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2023-04-26-accounts

ANNUAL REPORT AND ACCOUNTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 26TH APRIL 2023

CHARITY NUMBER: 1194239

ANNUAL REPORT AND ACCOUNTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 26TH APRIL 2023

CONTENTS

CONTENTS
TRUSTEES’ REPORT 3
INDEPENDENT EXAMINER’S REPORT 18
STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL ACTIVITIES 19
BALANCE SHEET 20
NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS 21

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TRUSTEES’ REPORT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 26TH APRIL 2023

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 second year of the charity, from 27th April 2022 to 26th April 2023.

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
Charlie Young Founding trustee to 14/4/23
Christopher Sims Treasurer 23/3/23 to present

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TRUSTEES’ REPORT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 26TH APRIL 2023

STRUCTURE, GOVERNANCE AND MANAGEMENT

Exeter Science Centre is a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO) 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. In February 2023 we took on Ross Castle (0.5 FTE) as our first employee, working in the role of Projects Officer.

In April 2023 we began to build a Strategic Advisory Board to support the development of the building and appointed Stuart Brocklehurst as the new Chair.

Appointment of trustees

The current trustees were founding trustees of the charity, aside from a new treasurer taken on in March 2023. 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.

The new trustee was appointed in February 2023 after the role was widely advertised. Candidate applications were reviewed by the directors and by the existing trustees and Chris Sims was elected by the trustees. This will be the method used to elect future trustees.

Charlie Young stepped down in April 2023, we are so grateful for his support in the early stages of establishing the charity.

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TRUSTEES’ REPORT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 26TH APRIL 2023

CHAIR’S AND DIRECTORS’ INTRODUCTION

Exeter Science Centre has had another very successful year reaching 3800 people of all ages from across the South West and beyond, connecting people with current research and industry through events, livestreams, workshops, focus groups and citizen science. Our team has grown, taking on Ross Castle in February 2023, who has been a real asset to the organisation so far, helping us to reach into local underserved communities and better understand their needs and interests. We aim to recruit additional employees in the coming year to grow our capabilities and impact.

We have maintained good financial stability and grown strong relationships with partner organisations and networks, including beginning to form our Strategic Advisory Board. In the next year, we will continue to strengthen these relationships with regional partners and focus more efforts on progressing plans for the physical centre.

In terms of governance, the charity is delighted to have recruited a new trustee, Chris Sims, in the role of treasurer. Chris is also a trustee of the very successful and inspiring science centre We The Curious, in Bristol, and we are grateful to We The Curious for agreeing to this arrangement.

Our membership of the Association for Science and Discovery Centres (ASDC) and European Network of Science Centres and Museums (Ecsite) continue to give us inspiration, guidance, a network of helpful contacts and open up additional funding opportunities.

As always, we are so grateful for the enormous support from our growing network of volunteers. Their dedication is inspiring, and the time, expertise and breadth of experience they bring to the charity is invaluable. We also thank our partners and supporters for their support, advice and the opportunities they have opened up for us.

Prof. Justin Dillon Dr Natalie Whitehead, Dr Alice Mills Chair Directors

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TRUSTEES’ REPORT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 26TH APRIL 2023

OBJECTIVES AND ACTIVITIES

Our mission is to educate, motivate and empower the public to make a difference in the world.

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;

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).

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TRUSTEES’ REPORT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 26TH APRIL 2023

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 includes by making public-friendly YouTube summaries of some 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 and the Postcode Local Trust for supporting our core costs and our development as an organisation.

Our new project work in this financial year has been generously funded by academic staff at the University of Exeter and the University of Oxford via their research grants; the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC); the Association for Science and Discovery Centres (ASDC); The Adrian Swire Charitable Trust; and The Great Imagining.

We are also grateful to The Museums Association, UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), ASDC and The Liminal Space for providing the opportunity for us to take part in the Mindsets and Missions Learning Programme.

ACTIVITIES

We have continued to develop and deliver a broad range of activities both in person and virtually. As we emerge out of COVID-19 we have been able to deliver more inperson events (reaching 2840 people) but have continued to develop virtual content in parallel, to widen our reach, reaching over 930 people through virtual events.

Over the following pages, we cover the main activities we have carried out over the past year.

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TRUSTEES’ REPORT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 26TH APRIL 2023

ESC Live: Virtual out of the classroom events connecting school children with engineers

This project, funded by the IET/IMechE Engineering Education Grant Scheme (EEGS) involved livestreaming into schools from energy generation facilities across the region. This year we undertook the remaining four of eight events funded by the grant (plus a pilot event). These events provided the opportunity for students to learn more about renewable energy, to see engineers in action and ask them questions live, whilst providing a lasting educational resource for others to access in future.

“I learned that it's possible to make a difference and there are organisations who are making big differences.” Year 8- Langage Farm event

“It is good to have real outside examples of where Physics or engineering could lead to; especially as it was local and there were opportunities even in Cornwall.” Teacher - Kensa Heat Pumps event

The final events took place at the Coastal, Ocean and Sediment Transport (COAST) Laboratory at the University of Plymouth- a testbed for wind and wave energy generation; Langage Anaerobic Digestion Facility, Kensa Heat Pumps factory and Hinkley Point C nuclear power station (under construction).

In total we engaged 2278 students from 15 schools, worked with 30 engineers from 9 different energy generation facilities, and the videos and lesson plans are lasting resources which are freely available on our website.

----- Start of picture text -----
Kensa Heat Pumps team and livestream
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Students at Eggbuckland Community College during
the COAST livestream
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Hinkley Point C livestream
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Engineers at the COAST Laboratory
during the livestream.
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TRUSTEES’ REPORT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 26TH APRIL 2023

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 covered the training and funds to purchase all the kit 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. Some funding has been reserved to spend on equipment for the touring programme in the next financial year.

Our core cost funding, plus some funding from event organisers, has enabled us to pilot the programme this year to test the best combination of activities, whilst enabling us to engage with new community groups.

These events included:

----- Start of picture text -----
Volunteers at the Sidmouth
Science Festival
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From these events, we learned the best format for delivering the programme and applied for further funding to take it on tour to the wider region.

“Best session of the day. Girls from 5-14 in the group all completely engaged.” Brownie Leader, Girlguiding Fun Day

Children at the Girlguiding Fun Day planting ‘seeds of change’

Ross at The Royal Albert Memorial Museum Operation Earth event

Natalie, Ross and some of our regular volunteers at the Exeter Library event

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TRUSTEES’ REPORT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 26TH APRIL 2023

Public Engagement Programmes

Across this financial year we have collaborated with four academic researchers at the University of Exeter to develop programmes to engage 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 Nela Nikolic: Hello Microbes

Dr Nikolic approached us with a desire to work with Key Stage 1 children to help them to understand microbes, particularly important with the recent pandemic. We worked with her to develop a workshop that explores what microbes are; how we couldn’t live without them; how good microbes help us to fight bad microbes and some current research into how bacteria defend themselves against viruses. The workshop was delivered for three separate classes (about 75 children) in Stoke Hill Primary School, Exeter. As part of the workshops, all children placed their hands on agar plates, which were incubated to see what microbes were present. The children were given certificates with their own microbe handprint to take home after the workshop.

The resources are available on our website for any teachers/educators to access.

Dr. Stephen Thomson: Demystifying climate models: how do they work, and what do they say?

Dr Thomson worked with us to develop a workshop for Key Stage 3 and 4 children to learn more about current research into climate change and climate modelling, through experimenting with a simplified version of the ISCA climate model. We organised and attended a pre-workshop focus group with the academics and a smaller group of students to help guide the content and design of the ISCA website so that it was easy to use and experiment with the ISCA climate model. We then developed a climate modelling workshop and delivered it for three classes of 30 children at West Exe School in Exeter. They then got to design their own climate model to be run on the supercomputer at a later date.

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TRUSTEES’ REPORT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 26TH APRIL 2023

Prof. Ben Temperton: Citizen Phage Library

Prof. Temperton’s 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. This year we carried out the second phase of this citizen science project, engaging community groups across Devon in phage hunting.

We recruited 112 phage hunters from Devon and Somerset ranging from family groups, to environmental action groups and GP surgery staff and patients. We ran four events where we went phage hunting with members of the public who chose where to take the samples from.

The community samples were analysed in the lab and have resulted in the discovery of 16 new phages. The results from the schools data analysis from phase 1 of the project were 51 new phages. This work in facilitating the data collection has resulted in our inclusion in an academic paper, in preparation.

----- Start of picture text -----
“It’s great to get the kids
interested in a bit of
science… very excited to find
out if we can contribute to
finding a cure for some
illness in the future”. Paul
from Freemoovement
Natalie on a phage hunt with the Phage hunting on the
Friends of Clennon Lakes volunteers “Panny” in Exeter
----- End of picture text -----

Prof. Francesca Palombo: Imaging techniques to improve early detection of oesophageal cancer

This year, we completed this programme of work by making the teaching resources on this topic freely accessible on our website, as well as helping to develop an event for Cancer Research UK volunteers, staff and collaborators, to be held in 2024.

Prof. Jude Meakin: Image Driven Subject Specific Spine Modelling

This multidisciplinary research looks at building a better understanding of the spine, in particular how forces act on the spine. Spine issues are very prevalent in the UK, and we have been brought in for the 3-year duration of the project, to help the public understand the research from its early stages and later to consult with them to help inform the direction of the research. This year we have created a website for the research team, and designed a project logo and an infographic to summarise the key themes and stages of the research.

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TRUSTEES’ REPORT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 26TH APRIL 2023

Community Engagement

A big focus this year has been to spend the time to engage and build lasting relationships with local community groups, as well as other communitycentric organisations doing great work in the city and region. This work has been enabled by core cost funding from the Postcode Local Trust, which has lead on to other funded projects.

A £10,000 grant provided by the STFC via the Association for Science and Discovery Centres (ASDC) has enabled us to work with local community groups in reimagining our March 2022 climate exhibition, to make it more accessible and meaningful to a broader audience, with some funds allocated to running the exhibition in the next financial year.

In February 2023, we took on Ross Castle as a part-time employee in the role of Projects Officer to lead on this work. Ross is working on his climate science PhD at the University of Exeter while working for us 2.5 days per week. Ross was a committed volunteer during our March 2022 exhibition and brings with him experience both in climate science but also in exhibit building.

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West Exe School students consider the 2022
exhibition’s virtual tour
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Ross visiting Newtown Primary School to
discuss improving the climate exhibition
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Alice visiting the Pelican Project to discuss the
exhibition and their space project
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We carried out focus groups with Ellen Tinkham College (for pupils with special educational needs), West Exe School (a mainstream secondary school), CoLab Exeter (a multi-agency wellbeing hub), the Pelican Project (a group of young people with learning-disabilities from across Devon) and SPACE Youth Services, who will all be contributing to the exhibition window display. We are also grateful to have had discussions with Exeter College students and members of the YES (Youth Enquiry Service) Centre as part of this work.

These focus groups led to a list of priorities for updating and improving the exhibition content, accessibility and relevance. The exhibition will be repeated in September 2023 as part of the British Science Festival in Exeter.

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TRUSTEES’ REPORT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 26TH APRIL 2023

Other projects and events

Gaia at Exeter Cathedral

In February 2023, we arranged two evenings of short talks and Q&A sessions with local climate scientists at Exeter Cathedral, to coincide with the exhibition of Luke Jerram’s ‘Gaia’.

12 scientists from the University of Exeter and the Met Office were involved and we engaged with around 400 members of the public.

This was a fantastic opportunity to reach a different demographic, of people that may not have typically chosen to attend a sciencefocused event. We are so grateful to our core cost funders for enabling us to run these kinds of responsive events, that helps us build our engagement with new communities.

The Great Imagining

On Earth Day, April 2023, we developed resources for and provided a hands-on activity session for The Great Imagining, Exeter — a public event at the Exeter Climate Hub focusing on building an understanding of ecosystems, and how systems thinking can lead us towards a greener, fairer, wiser future for everyone.

30 people attended the event with a long dwelltime, and our resources have since been used at other Great Imagining events internationally.

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TRUSTEES’ REPORT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 26TH APRIL 2023

UPCOMING PROJECTS/EVENTS

We have also recently been awarded a grant by The Adrian Swire Charitable Trust, to take Operation Earth on tour across Devon and Somerset from May 2023.

Growing the organisation

At most of our events we have continued to harness ideas and perspectives to help guide the plans for the science centre using our tree of ideas or our chalkboard tablecloth.

It is really important to us that the science centre meets the needs of the communities it will serve, whilst also meeting our charitable aims of connecting people with important research and industry in the region. This year we will continue to build stronger relationships with community groups in our region and work to better understand their needs.

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TRUSTEES’ REPORT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 26TH APRIL 2023

As we aim to grow substantially over the next few years, we will soon be re-visiting our business plan based on our consultation with stakeholders, as well as growing our Strategic Advisory Board, to help to move towards one of our goals of a physical centre.

We will also work to fundraise and grow our team, in particular to provide dedicated support with community engagement, administration, fundraising and projects delivery. This will allow the directors to spend time focusing on the development of the organisation and plans for a physical centre.

SUMMARY OF ACHIEVEMENTS AND PERFORMANCE

This year, we have been able to engage in-person with significantly more people, connecting them with current research and industry and consulting them on the development of our next exhibition and the future growth of the science centre.

We have grown this year, with Ross Castle joining the team and supporting our community engagement and our project work. Despite a small, 2.1 Full Time Equivalent (FTE) staff team, we have continued to develop and deliver high-quality, engaging events and projects across the region, whilst also undertaking the day-today running of the charity, building our network and working towards growing the organisation.

The following figures correspond to the second year of the charity from 27th April 2022 to 26th April 2023:

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TRUSTEES’ REPORT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 26TH APRIL 2023

FINANCIAL REVIEW

At the end of the period 27th April 2022 - 26th April 2023, 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, employ one part-time employee (0.5FTE) and continue with funded project work, with some additional core costs funding to work more responsively with community groups, and to work on developing and growing the organisation. Note that the Real Living Wage increased part way through the year, and salaries were increased from £363/week to £436/week from 6th September 2022.

Although we aimed this year to increase the directors salary up to the median salary for the South West in order to be able to take on employees at a fair and competitive salary for the region, this is now an intention for next year when we aim to raise more significant core costs funding to support our growth.

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, 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 and the salary of our employee. The impact of these risks are controlled through:

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TRUSTEES’ REPORT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 26TH APRIL 2023

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. The charity will need to get into a more secure financial situation in the next couple of years to grow to a sustainable level, and the only risk to the charity ceasing to be a going concern is a lack of project funding, which is unlikely.

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: 9th February 2024

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INDEPENDENT EXAMINER’S REPORT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 26TH APRIL 2023

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STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL ACTIVITIES INCLUDING INCOME AND EXPENDITURE ACCOUNT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 26TH APRIL 2023

The financial statements were approved by the board of trustees on 9th February 2024 and were signed on its behalf by:

Prof. Justin Dillon Chair

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THE EXETER SCIENCE CENTRE BALANCE SHEET AS AT 26TH APRIL 2023 2023 2022 Notes Flxed a$gets Tangible a55ets Current assets Prepayments Debtor5 470 12,455 5.614 Stock Investments Cash at bank and in hand 28.766 41.691 20,595 26,209 Tot41 curr•nt •ss•ts Llablllt1•5 CrÈditors.' amounts fèlling due wihin oneyear Net Current assets Net assets 12001 41.491 41.491 15911 25,618 25,618 Creditors.. amounts falling duè after morè than Ont￿aT 41.491 25,618 The funds of the charlty. Unrestricted funds Restricted funds 20,497 20.993 41.491 16,960 8,658 25,618 Total lund• 20

NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 26TH APRIL 2023

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.

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.

Tangible fixed assets

Items with a tangible 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

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NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 26TH APRIL 2023

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 category for clarity.

2. DONATIONS AND LEGACIES

3. INCOME FROM CHARITABLE ACTIVITIES

4. EXPENDITURE ON CHARITABLE ACTIVITIES

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NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 26TH APRIL 2023

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, 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.

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 or preparing statutory accounts. Note that we include the salary costs of preparing the annual accounts for the 2021-2022 financial year, and will continue this in future accounts. Also note that the accounts examination for the present year was included in the ‘support costs’ category in the previous year, and we correct this in the comparative table below, including this cost as ‘Consultancy fees’.

4. COMPARATIVE EXPENDITURE ON CHARITABLE ACTIVITIES

The ‘Consultancy fees’ category for the previous year’s accounts now shows the amount expended on the accounts examination in ‘Governance costs’, rather than support costs.

5. DEBTORS

6. CREDITORS: AMOUNTS FALLING DUE WITHIN ONE YEAR

7. NET ASSETS BY FUND

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NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 26TH APRIL 2023

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.

‘Events’ income was for co-curating The Great Imagining (via Portfolio Five Ltd, event lead), a workshop for the Ogden Trust Exeter & East Devon Schools Partnership funded via Exeter School, and a workshop at a Girlguiding Fun Day, funded by Girlguiding Exeter. ‘Consulting’ income was from public engagement training and support from University of Exeter research and public engagement groups, and speaking at events about our work.

COMPARATIVE MOVEMENT IN FUNDS

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NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 26TH APRIL 2023

9. STAFF NUMBERS, COSTS AND EMPLOYEE BENEFITS INCLUDING KEY

MANAGEMENT PERSONNEL

The average number of employees this year was three. 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 employee (0.5FTE) joined the organisation on 6th February 2023 on a 1 year contract (subject to extension in the following financial year).

Staff costs were as follows:

The total employee benefits paid to the key management personnel were £33,837. The directors and staff have opted out of pension contributions until a greater income stream can be established. There are no other employee benefits offered at current. The employer National insurance (NI) contributions did not exceed the Employment Allowance, so no social security costs were due.

Direct trustee remuneration or benefits during this year were £5 to David Solomides and £8 to Celia Oxlade, Trustees of the charity, as reimbursement for travel to an event of the charity.

10. RELATED PARTY TRANSACTIONS

Related party transactions this year were to one business associated with key management personnel, for services to the charity on funded projects and the provision of reduced-cost equipment covered by core costs funding. For funded projects, the services were accounted for in the grant proposals, the (unrelated) trustees agreed that this business was the most suitable for providing these services, which were kindly provided 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 final 4 events on the project.

£117 to the VRVE for the purchase of a discounted computer screen, covered by core cost funds.

£70 to the VRVE for the rental of virtual reality headsets as part of the “ASDC - STFC Impact Project”.

Note the following correction to the previous year’s related party transactions: In the previous year's report we stated that £586 was paid to the VRVE for 2 events, which is correct, but this missed the payment of £16 to reimburse equipment purchased for the project. The total amount paid was £602 (to the nearest £).

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NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 26TH APRIL 2023

11. STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL ACTIVITIES FOR YEAR ENDED 26TH APRIL 2022

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