A trio of Bay of Plenty organisations have been handed government funding to help engage young people in science and technology.

Tauranga's House of Science and Rotorua's Digital Natives, as well as Crown Research Institute Scion, have be granted $18,400, $20,000 and $20,000 respectively for projects aimed at introducing more youngsters to the subjects.

Bay youngsters are being encouraged to engage with science and technology thanks to three government grants. Photo: File.

Science and Innovation Minister Steven Joyce announced nearly $1 million of additional funding has been awarded to 25 new projects across New Zealand as part of the Unlocking Curious Minds fund.

'There was high demand for the pilot, and I am pleased to announce this additional funding for a second tranche of innovative projects to lift public engagement with science and technology,” Steven says.

'We want to support as many of these innovative science and technology-based projects as possible, so the government has provided funding to the next highest ranked applications that were not able to be funded with the initial $1 million available in 2014/15.

'This means 25 new projects will be carried out in communities around New Zealand, on topics from creating communities of young engineers in Waikato and filming the geology of our National Parks to discovering new species of fungi.”

The House of Science has been funded to the tune of $18,400 to run a weekly afterschool programme in Tauranga that will include robots, food science, forensics, flight and other topics.

Rotorua's Digital Natives Academy has received $20,000 to create fun and engaging opportunities to explore computer science, and to encourage young Maori and their whanau to become creators, developers and producers of technology.

This will include weekly sessions on coding, robotics, innovation and Minecraft.

Crown Research Institute Scion, which specialises in forest science and biotechnology, has been funded $20,000 to open its doors to local school students, demonstrating their work and facilities such as fermentation labs and a genetically modified organism field trial site.

A further Unlocking Curious Minds funding round calling for new applications will be announced soon, adds Steven.

The Unlocking Curious Minds programme is part of the Government's strategic plan to encourage all New Zealanders to get engaged with science and technology.

The fund pilot offered two levels of grants: up to $20,000 for local projects, and up to $150,000 for regional or national projects.