STEM Workshops in Brighton & Sussex

Brighton and Sussex have a long history of scientific innovation. The Royal Observatory at Herstmonceux Castle served as the home of the Royal Greenwich Observatory from 1957 to 1990, cementing the region's connection to astronomical research. The University of Sussex, founded in 1961, quickly established itself as a powerhouse of scientific research, recruiting Harry Kroto, a future Nobel laureate, within its first decade. More recently, Brighton has earned the nickname "Silicon Beach" as its creative and technology sectors have grown into a major part of the local economy.

Sir Harry Kroto, Professor of Chemistry at the University of Sussex, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1996 for his co-discovery of fullerenes (C60 buckminsterfullerene), a breakthrough that opened entirely new fields in nanotechnology and materials science. Sir Archer Martin, who shared the 1952 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the invention of partition chromatography, also held a position at Sussex. Professor Antonella De Santo, who became the University of Sussex's first female Professor of Physics in 2013, leads experimental particle physics research on the ATLAS experiment at CERN's Large Hadron Collider. Brighton-based studios and entrepreneurs have been part of the UK's gaming and creative technology sectors since the early 2000s.

Brighton has been nicknamed "Silicon Beach" since the 1990s, as its digital economy has grown. The city's thriving tech cluster includes companies in gaming, fintech, healthtech, and digital marketing, supported by innovation hubs such as Plus X Innovation Brighton. The University of Sussex is home to the Sussex Centre for Quantum Technologies and the Sussex AI research group. American Express maintains a significant operational centre in the city, which employed around 3,000 people in Brighton as of 2012.

Young people in Brighton and Sussex have access to a diverse range of STEM career pathways across the digital, creative, and scientific sectors. The booming tech industry offers roles in software development, data science, UX design, cybersecurity, and digital marketing, with many companies running apprenticeships and graduate programmes. The University of Sussex offers highly regarded programmes in physics, computer science, AI, and engineering. The gaming sector provides pathways into game development, animation, and creative coding.