Funding

For many of us, the Botanical University Challenge (BUC) is more than a competition — it’s where confidence grows, friendships form, and plant science starts to feel like home.

Each year, we watch students arrive unsure of their place in the discipline, and leave with new knowledge, new networks, and a clearer sense of their future. In 2025, a record 155 students took part, with 98% reporting increased botanical knowledge and over 90% saying the experience strengthened their career aspirations.

BUC has always been built by its community — and kept accessible by a simple principle: it is completely free for students to attend.

This year, for the first time, we are asking for your help.

Following the loss of a major sponsor, we have launched a crowdfunding campaign to ensure BUC 2026 can go ahead at full scale and remain open to all. Every donation, and every share, will help us protect what makes BUC so special.

If BUC has meant something to you — as a participant, supporter, or collaborator — we would be incredibly grateful for your support.

Impact

BUC is helping students to gain new skills and confidence whilst also enabling them to network and feel less isolated. The BUC Student Botany Festival supports hands on learning and careers activity too. We undertake surveys of the students who enter the BUC competition and attend the festival to evaluate its impact. You can read our reports on impact for 2025 and 2024 below.