The SFI Discover Programme Call 2021 is a key part of SFI education and public engagement activity. In line with SFI’s 2025 Strategy: Shaping Our Future, the SFI Discover Programme Call aims to empower and inspire deep public engagement. The programme contributes to the themes of top talent, tangible benefits and a cohesive ecosystem. Through its core objectives, the SFI Discover Programme activity will contribute to growing opportunities for dialogue between science and the public it serves and to improving diversity and inclusion in science, through its aims to broaden participation both geographically and amongst less represented voices in science. Underpinning all of this is SFI’s ambition to empower participation, grow talent and be a beacon of best practice in STEM education and public engagement, while always endeavouring to achieve this through the spirit of inspiration. As we continue to live through the Covid-19 pandemic, SFI is more conscious than ever of the importance of supporting the public to have access to and to understand the complex science underpinning crises such as this, in the context of their lives, their health, the health of their loved ones, and the impact it has on our collective future.