Riot Communications has been working with the Royal Institution (Ri) since 2018 on the PR for its world-renowned Christmas Lectures, the jewel in the Ri’s science communication programme.
In 2025, we built on this long-standing collaboration by handling the media relations for ‘Discover 200’: a project marking 200 years since Michael Faraday founded the Royal Institution’s Lectures and Discourses, and discovered the chemical compound Benzene.
Our goal was to celebrate the Ri’s heritage whilst underlining its continuing relevance today. To do this, we mined the Ri’s extraordinary archive for compelling stories, working closely with Head of Heritage, Charlotte New.
To launch the campaign, we placed an exclusive feature in the Observer, about the fact that Michael Faraday’s rarely-seen notebooks were to go online for the first time. Written while Faraday was an apprentice bookbinder, they offer a window into the mind of the man who would go on to become a game-changing scientist, whose lectures made science accessible to all.
We also worked The Times on a feature about Faraday’s gold colloids – gold particles suspended in liquid, one of the earliest examples of nanoscience – which are being loaned out to other institutions for the first time. Such is their importance to the British history that they were stored deep underground during World War Two, alongside other national treasures such as the Magna Carta.
Other stand-out coverage included: First News – a feature on all the weird and wonderful reasons the Ri is integral to British science; BBC Radio 5 Live – a live tour of the archive with presenter Adrian Chiles, and TimeOut London – a piece of content for social media that highlighted the Ri as a hidden cultural gem within the capital, which was broadcast to millions of Instagram followers.
With this campaign wrapped, we’ll be turning our attention to this year’s Christmas Lectures, which will be given by space scientist, educator and BBC Sky at Night presenter Dr Dame Maggie Aderin-Pocock. Tune in to the BBC this December for an epic voyage through time and space.
To find out more about the Royal Institution please visit: https://www.rigb.org/
