The sciart award scheme was established by the Wellcome Trust in 1996, and relaunched by the sciart Consortium in 1999. The Consortium comprises of the Arts Council of England, the British Council, the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts (NESTA), the Scottish Arts Council and the Wellcome Trust.

As an experimental initiative, the award scheme provides a unique opportunity for scientists and artists to research, develop and produce work in collaboration, resulting in innovative projects for public engagement. These partnerships may involve scientists interested in creating new forms of expression, artists inspired by scientific research or a combination of both. Partnerships aim to create a genuinely collaborative project in which the processes of science and art closely interact. The collaboration is a two-way process, in which the disciplines involved inspire each other, and the project outcomes and processes can then become visible to diverse audiences beyond the participants’ shared fields.

To date, more than 30 sciart awards have been made into projects, all seeking new ways of understanding. In the 1999/2000 ten research and development grants (up to £10,000 each) and two production grants (up to £50,000 each) were awarded. Guidelines for application to this year’s award scheme, plus information on current and previous winners, can be viewed on the sciart website (www.sciart.org).