Membership information
"Membership of Ecsite has proved to be a highly beneficial action for the National Marine Aquarium that has opened up a whole area of expertise, experience and enthusiasm."
Kelvin Boot, Director, National Marine Aquarium
What is Ecsite?
Ecsite - the European Collaborative for Science, Industry and Technology Exhibitions - is a non-profit collaborative of science centres and museums. Its objective is to promote public awareness of science and technology, and to facilitate co-operation between science-technology centres, museums and related institutions in Europe. Ecsite offers its members projects, programmes and services, sharing resources and information, aiming to improve and co-ordinate their activities. All members of Ecsite-uk are, de facto, members of Ecsite Europe and receive all the benefits of European membership.
What is Ecsite-uk?
Ecsite members located in the UK are automatically members of Ecsite-uk, the network of science centres and museums.
Further to the purposes of Ecsite, Ecsite-uk has three specific aims:
- to develop ideas, structures and resources to support the sustainable development of Science and Discovery Centres (SDCs) and Museums
- to develop recurrent funding for SDC programmes of education and widening access to science and technology in Britain
- to raise the profile and quality of SDCs UK-wide, and establish their role as a forum for dialogue between the general public and scientists of all kinds.
Who are the members?
Ecsite Full Members are non-profit science and discovery centres, museums and similar organisations. They have voting rights at Ecsite's AGM held during the annual conference - Ecsite2003 in Munich, Ecsite2004 in Barcelona, Ecsite2005 in Helsinki - and are eligible for election to Ecsite's pan-European Board. They also have a fast-track into projects developed at the European level by Ecsite's Brussels office.
Associate members are individuals and smaller non-profit museums and centres. Associate members also include institutions and individuals beyond Europe who share Ecsite's aims and are keen to participate in Ecsite activities. Associates located in the UK have voting rights at the Ecsite-uk AGM held in September during the BA's annual festival - 2005 in Dublin.
Sustaining members are for-profit organisations who create products and services for the sector, and are keen to participate in Ecsite activities. Each Sustaining member of Ecsite-uk has one vote.
Membership benefits
The benefits of membership are:
- you will have access to Ecsite's on-line directory, including practical information on over 200 members
- four times a year, you receive the Ecsite newsletter
- through www.ecsite.net you are aware of, and able to join, any cooperative project that is developing
- you will be able to host travelling exhibitions that Ecsite has made available to its members at special rates (even free)
- you register at a reduced fee for the Annual Conference
- the Executive Office is available to you, offering further information and advice.
Additionally, UK-based members of Ecsite, are also a members of Ecsite-uk, the National Science and Discovery Centre Network, offering:
- access to www.ecsite-uk.net
- the monthly Ecsite-uk e-Newsletter, providing news of events, funding opportunities and policy developments of relevance to the UK science-discovery-centre sector
- access to the Executive Director, offering further support and dedicated full-time to achieving the aims of Ecsite-uk (see above).