CREST Evaluation 2026 - research school expression of interest

Help us evaluate the CREST Award programme

CREST Awards are inspiring and impactful projects in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) that engage and reward young people, unlocking potential and developing skills.

Evaluating the CREST programme is vital to ensure our mission to transform access for all children and young people to meaningful science work is on track. With your help we can continue to support educators to provide exciting opportunities for all young people to get hands-on with STEM, develop key research, communication and team working skills, and build confidence.

The opportunity

Do you want free CREST Awards and a load of other benefits?

If you are a UK school running the CREST Awards this academic year (25/26) with pupils aged 9 or older, apply to be one of a small number of core research schools to work with our evaluation partner ImpactEd.

The evaluation will explore the impact that doing CREST has had on your pupils, and help you understand their motivation and academic resilience and how that compares to young people nationally.

Register your interest by 5.00 pm on 13 February 2026 for a chance to be part of the evaluation team!

More information about the evaluation can be found in the CREST Help Centre. For any other questions contact crest@britishscienceassociation.org.

What are the benefits?

Depending on the phase and type of school you work in, you will receive a package of rewards which may include:

A free CREST kit box or £200 voucher for science equipment/kit from reputable educational supplier.
A voucher for free CREST Awards.
A £50 digital voucher for popular online retailer, just for you.
The opportunity for your school to better understand the motivation and grit (academic resilience) of participating pupils. ImpactEd is able to quantify these social and emotional skills in individuals and will be able to demonstrate to you and school leaders how your students’ grit and motivation vary, as well as compare to their national dataset.

What is required from schools?

Support your students to complete CREST Awards before 31 July 2026.
Administer a one-off digital questionnaire to the students awarded CREST, via the ImpactEd School Impact Platform (SIP).

Before that, ImpactEd will liaise with the school’s data manager to connect the SIP to your MIS system.

The teacher(s) overseeing the CREST activities will share their experience of the CREST Awards via:

Taking part in an online focus group.
Completing an online questionnaire.

When will the evaluation take place?

The evaluation will take place over the remaining terms of the academic year:

Feb - March: school selection, onboarding and connecting school data system to ImpactEd SIP
March - July: complete the CREST activities with students and administer student surveys (as soon as possible after students receive their CREST Awards)
March -July: teacher surveys
May - July: teacher focus groups

Permission to contact you

We will get in touch with you via email to communicate with you about the opportunity to be a research school in the 25/26 CREST evaluation. Please see our privacy policy for more information on how we use and store your data.

Do you consent to your email being used in this way?

About you

Full name:

Work email address:

Work phone:

Job title/role:

About your school

School name:

School postcode: (please capitalise)

School region/nation of UK

What is your school's Unique Reference Number?
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What is your school's SEED number?
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What is your school's DfE number?
You can search for it here (right click to open in a new tab)

What is your school's reference number?
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Type of school

School stage/type

If Other, please specify

The CREST Evaluation

Please confirm that you/your school can facilitate connection of the school MIS system to the ImpactEd SIP, arrange for completion of student and teacher questionnaires, and participate in an online focus group.

Yes, I confirm that my school can participate in the CREST evaluation as a core research school as outlined above.No thank you, I cannot commit to the evaluation at this time.Benefits of participation include free CREST Awards, a CREST kit box or science equipment, and a £50 store voucher for the organising teacher.

Please confirm which of the following dates you can attend one of the online evaluation kick off meetings, if selected as a core research school.

Wednesday 25 February, 4.00 pmThursday 26 February, 4.00 pmMonday 2 March, 4.00 pm

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