Schools partaking in the annual BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition have received close to €120,000, with €26,900 of that going to schools in Cork city and county, as part of the Travel and Accommodation Grant Scheme, the telecommunications company said this week.

The accommodation grant scheme, which was set up in 2006, is designed to help offset some of the costs incurred by students travelling to Dublin, to compete in the exhibition. Schools situated 70 kilometres or more from the RDS in Ballsbridge, Dublin 4, are given the opportunity to apply for financial assistance towards accommodation costs, with €100 awarded to an individual entry or €200 to a group entry, subject to a maximum grant of €1000 per school and other applicable terms.

Next years event in January 2009 will be the fourth year BT has offered the grant to schools with projects competing in the exhibition in January at the RDS. "As we continue to promote a passion in science and technology in schools and students throughout the island we also need to ensure that schools have the means to travel to the exhibition. Our grant scheme goes some way to offset travel and accommodation costs and give schools an added incentive to enter," said Emer Kennedy, Director Consumer South, BT.

Organised entirely by BT, the Exhibition is now in its 45th year and recorded the greatest number of entries ever last year when 1,416 projects were submitted. BT hopes the record will be broken for the 2009 exhibition and continues to work on enhancing the event to attract both visitors and students.

BT has developed a new website, www.btyoungscientist.com, for the 2009 exhibition. The new website has everything students and teachers need to know about the event including entry forms, deadlines, a countdown clock to the closing date for entries as well as details on the travel and accommodation grant. To find out how to triumph at the exhibition, students can log on to get top tips from Aisling Judge, the 2006 winner from Cork, one of the youngest ever in the competition's history.

Comments (0) »

Show/Hide comment form

Name

Email

Title

Comment

Write the displayed characters

Add Comment