fund accounting** Unrestricted funds are funds which can be used by the charity to fulfil its charitable objectives. Restricted funds can only be used on particular projects or for a particular purpose. Expenditure includes the direct staff time, materials or other expenses required to fulfil the obligations of the restricted funds, along with a fair allocation of support costs. The total interest accrued on the charity’s savings throughout the year has been allocated proportionally to each fund, based on the arrival date of income sources in each fund in the financial year and the size of each income source. This is judged to be a reasonable estimate of the interest accrued by each fund, and the amount is stated separately for each income source for clarity. ## **2. DONATIONS AND LEGACIES** 22 **EXETER SCIENCE CENTRE NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 26TH APRIL 2022** ## **3. INCOME FROM CHARITABLE ACTIVITIES** ## **4. EXPENDITURE ON CHARITABLE ACTIVITIES** Governance costs, as defined in the Charities SORP (FRS 102), relate to the costs of the employees assisting or reporting to the trustees (which we account for in “Staff salaries (inc. employers NI)”) or any costs associated with trustee expenses. The staff salaries in this case are estimated based on reporting to the trustees and attending trustee meetings. Staff salaries have been allocated to project work (“Direct costs of projects”) based on the salaried time spent on these projects. The support costs apportioned to salaries account for the salaried time operating the charity, including: administration, finances, social media and website maintenance, 23 **EXETER SCIENCE CENTRE NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 26TH APRIL 2022** planning, networking, and carrying out other small activities that further our purpose and increase our audience (such as unpaid events). Any additional support costs are covered by unrestricted funds. ## **5. DEBTORS** ## **6. CREDITORS: AMOUNTS FALLING DUE WITHIN ONE YEAR** ## **7. NET ASSETS BY FUND** 24 **EXETER SCIENCE CENTRE NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 26TH APRIL 2022** ## **8. MOVEMENT IN FUNDS** The transfers into each project account for any additional salaried time spent on project delivery, beyond the amount of time originally allocated as part of the fee/grant. ## **9. STAFF NUMBERS, COSTS AND EMPLOYEE BENEFITS INCLUDING KEY MANAGEMENT PERSONNEL** The average number of employees this year was two. The two directors (i.e. the key management personnel), Dr Natalie Whitehead (1FTE) and Dr Alice Mills (0.6FTE), were employed for the entire financial year, and one intern was employed on a fixed term internship between 4th October 2021 and 17th December 2021 (for 55 days total). Staff costs were as follows: The total employee benefits paid to the key management personnel were £30,285. The directors have opted out of pension contributions until a greater income stream can be established. There are no other 25 **EXETER SCIENCE CENTRE NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 26TH APRIL 2022** employee benefits offered at current. The employer National insurance (NI) contributions did not exceed the Employment Allowance, so no social security costs were due. There were no direct trustee remuneration or benefits during this year – indirect benefits are accounted for in Note 10. ## **10. RELATED PARTY TRANSACTIONS** Related party transactions this year were to businesses run by or associated with trustees or key management personnel, for services to the charity on funded projects. In each case, the services were accounted for in the grant proposals, the (unrelated) trustees agreed that these businesses were the most suitable for providing these services, and each business kindly provided these services at a greatly reduced rate. The transactions in chronological order: £586 to The Virtual Reality Visitor Experience (The VRVE) for work on the “IET / IMechE - ESC Live” project. This project has a costed role of £146.50 per day for operating the camera and technical duties in running the livestream. The husband of Dr Natalie Whitehead (Director) runs The VRVE, and provided these services through his company. These payments were for the 4 events completed so far. £1,100 to Maketank for space rental, including storage of equipment, for the “STFC - Pop Up” climate exhibition in March 2022. The exhibition was hosted at Maketank, a cultural lab space in Exeter which is directed by one of our trustees, Olga Petrakova-Brown. £194 [liability - creditors due within 1 year for “Subcontractor costs”] to The VRVE for preparation and rental of computer equipment for the “STFC - Pop Up” climate exhibition in March 2022. ## **11. CIC TO CIO CONVERSION** The funds transferred from the Community Interest Company (CIC) to the Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO) totalled £16,618, and consisted entirely of restricted funds, described in the table below. The expenditure incurred by the CIC from these funds was solely for staff costs. 26