A major role of the North West Region is to stimulate interest in analytical chemistry in youngsters.

We attach great importance to supporting the very successful Schools Analyst Competition which is held annually and involves schools spread throughout the UK.

We also organise fun events for primary school children and help arrange schools lectures throughout the Region. Our committee members also visit schools to promote chemistry and offer careers advice.

We are currently re-branding Streamwatch under the H2OWatch banner to reflect the the excellent outreach work on this activity undertaken by staff and students at Manchester Metropolitan Univeristy. This project encourages youngsters to perform chemical analysis using simple analytical test kits which can be taken into the field to measure parameters such as pH, nitrate, dissolved oxygen, hardness, turbidity and temperature and thus provide information on the health of local streams and ponds.

The North West Region also provides travel grants to schools to enable students to visit local universities and obtain hands-on experience of modern analytical instrumentation.