Scientists and Researchers

What did you want to be when you were growing up? If you’re a scientist – and you always thought you’d be one –, chances are you had high levels of science capital as a child. This meant that, from an early age, you had access to science-related knowledge and experiences, recognised the relevance of science, and knew scientists or people working in similar professions.

In fact, ASPIRES, a ten-year longitudinal study of young people’s science and career aspirations, has come up with eight dimensions of science capital. And, the researchers on the project have established that the more science capital young people have, the more likely they are to study science in the future.

Worryingly, a survey of 3,658 young people in the UK found that only 5% had high levels of science capital (Archer et al., 2015).

Whether we embrace the idea of science capital or not, we all understand the implications of a society that shuns scientific knowledge: national economic competitiveness is reliant on a strong STEM skills base; science literacy has an impact on citizens’ ability to participate in and understand important societal issues; effective science communication counteracts fake news and the propagation of distrust in experts. These are but a few of the many reasons for increasing and broadening participation in science, research, engineering and technology – occupations that are facing skills shortages in the UK and elsewhere.

The aims of Futurum Careers, then, are manifold. With your contribution, we can:

01 Offer teenagers and young adults – regardless of their gender, race or background – the knowledge and confidence to study science – and, in turn, social mobility

02 Provide educators with appropriate resources to inspire the next generation to pursue STEM and SHAPE (social sciences, humanities, the arts for people and the economy)

03 Help scientists and researchers communicate their work to a global, captivated audience of teenagers, young adults and teachers

04 Give universities and institutes an opportunity to showcase their facilities and programmes to the best young minds in the world

All you need to do is get in touch.

How does this work?

How much does this cost?

How do we ensure Futurum resources reach teachers and students?

Why do I have to pay to have an article published?

Our mission is to inspire the next generation of scientists and thinkers among all teenagers and young people, regardless of their gender, ethnicity or background. To do this, we reach out to young people between the ages of 11-19 through their schools and parents. But mounting financial pressures mean that a large proportion of schools and parents cannot afford to pay subscription fees. We had to explore ways of producing, distributing and disseminating the content for free.

Moreover, our research with focus groups has found that parents, schools and young people are increasingly aware of data privacy issues and are unwilling to subscribe or register to access the information they need. For these reasons, we chose to adopt the ‘Open Access’ academic model.

Our Open Access business model means that invited contributors are asked to sponsor an article. In other words, provide financial support to offset publication expenses, including article writing, creative design, publication production, dissemination, online and physical hosting, and archiving. By charging an Article Processing Charge (APC) to contributors, institutions and funders, we are able to cover the costs of all the deliverables mentioned above.

Funders are increasingly supporting their researchers in this regard by providing some or all of the money for APCs. Your funder may allow such fees to be included as line items in the grant budget or offer specific article processing grants. If you are unsure whether Futurum would qualify as an eligible expense, we recommend that you contact your funder directly for their Open Access funding policies.

Although our costs are fixed, we are committed to supporting researchers on limited budgets. Fee assistance will be considered on an individual basis and is solely at the discretion of the Publication Manager.