Schools' Engineering and Technology Competition, Friday 1 July, Anglia Ruskin University

We are very pleased to announce that our 2016 Schools' Engineering and Technology Competition is open for entries.

• The competition will take place on Friday 1 July 2016
• The awards evening will take place on Wednesday 20 July 2016

Please note that the awards evening has moved from a Thursday to a Wednesday, as we hope that more people will be free on this evening.

See our school events listings to add these to your calendar.

Find out how to enter the competition here.

Read more: Schools' Competition 2016: enter now

We are excited to announce the relaunch of our STEM Club Bursary.

We have introduced a simpler online application form to make it easier than ever to apply.

We are actively seeking applications for this year, particularly from schools with whom we’ve had little involvement in the past.

Read others' success stories to see how we could help you.

Set up in 2015 in collaboration with Essex Community Foundation, the STEM Club Bursary is a funding package made available by CSES to local schools to support the start-up and growth of STEM clubs and extracurricular STEM activities.

Find out more and apply online.

Engineering Our Future: Wednesday 4 November, 16.00 for 16.30, Anglia Ruskin University

Engineering Our Future is back with a particularly exciting topic: Security, which will feature some live demonstrations!

We are very pleased to release the coming season's lecture programme, organised in partnership with the IET, IMechE and IOP.

Please see our Events section for this year's programme.

Do keep an eye our here on the website for other events to be added soon, including the 2016 Schools' Engineering and Technology Competition.

This year the Chelmsford Civic Society is co-ordinating the Heritage Open Days on behalf of the City Council. These take place between Thursday the 10^th and Sunday the 13^th of September. Nationally the Heritage Open Days is managed by the National Trust. Last year the sites that were open attracted over three million people. All events are free.

Read more: Heritage Open Days in Chelmsford: 10 - 13 September

A forward-thinking initiative from Essex County Council is helping plug the gap of highly-skilled workers in the science, technology and engineering sectors in Britain today.

Damning findings from a recent Confederation of British Industry report have revealed more than half of employers fear they will not be able to recruit enough high-skilled workers.

In an attempt to address this, four years ago (2011), Essex County Council launched the Education and Industry STEM programme to directly target shortages in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

Read more: Essex businesses challenged to provide 500 experiences to highly-skilled youngsters

Congratulations to everyone who won an award at the 2015 Schools' Competition, which took place on Friday 26 June 2015 at Anglia Ruskin University.

Read more: 2015 Competition results

IOP/CSES lecture: Our Dynamic Sun, Wednesday 1 July 2015, Anglia Ruskin University

We are pleased to announce the addition of another lecture to our 2014/2015 programme, organised by the Institute of Physics (IOP).

The talk, by Dr Helen Mason from the University of Cambridge, review what we have learnt about the active Sun, in particular what we know (and don't yet know!) about solar active regions and flares, and how this solar activity affects the Earth's environment.