Maya Jane Coles was one of the young people involved in the Creative Sparks programme right at the very beginning. Maya showed incredible creativity and talent in music and music production, and was mentored by tour and production manager Simon Green. Since then, Maya's career has sky-rocketed, with regular DJ sets in Ibiza, Coachella, the Ministry of Sound and all over the world. In June, Maya was the support act on the Eastern European leg of Depeche Mode's tour and Simon Green joined her as her tour manager! They invited Rick along to the gig in Cluj, Romania with a backstage pass and full access. Maya has also just released a new double album - Take Flight.

We're very happy to have heard from another one of the Creative Sparks for our series on where they've been since being involved in the project. Here's the latest from Hannah Johnston! How did you get involved with Creative Sparks? I completed a Nuffield Bursary in Summer 2008, when I completed a placement at AstraZeneca – a pharmaceutical company – for 6 weeks of my summer holiday. A presentation of my project secured me a place at the National Science Competition, where I was absolutely shocked to place runner-up! Here, I was recognised and approached to become part of the Ignite! Creative Sparks programme. What did you do as part of the Creative Sparks programme? I decided to use my bursa

We are delighted to announce that we are setting up a new Lab_13 in Koli, Finland! The Lab_13 will be a community resource working across both the local school and the national park visitors’ centre. The project will begin at the end of August, when the inaugural Scientist in Residence, Joe Burton, will be heading out to Koli to set up the Lab_13. Joe previously spent six months as a Scientist in Residence at Lab_13 Ghana, extending the reach and scope of the project in the Bosomtwe district, and now works for the Royal Institution. Joe said, ‘I truly believe in Lab_13 as a way for young people to naturally and eagerly develop a scientific understanding of the world around them. I hope that