The British Podcast Awards launch support fund, with a first round of awards for public health

The British Podcast Awards introduced a new program called the BPA Fund to help finance up-and-coming show creators. The project is launching with a £50,000 partnership with Wellcome to offer the Pulse Award. These will give up to £5,000 awards for existing podcasts to run episodes, features, or short-form series engaging on public health topics with the latest scientific research.

“Wellcome invests in science and health research, and we want everyone to be able to benefit from that,” said Imran Khan, head of public engagement at Wellcome. “So it’s really important to us that the public feels they can engage with science and health research. Podcasts are an important and growing medium that can help that connection.”

Matt Hill, BPA co-founder and exec at DAX, noted that all podcast genres can apply for the Pulse Award. “This award is a great opportunity for podcasts of all shapes and sizes to elevate their use of the latest scientific research,” he said. “And the best thing is we’re not limiting this to factual or science podcasts – we welcome entries from all genres, from fiction to true crime.”

Anna Washenko