Science Ceilidh

15/06/2026

What are the priorities in arts and health research? 🎨

Join Arts Culture Health and Wellbeing Scotland online today (15th June, 4.30pm to 6pm) for an engaging discussion exploring the future of arts and health research. Their first event of Healing Arts Scotland Week!

Hear from international experts including Dr Nisha Sajnani (Jameel Arts & Health Lab, NYU) and Jenny Baxley Lee (Center for Arts in Medicine, University of Florida), alongside researchers from across Scotland, as they explore emerging evidence, key research priorities and what's next for the field.

Book your free place:
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/what-are-the-priorities-in-arts-and-health-research-tickets-1989843733171

05/06/2026

When space science meets ceilidh, unexpected things happen! 🎻

Join us at the Gorbals Fair on Saturday 6th June to meet our young Science Ambassadors and discover how they've been exploring gravitational waves through dance, movement and play.

Over the past few months, P6 learners from Blackfriars Primary School have been working with space scientists from the University of Glasgow and Science Ceilidh to explore some of the biggest ideas in the universe through creativity and culture.

At the fair, the young people will be sharing their learning through interactive activities and a special ceilidh dance they have created to demonstrate how gravitational waves are formed and detected.

Come and find out how scientists detect ripples in spacetime, have a go at some hands-on activities and celebrate the incredible work of these young people. We'd love to see you there!

Blackfriars Primary Parent Council
Glasgow Science Festival
Tactile Universe

01/06/2026

What happens when lived experience is treated as valuable knowledge, not just feedback?

On Thursday 11th June, partners involved in the Collaboration for Mental Wealth in Moray will gather in Elgin to launch a new interactive digital tool designed to help make collective voice more visible, accessible and useful in shaping future services and systems.

The tool brings together what people across Moray have shared about mental health, wellbeing, services and community life, turning lived and living experience into visual data that can help identify patterns and priorities across communities.

Alongside a first look at the tool itself, the event will explore rights-based approaches, ethical lived experience research and how shared learning between communities, practitioners and organisations can support fairer decision-making in Moray.

If you’re involved in community work, research, health and care, policy, recovery, have lived experience or are simply curious about collective voice and systems change, this event is open to you.

Find out more and book your place:
www.tickettailor.com/events/moraywellbeinghub

Moray Alcohol & Drug Partnership
Moray Community Planning Partnership
Moray Arts Development Engagement
Arrows - A Quarriers Service
Earthtime
UHI
NHS Grampian
NHS Highland
GREC

Photo Credit: Alexander Williamson

29/05/2026

📣 CKM Members Survey 2026

Community Knowledge Matters (CKM) launched in August 2023 to bring together people interested in community-led research shaping practice and policy change. As we look ahead to what comes next for the network, we’d really love to hear your thoughts.

Whether you’ve taken part in network activities, used our resources, joined conversations or simply receive the newsletter, your feedback matters.

If you receive our newsletter, you are considered part of the network and we would especially encourage newer members, or those who haven’t yet had the chance to engage with activities, to take part too.

The survey asks around 12 questions and should take approximately 10–15 minutes to complete. Everyone who completes it can also enter a free prize draw to win one of three £30 gift cards.

Your feedback will help shape the future of the network, including activities, resources and opportunities to connect moving forward, and is also a key way for us to evaluate our impact.

🗓️ Survey closes at midnight on Tuesday 30th June.

Find out more and complete the survey:

www.communityknowledgematters.com/network-survey-2026

Moray Wellbeing Hub
UHI
YouthLink Scotland
The Ideas Fund
Open Project
Healthcare Improvement Scotland
Youth Highland
Scottish Community Development Centre (SCDC)

21/05/2026

What does it really take to build a community where everyone belongs? 🌍

On World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development, we're thinking about what that looks like in practice: sitting around a table cooking together, learning to code side by side, dancing at a ceilidh and sharing stories across languages and lived experiences.

For over 7 years, the New Scots Connect programme, delivered in partnership with Multi-Cultural Family Base, has done exactly that, working alongside people from New Scots communities to build genuine connection, confidence and belonging through arts, science, music, digital skills and shared cultural exchange.

Learn more and check out the resources at the link below:

www.scienceceilidh.com/newscots

21/05/2026

How can lived and living experiences support better decision making, fair services and stronger mental wealth in Moray?

As conversations around mental health and wellbeing continue during this May, we’re also looking ahead to an important event in Moray exploring collective voice, lived experience and fairer systems.

Moray Wellbeing Hub and partners will be sharing a new interactive digital data visualisation tool at a launch event in Elgin on 11th June 2026, where we will explore the finalised prototype alongside discussions around human rights and how they relate to our Collective Voice data.

This event brings people together to explore how lived and living experience, human rights-based approaches and shared data can support better decision-making, fairer services and stronger mental wealth in Moray.

Through presentations, discussion and shared learning, attendees will hear more about the development of the tool, how lived experience is gathered ethically and how collective voice data can help inform future services and systems change.

The event will include a simple introduction to rights-based approaches, a first look at the tool and its uses and space to discuss what this all means for Moray.

This event is open to anyone who is curious about rights-based approaches, collective voice or community research, including community members with lived and living experience of mental health, wellbeing, substance use or recovery, health and care practitioners, policy makers, those involved in community groups and more.

Find out more and sign up here:

www.tickettailor.com/events/moraywellbeinghub/2183012

Moray Alcohol & Drug Partnership
Moray Community Planning Partnership
Moray Arts Development Engagement
Arrows - A Quarriers Service
Earthtime
UHI
NHS Grampian
NHS Highland
GREC

18/05/2026

Thank you to everyone involved in the 2026 UK Knowledge Mobilisation Forum in Bristol for such thoughtful and creative conversations the other week!

Our Director Lewis Hou joined the keynote line-up this year, opening his session in true Science Ceilidh style, with a tune before the talk.

One of the strongest themes running throughout the Forum was the importance of relationships in knowledge mobilisation: ethics, trust, respect, acknowledging emotions and embodied practice as we create more human ways for people to share knowledge and work together - being ”kind to people, tough on systems”

It was refreshing to see so many participatory and creative approaches woven throughout the programme too, including storytelling, zine-making and open reflective conversations that challenged us around inclusion that we will be definitely thinking about and bringing forward in our work.

A particular big thanks to the organising committee and everyone who contributed putting so much heart and soul into this convening! Looking forward to continuing the conversations.

British Science Association
CILIP
University of St Andrews
The Knowledge Business - Helene Russell
We The Curious

14/05/2026

May Resource of the Month: 🎶Singing Side By Side Toolkit 🎶

For Mental Health Awareness Week, we’re highlighting our Singing Side By Side toolkit, a free resource supporting more mental health inclusive singing groups.

Developed through a two-year research and practitioner action research programme, the toolkit brings together practical ideas and insights for anyone leading or supporting group singing.

It explores how to create welcoming, safe environments for participants, while also recognising the wellbeing of facilitators themselves. While rooted in singing and community music, many of the ideas and approaches could also support other community groups and wellbeing-focused spaces.

Designed to be flexible, you can dip into sections as needed or work through it in full.

Download the free toolkit: 📥
https://www.singingsidebyside.co.uk/toolkit

University of Derby
The University of Edinburgh
The University of Sheffield
Royal College of Music
Mental Health Foundation
University of Glasgow
Together Productions
Singathon Events

30/04/2026

As Autism Acceptance Month comes to a close, we wanted to share a valuable resource and network we’ve been lucky enough to support: DiverSci.

DiverSci is an international community focused on diversity and inclusion in informal science learning, creating space for shared learning and collective action around accessibility, representation and systems change.

Previous discussions have explored co-producing with autistic communities and simple but meaningful changes that can make events and spaces more accessible, like clearly explaining what to expect beforehand and making participation more flexible.

🎥 Watch: DiverSci: Strategies for Inclusion in Informal Science Learning:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPrmJsggugM

If you’re interested in inclusive science engagement and equity in learning spaces, it’s well worth signing up and exploring their resources:
https://www.diversci.eu/

Our Director Lewis was involved in supporting the DiverSci Community of Practice, helping bring people together across science engagement and community work to share ideas and challenge traditional ways of working.

📖 Read Lewis’s interview here:
https://www.wissenschaftskommunikation.de/collective-action-allows-us-to-put-pressure-on-systemic-forces-70489/

In May 2020, a diversity task force was founded at an Ecsite conference. Now, has transformed into a movement encompassing international science engagement communities. Lewis Hou, founder of Science Ceilidh and volunteer at ’s Community of Practice, shares his vision for a more ...

29/04/2026

Happy International Dance Day! 💃

Yesterday, our Director Lewis Hou was part of Dancing Across Disciplines at the Institute for Medical Humanities at Durham University, a day of thoughtful discussion and shared reflection exploring dance across disciplines, spaces and communities.

Lewis presented “Science Ceilidh: Culturally Engaged Research to Knowledge Systems Change” and in true Science Ceilidh fashion, also got people moving with a bit of dancing along the way.

Thank you to everyone involved in organising and contributing to such an inspiring event.