Caixa Geral de Depósitos awarded Native Scientists with the Caixa Social 2025 Award

The award recognizes the organization’s impact in promoting scientific literacy and reducing educational inequalities in Portugal. Through an innovative concept of Circular Education and Science Capital, the programme prioritizes rural areas in Portugal, ensuring that children in those regions meet a scientist from their hometown.

Native Scientists has been awarded the Caixa Social Award 2025 by Caixa Geral de Depósitos (CGD), in recognition of its educational Same Home Town (SHT) programme, an initiative that encourages scientists to return to their former primary schools, inspiring children and vulnerable communities across Portugal. 

The award ceremony took place on October 27th at the Fundação Caixa Geral de Depósitos - Culturgest in Lisbon, and representing Native Scientists were Sara Michels, Impact & Research Lead and Catarina Miranda, Strategic Communications Lead. Of the 286 applications received, 44 were selected across three different categories: 21 social inclusion and solidarity projects, 17 training and capacity-building projects, and 6 healthcare prevention projects. The applications were evaluated by an independent jury composed of distinguished individuals with recognized merit and proven experience in these areas of intervention: Filipe Almeida (President of the Estrutura de Missão Portugal Inovação Social), Filipe Santos (Director at the Universidade Católica Portuguesa), Isabel Mota (former Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian), Maria Marín (Non-Executive Director at CGD), and chaired by António Farinha Morais, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Caixa Geral de Depósitos.

With this recognition from CGD, in the category “training and capacity-building projects”, Native Scientists will strengthen the programme’s presence in two of the country’s regions with lower exposure to science - the archipelagos of Madeira and the Azores. The initiative aims to reach around 450 children in 11 municipalities (one in each island of the archipelagos) and involve 11 volunteer scientists returning to their former primary schools. 

“The Caixa Social Award will allow us to consolidate the work we began last year, when we reached all the islands of Portugal for the first time. We will continue inspiring children in every corner of the country, from Corvo to Porto Santo, promoting equal opportunities and showing that science can - and should - be for everyone,” said Beatriz Amado, Funding Manager and Programme Lead at Native Scientists.

This recognition, consolidates Native Scientists as a reference in promoting inclusive and transformative science education, continuing its commitment to “making science a possibility for every child.”

“If I want to, I can be a scientist”

To humanize science in areas with less exposure and break down stereotypes about science and scientists, the programme aims to enhance skills, boost children’s scientific literacy, and nurture their curiosity and critical thinking - shaping them into reflective future citizens. Scientists’ returning to their hometowns also sparks community-wide conversations about science, bringing together teachers, municipalities, local media, and families, and bridging the gap between science and society.

The awarded programme also impacts the scientists themselves, who receive Science Communication training and contribute to educating future generations; the teachers, who are encouraged to implement new, hands-on lessons with access to new resources; the municipalities, which accompany the workshops and build relationships with scientists; and the children’s families, who engage with science through pre-workshop activities.

The SHT programme includes five key stages: pre-workshop activity (preparation), workshop day with the scientist, post-workshop activity (consolidation of learning), completion of an interactive booklet, and an award ceremony.

Native’s work is based on the concept of Science Capital, developed by Louise Archer at King’s College London, which advocates that children should build strong, personal connections with science - fostering a more humanized image of science and scientists.

The programme also draws on the innovative concept of Circular Education, which promotes the idea of giving back to one’s community. Applying this concept through science education makes it possible to reach schools where children have less access to science (and lower levels of scientific literacy) and fewer extracurricular science enrichment opportunities, helping transform vicious cycles into virtuous ones by connecting children and scientists who share similar sociocultural backgrounds.

About Native Scientists

Founded in 2013, Native Scientists is an award-winning, pan-European, non-profit organisation connecting children and scientists in underserved communities. It exists to broaden children’s horizons through meaningful science education, promoting scientific literacy and reducing inequalities.

About the Caixa Social Award 2025

The Caixa Social Award is an initiative by Caixa Geral de Depósitos that funds social projects developed by third-sector organizations in Portugal. The theme of this edition is “Giving priority to those who need it most”, with the goal of supporting initiatives that address real social needs, particularly in vulnerable communities.