INSPIRING FUTURES STRATEGIC PRIORITIES 2017–2030: REISSUED 2020 INSPIRING FUTURES: STRATEGIC PRIORITIES 2017–2030: REISSUED 2020 INSPIRING FUTURES: STRATEGIC PRIORITIES 2017–2030: REISSUED 2020 CONTENTS

Note on 2020 reissue PREFACE 4 This long-term strategy was first published in 2017 as the culmination of FOREWORD 6 a rigorous process that began in 2015. It is a living document and the need for INTRODUCTION 8 review and adaptation before 2030 was acknowledged from the start. A formal STRATEGIC PRIORITIES commitment to review the strategic priorities after no less than five years is built in (p12) and will fall in 2022. But Rising priorities at 2020 12 the progress we have already made in realising our mission to inspire futures, Grow science capital in 16 and the fast pace of change within the individuals and society Group and the external environment, have led us to this interim review and Grow our audiences and 20 refresh of the original document. exceed their expectations Inspiring Futures was always conceived as an overarching framework, not Sustain and grow our 24 a straitjacket. It continues to be a world-class collection touchstone for our planning and activities, with a focus on the seven Extend our international reach 28 strategic priorities. In refreshing the document for this edition, we have Transform our estate 33 kept changes to a minimum. Mostly, changes are updating, as follows: Harness the potential of digital 36 - Changes to titles of people, organisations and initiatives Increase income 39 - Revision of numbers and data, where more recent data was MONITORING PROGRESS 42 available, including the information boxes containing charts, tables and lists in each strategic priority section - Addition of some recent activity and plans

In addition, we are addressing other significant areas that have moved up the Group’s agenda since 2017 and that we anticipate will be more comprehensively articulated in the next phase of Inspiring Futures from 2022. These include a vigorously renewed focus on sustainability and a raft of issues around people; these rising priorities are outlined in a new section to supplement the existing An Explainer leads a live science demonstration at the Chemistry strategic priorities (p12). Bar in Wonderlab, the Science Museum’s interactive gallery

The revised text was approved by the All images © The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum unless Board of Trustees in February 2020. otherwise stated

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Each of the museums within the Group build on this. Our sponsor department, We extend our warm thanks to Science has international stature, as well as the Department for Digital, Culture, Museum Group Trustee and former a fierce sense of pride in its regional Media & Sport (DCMS), launched its Science Minister Lord Willetts, who heritage. As a result, we have immense culture white paper in March 2016, chaired the strategy review group, and potential for increasing ‘science and it has been pleasing to see how to all Trustees and external experts capital’ across large and diverse well our own ambitions map onto who advised, guided and challenged audiences. Investment in our museums government priorities. us throughout the review process. across the UK has long been part of our We embark on the implementation plan to move the Group’s centre The Science Museum Group is restless, of Inspiring Futures with confidence of gravity northwards. ambitious and innovative in pursuit and optimism, encouraged by the of these objectives, and much has continuing support of our Trustees The strategic priorities identified changed since our previous strategy and external advisers, colleagues, key in Inspiring Futures will not only was formulated – not least the stakeholders and the visiting public. encourage and empower the Group addition of the Science and Industry to aim higher but will also enable us Museum in Manchester to the Group. to sustain our role as a world leader We therefore took the opportunity of in both the science and museum the impending mid-term review of our sectors, and to deliver world-class and previous strategy document, Strategic inspirational experiences. As a Group, Ambitions 2012–2022, to create the we will continue to push boundaries new and holistic approach for the whole and in turn grow in confidence, energy of the Group set out in this document. and ambition. Over the next decade and beyond, we will sustain the impact and We succeed through our people. breadth of our science, technology, Inspiring Futures touches every Dame Mary Archer, Chairman engineering and mathematics (STEM) part of the organisation and is the offer; develop, grow and increase responsibility of all our teams. access to our extraordinary world-class Running throughout this document is collection; extend our international appreciation of what we have achieved reach; transform our estate; become together so far, and confidence that digital world leaders; and increase our we will continue to adapt and develop self-generated income – all the while in future. In order to deliver on our exceeding our audience’s expectations. aspirations, we do need to increase capacity, not merely in numbers, but Sir Ian Blatchford, Director Dame Mary Archer, Chairman of the Science Museum Group, and The five museums of the Science Museum Group We are a key player in the national in skills and behaviours such as digital Sir Ian Blatchford, Director are a key national resource. With our unparalleled science ecosystem. We work with a and entrepreneurship. We also need range of partners at home and abroad, to be able to share skills and people collections in the fields of science, technology, joining forces with distinguished appropriately across the organisation. engineering, mathematics and medicine, we are partners such as the Royal Society, the The Group will also increase the sum Royal Academy of Engineering and the of its human resources and create uniquely placed to draw people of all ages to Wellcome Trust. On the international more routes to participation through engage with science in an inspirational and informal scene we are making strides as a leader a broader range of opportunities, in soft power, from the recent ground- including volunteering and new way. Over 600,000 of the Group’s 5 million-plus breaking Cosmonauts exhibition at apprenticeships. visitors each year come in education groups, so the Science Museum, and then in Moscow, to the signing of partnership we have an extraordinary capacity to open people’s agreements with museums in Brazil, minds to the creativity and wonder of science. China and South Korea; and we will

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Opposite: Tim Peake, the first British astronaut in space for more than 20 years, is pictured with Ian Blatchford (left) and Lord SCIENCE Willetts (right) at the press conference for his Principia mission, which was held at the IN SOCIETY Science Museum

From the post-war era we have Baby, a ignorant of these disciplines – and new Medicine galleries, shows the working replica of the earliest stored- what better way for us to educate extraordinarily diverse ways in program computer, Watson and Crick’s ourselves than by going to the Science which people have hoped to be model of the structure of DNA, and Museum? It is a great way to learn cured of disease. one of the Apollo capsules that took and to ignite curiosity about science. men to the Moon and back. These are There is a barely suppressed sense Technology is science put to use, and objects of profound significance for all of excitement about our objects and for every object in our collection there of us – they tell a global story, not just events – the past 12 months have seen has been a person who designed it a British one, and one that continues to the first journey of the restored Flying or used it. So these museums full of influence our future. Scotsman and the real-time link to scientific objects also tell us about our the launch of Tim Peake’s flight to the humanity. They place science at the The deliberations for Inspiring International Space Station. Educating heart of society – where it belongs. Futures have reminded us of the and enthusing people of every age And that means we must do more to obligations that follow from holding about science and technology is a illuminate today’s controversies. We this extraordinary collection – curating crucial part of our mission. will invest more in exhibitions which are and explaining it, continuing to add to vivid and contemporary, following on it at a pace which matches the speed We also place science and technology from our recent successes. How does of technological and industrial change, at the heart of the history of our nation fracking work and does it pose any and making the collection easy to – and the world. One of the planned environmental threats? What is climate access online. Over the next 15 years new galleries in the Science Museum change? What are GM crops? How does we will be investing in new galleries shows that the rise of London in the the brain work? and buildings across the whole Group 17th and 18th centuries was intimately on a scale greater than ever before linked to its becoming a centre of In the following pages we set out the to discharge those obligations even science, which depended on the mission for the Science Museum Group better. Our objects are imbued with instrument-makers who made much of and how we will fulfil this through our meaning and significance and we will the science possible. This in turn was museums in the period up to 2030. do more to explain this. These are the driven by a mixture of royal patronage, Our priorities will obviously adjust classic obligations of a world-class independent-minded scientific and adapt in the light of changing museum. But there is more. curiosity and plain commercial circumstances, but we hope this gives cunning. The world’s oldest passenger you a sense of the high ambitions FOREWORD BY THE RIGHT HONOURABLE The objects in our great historic railway station was at Liverpool Road, which everyone working in the Science collections are not necessarily Manchester, and the Science and Museum Group has for the future. LORD WILLETTS OF HAVANT beautiful (though it is striking how Industry Museum’s plans for its site will many of our objects are things of once more put that station at the heart April 2017 Our collections in Manchester, Bradford, York, beauty): they were made to do of Manchester’s civic life. something, and the things they did David Willetts was Minister for Science Shildon and London tell the story of the making fundamentally changed people’s lives. The bold plans for transformation from 2010 to 2014 and, as a Trustee of of the modern world. The origins of the Industrial The museums were founded to do of York around the National Railway the Science Museum Group (2015–19), something as well – to place science at Museum will make it far more chaired the strategy review in 2015/16. Revolution can be seen in one of Richard Arkwright’s the heart of our culture. The Science accessible than ever before. The machines using water power to drive a belt which Museum was founded in the early 20th National Science and Media Museum century during one of those periodic has refocused its mission on the turns four spindles making cotton into yarn. We British scares that we were falling science and technology of sound have Stephenson’s Rocket and the first jet engine, behind in scientific research and and image, and on connecting more technological innovation. Too many of to local communities. Henry Wellcome’s the first synthetic dye, the earliest surviving us reach adulthood and realise that medical collection, which will be at photographic negative and many other ‘firsts’. our education has left us shockingly the heart of the Science Museum’s

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Strategic priorities supporting priorities: that is, areas in Vision, mission and values Seven key priorities will drive our which a need for significant growth or The long-term strategic priorities that activity in this period: change has been identified for the period INTRODUCTION will drive our activity in this period covered by this document, even where are founded upon a vision, mission Core priorities the activity might otherwise be seen as and values that are shared across 1. Grow science capital in individuals ‘business as usual’. This may arise from the organisation. and society a need to make a step change in order 2. Grow our audiences and exceed to address previous underinvestment Our mission, Inspiring Futures, acts as their expectations (eg in digital infrastructure), from a our ‘North Star’ to ensure consistency 3. Sustain and grow our world-class change in external circumstances (eg in all our discussions and decisions. collection declining Grant in Aid or the vote to Each museum also has a distinctive leave the EU), or from the scale and focus that reflects its own remit. Supporting priorities significance of the activity itself (eg 4. Extend our international reach maintaining and developing our estate). Group vision 5. Transform our estate A society that celebrates science, 6. Harness the potential of digital The main part of this document is technology and engineering and 7. Increase income structured around these seven priorities. their impact on our lives, now and in Under each one our aspirations for where the future. The first three – science capital, we want to be by 2030 are articulated, audiences and collections – followed by a short rationale that Group mission are designated core priorities, includes the current position and key We inspire futures by: fundamental to our statutory challenges, and a summary of what • Creative exploration of science, responsibilities and all we do. The other we will do in this strategy period. The technical innovation and industry, four – international, estate, digital document concludes with a note on and how they made and sustain and income – may be considered as accountability and monitoring progress. modern society • Building a scientifically literate society, using the history, present and future of science, technology, medicine, transport and media to grow science capital • Inspiring the next generations of scientists, inventors and engineers

Group values We will: • Think big • Reveal wonder • Share authentic stories • Ignite curiosity • Be open for all Structure The Science Museum Group comprises: digital) and typically span periods of two to five years. Focus of each museum • The Science Museum, London Inspiring Futures reflects our intention to make more of • The Science Museum explores the • The Science and Industry Museum, Manchester the power of the Group while retaining the distinctive science, technology, engineering, • The National Railway Museum, York remit and character of our individual museums. We have mathematics and medicine that • Locomotion, Shildon a venerable history originating – like so many of our shape our lives • The National Science and Media Museum, Bradford great cultural and educational institutions – in the Great • The Science and Industry Museum • The National Collections Centre, Wroughton Exhibition of 1851. But we have always been a dynamic explores how ideas can change organisation, responding to change and opportunities. the world, from the Industrial This document sets out our priorities for the period Over more than a century we have innovated and Revolution to today 2017–30 (reissued 2020). It concentrates on areas of developed into the world’s most significant museum group • The National Railway Museum change, identifying where we want to be by 2030, and for science, technology and engineering, and the most and Locomotion explore the huge what it will take to get there. It is not a comprehensive national of the UK’s national museums, with five of our impact of railways on Britain and list of everything that we will do. Indeed, it could never six sites outside London. We know that the world will look the wider world be because we intend to do a lot – more than could ever different by 2030, and so will our Group; this document • The National Science and be contained within such a document. Also, it covers a will probably be superseded by then, but it captures our Media Museum explores the long period and the later years cannot be anticipated aspirations now and provides a road map for our future. transformative impact of image and with certainty. Our annual business plans will sit within sound technologies on our lives this overarching framework, with each year coming into sharper focus as it approaches. This framework is further Clockwise from top left: The Science Museum; the National Soyuz TMA-19M descent module, supported by a number of strategies and plans that cover Science and Media Museum; the National Railway Museum; acquired for the Science Museum specific areas of activity (eg audience development or Locomotion; the Science and Industry Museum Group collection in 2016

8 9 Curatorial approach • Technology, engineering and Alongside these core and supporting innovation: how ideas become priorities, our museums share three reality and impact on people’s lives core principles that guide our approach We show how science, technology to curation and display and capitalise and engineering have changed the on the unique opportunities we have world and how they are addressing as collections-based museums that today’s – and tomorrow’s – include both sciences and arts. A big societal challenges and common approach fosters cooperation opportunities. These include across the Science Museum Group and energy, sustainability and will be used to deliver a consistent adaptation to climate change; mission and standards. artificial intelligence and robotics; power and locomotion; data Core principles and informatics; computing and • Connecting the past, the present telecommunication; materials and and the future: we illuminate the manufacturing. Such a list may look history of science, technology different several years from now, and engineering through our but our Group will be the nexus for unparalleled collections, but public interaction with research we also provide contemporary and innovation. context and look to the future. • Biosciences: the history • A broad definition of science: and future of life sciences we showcase and explain science and medicine as a method for securing a deeper, We explore how humans perceive systematic understanding of our and interact with their world, world, and we demonstrate the and how we can lead better lives fertile relationships between through medicine, technology and different scientific disciplines. design. We will foster discussion of the controversies and ethical • Science as culture: we explore questions these technologies science, technology and create. We will present the issues engineering as creative and arising from dramatic advances entrepreneurial pursuits, and in biomedical sciences, including reflect science as a facet of neuroscience, agrisciences, broader culture. synthetic biology, genetics and genomics. Science and technology themes A number of important scientific Opposite: Visitors get up close to the and technological themes will also Mallard locomotive in the Great Hall at inform our curation, research and the National Railway Museum programming across the Group in this period. They will act as a backbone, while retaining flexibility to develop creative and nimble responses to change and acknowledging the distinct appeal and remits of our individual museums.

• Understanding the universe: capturing, analysing and interpreting the physical world In addressing fundamental science (matter, materials, forces, maths), we will tell enthralling stories around light and sound, space and the cosmos, and measurement. We show how humankind has sought – and continues to seek – to understand and visualise the world around us.

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Sir David Attenborough, Sir Ian Blatchford and Darren Moorcroft, CEO of the Woodland Trust, plant trees with schoolchildren at the Science Museum to mark the Science Museum Group’s climate-focused public programme as part of the UK Year of Climate Action RISING PRIORITIES AT 2020

Sustainability expressed in a sustainability strategy Climate change is one of the most to be approved and published in 2020 serious threats facing our world. The and more extensively covered in the Science Museum Group is clear that next iteration of the long-term Inspiring evidence shows that climate change Futures strategy. is being driven by human activity and that we must act urgently to reduce There are two main pillars for the greenhouse gas emissions if we are to Science Museum Group’s sustainability avoid increasingly dangerous impacts actions: our public offer and our own in the future. The Intergovernmental operation and practice. In both cases Panel on Climate Change’s Special we have achieved a lot in recent years, Report (October 2018) on the impact of but our visitors, our stakeholders and a 1.5°C global warming is clear that, if our colleagues deserve a stronger we are to avoid such impacts, profound narrative and more transparent and unprecedented transformation of delivery plan. our energy, land, urban and industrial systems across all sectors including We have a great story to tell about what energy, transport, business and we have already achieved, including: government is called for – an enormous a 25% decrease in energy use and a challenge at local and global scales. 69% drop in carbon emissions since 2011/12 (despite a 24% increase in As a prominent voice in the science floor area of our estate); creating a field, we take our influence on an ground-breaking gallery on climate environmentally resilient future science, Atmosphere, in 2010 that has seriously. Public awareness of already inspired over 5 million visitors; human-induced climate change and purchasing all our electricity from sustainability issues – and calls for renewable sources (except at Blythe action – have increased significantly in House store); hosting one of the UK’s recent years and we have opportunities biggest solar farms at our National to help inform the debate through our Collections Centre site at Wroughton; actions and our programming. For the and planting 43,000 trees on our Science Museum Group, sustainability estate. is not a project or a programme but has become our culture and part of In 2018 we appointed a Sustainability everything we do. We will lead the Partner to improve momentum field in public engagement with the on sustainability and establish an science of climate change, mitigation environmental approach in line with and adaptation as well as exploring the our colleagues’ and our audiences’ opportunities around energy transition. expectations. This initiative is Our actions and aspirations will be supported by a new Sustainability

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Science Museum Explainers Advisory Board that includes external advisers from industry • An exhibition on carbon capture in the Tomorrow’s World and volunteers interacting and academia, and a Sustainability Guiding Team of around gallery at the Science Museum from November 2020, with our young audiences at 40 colleagues from across the Group. We are on a journey potentially with a satellite exhibition at the COP26 the Top Secret: From Ciphers to embed environmental decision-making by empowering venue itself to Cyber Security exhibition colleagues and visitors to choose personal actions that build • An exhibition on future battery technology in the towards an emissions reduction target that is bold, robust Tomorrow’s World gallery from November 2021 and informed by science. • Manchester Science Festival in October 2020 will focus on climate change and sustainability We are even more ambitious for the future and we have • Bradford Science Festival 2020 will explore ways to already started the work. In the short term we have reduce the environmental impact of city-wide events identified ways to shift our operations towards greater • Science Museum Masterplan Phase 2, 2020–2030 – sustainability, with emphasis on reducing energy use and sustainability narratives may be woven into many capital greenhouse gas emissions, and greater sustainability in our development projects as we continue to update and procurement. Among other things we will: renew our museum, but those with specific sustainability • Significantly reduce business travel (eg by installing content at their core include: video conferencing facilities throughout the Group) • Feed the World (working title) – a new gallery on • Build on the sustainability principles embedded in food sustainability and contemporary agriculture; Masterplan projects through our whole-life approach to in advance of this a discrete research project will design, procurement and performance; Building One at be undertaken in the UK, Brazil and India in 2020 to the National Collections Centre, due for completion in understand public attitudes to food and food 2023, will be an exemplar in the heritage sector for low security around the world energy use and design • Global Challenges (working title) – a new synoptic • Extend our tree-planting programme, aiming to plant gallery 1,000 new native, locally sourced trees each year and • A new outdoor garden to be created at the Science introducing wildlife- and biodiversity-friendly elements Museum in partnership with the Woodland Trust into developments across our estate, especially at the • Atmosphere gallery Phase 2 – the current gallery National Collections Centre at Wroughton focuses on the carbon cycle and has successfully • Enable colleagues to contribute to our sustainability raised awareness of climate science among our People agenda through dedicated consultation and training audience; the second edition will focus on positive At the Science Museum Group we solutions to greenhouse gas removal and global recognise the critical importance of Our public programme and enormous reach provide a unique stories our people to achieving our mission. platform to explore, explain and promote sustainability • Our transformational Vision 2025 plans for the National We directly employ around 1,200 issues. This is especially true in 2020, the year in which the Railway Museum in York and Locomotion in Shildon people, and many more colleagues UK hosts the UN International Conference of Parties (COP26) include improving the environment for both wildlife and are involved as part of our wider in Glasgow – bringing nations together to encourage greater visitors through the creation of a large area of parkland community, including volunteers, pledges in greenhouse gas emission reductions – and in in York and raised beds at Locomotion contractors, Trustees and advisers. which the renewed vigour of our approach to sustainability • At the Science and Industry Museum in Manchester Guided by our core values, we aspire to programming starts to be manifested. Significant projects our redeveloped outdoor spaces will include extensive be an organisation of high-performing, already in the pipeline (but subject to confirmation) include: new box planting across the 3-hectare historic empowered and engaged people who city-centre site. are passionate about our mission and can inspire and deliver change through a common sense of purpose. Visitors at the opening of artist We are actively exploring how to better A workplace improvement and • A volunteering strategy that is Joshua Sofaer’s The understand, support and engage our engagement plan that seeks to address more closely aligned to our science Rubbish Collection people across the whole employee life key issues raised from our employees capital priority and better reflects at the Science cycle to make the Science Museum while creating more opportunities for our social objectives Museum. Sofaer Group a great place to work. employee voice is being implemented, • A diversity and inclusion strategy used 30 days’ worth of rubbish monitored at senior level. It ranges that aspires to achieve a workforce from the museum As part of our commitment to from small ‘quick wins’ to bigger, that better reflects communities to create a display enhancing employee engagement, more complex activities, and seeks we serve that exposed the we regularly create opportunities to to extend examples of good practice • An impactful and inclusive learning materials, the beauty, the value listen to feedback from colleagues at across the Group. Improving internal and development offer that and the volume both organisational and local or topic- communications is a key focus of supports the organisation’s ability behind our ‘rubbish’ specific level and using a variety of this plan and we will strive to make a to deliver its strategic objectives, formats such as pulse surveys, drop-in genuine step change here. Other supports career development open sessions, working groups and broad areas that are currently in our and progression, and has positive targeted consultations. An example sights include: cultural impact across the Group is the strengthened sustainability • A proactive approach to wellbeing, • Investment in accommodation and agenda, as outlined above: three- including the introduction of workplace facilities quarters of our colleagues said that Mental Health First Aiders across • Using the five-year review of sustainability was extremely important all our sites, along with wider this Inspiring Futures long-term to them, and we aim to harness their wellbeing training strategy itself as an opportunity knowledge and enthusiasm through for increased staff engagement the Sustainability Guiding Team. between 2020 and 2022

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By 2030: • We will be recognised as being of strategic importance to the UK STEM agenda and sought out by policymakers, funders, peers and partners. • We will reach many more people beyond our walls through outreach and new programmes, including through national and international partnerships, compared with the 2014/15 baseline. • The Science Museum will remain the number-one UK Clockwise from top: Young adult visitors museum destination for school groups. at a Lates event at the Science and Industry • Our online learning resources will be highly regarded for Museum as part of Manchester Science Festival; a young visitor to the quality and widely used throughout the UK and around new Wonderlab interactive gallery at the the world. Science Museum; the Locos in a Different • Our museums will be key destinations for adult Light event at the National Railway Museum audiences. how people from all backgrounds Research confirms that informal Igniting curiosity in science engage with science and how their STEM experiences have a deep The Science Museum Group plays a central and irreplaceable engagement can be increased through and sustained effect on people. role in deepening and expanding science literacy in the UK. different science-related experiences. Our impact as the most visited set The breadth of resources in the Group, the diversity of the We led the development of practical of museums by education groups, audiences and communities we serve, and the expertise applications of the science capital combined with strengths in teacher embedded in our teams, collections and exhibitions are concept for the informal science professional development and world-class resources for public engagement in STEM. Our learning sector and are pioneering millions of public visitors, affords organising principle is to build science capital to enrich this approach through organisational us a unique position within the UK’s people’s lives and enhance their contributions to society. change across our museums. STEM learning ecosystem.

Science capital is a concept that encompasses the myriad Our concern is for the whole of factors that influence people’s attitudes towards science, society. Progress here may be including who they know as well as what they know, past indicated by large-scale, long-term experience and exposure, and education. From 2013 we national projects such as the regular worked in partnership with King’s College London, University Public Attitudes to Science surveys College London and BP on the Enterprising Science project. Noise Orchestra take over as Artists in Residence conducted by the Department for This used the concept of science capital to understand at the National Science and Media Museum Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy.

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From 2020 we will implement a new Group-wide learning Amplifying reach and impact Hub across the trans-Pennine region; strategy that builds on our strengths while being newly Our overarching challenge is to offer even greater access through almost 40,000 volunteering ambitious in terms of reach, reputation and innovation. across all platforms and audiences. We must reach beyond hours per year, industry professionals our museums with outreach activity and digital engagement, share their expertise and career paths It is founded on our core learning principles: and work in local, national and international partnerships. with children and young people. With Each of our museums brings expertise to bear on the reach support from founding partner BP, in • We ignite curiosity in science. We do not teach or and impact of our learning activity. The National Science and 2018 we launched the Science Museum lecture our audiences about science but seek to Media Museum focuses on working with local communities Group Academy as the home of science inform and inspire. and organisations to engage underserved communities engagement training and our courses • We play our part in an ecosystem of STEM learning with STEM and is developing into a centre of excellence in reached 1,400 teachers, scientists and where we support and encourage our audiences to this field. The National Railway Museum’s Future Engineers museum professionals in its first year. extend their learning within and beyond our museums. events are now an established programme that engages The Academy draws on our science • We put audiences at the heart of everything we do children in school and family groups with engineering as capital approach and huge experience and aspire to provide people with life-enhancing an interest and possible career. In 2018 it was a highlight in engaging audiences with STEM experiences. of the government’s Year of Engineering and from 2019 it through contemporary science, • We use the principles of science capital to shape all is taking place at multiple Science Museum Group sites. hands-on experiences and object science engagement experiences. Working with STEM Learning, we run the STEM Ambassador interpretation, shaped and informed by ongoing research.

Policymakers, industrial leaders and educators agree that future generations must be informed, enthusiastic and LEARNING VISITS skilled in STEM if the UK is to retain its role as a global leader. We have Participation Diversity a distinctive role in addressing this In 2018/19 there were 1.6 million instances of 40% of UK visits made in education groups in 2018/19 priority as a national and international people taking part in organised learning activities were by visitors with a black, Asian and minority leader in STEM education. Our work across all our museums, and over 300,000 in ethnic (BAME) background. will be underpinned by, and delivered off-site learning activities. through, strong academic networks and research partnerships with universities and colleges. There is more to do in Education group visit numbers Proportion of UK school group visitors receiving communicating this role to government, free school meals in 2018/19 funders and industry so that we are 700,000 recognised as essential to achieving their respective goals.

600,000 In order to sustain the breadth of our learning activity, and in line with our 500,000 supporting priority of increasing self- 14% generated income, we need to increase the financial efficiency of our operations From top: An 400,000 and be more entrepreneurial about Explainer engages generating income. with family visitors at the National 300,000 We will: Science and Media • Use the principle of science capital Museum; visitors Science Museum to the Wonder to describe and shape our learning 200,000 Group Materials: content and programmes across all Graphene and our sites. Beyond exhibition • Deliver a successful Wonderlab offer at the Science and 100,000 Industry Museum; at our museums in London, Bradford, TeachFirst seminar Manchester and York. on STEM education 0 • Build on the success of the held at the Science 2014/15 2015/16 2016/17 2017/18 2018/19 Science Museum Group Academy, Museum 13% extending its reach in the UK and National Science and Media Museum internationally. • Develop a sector-leading offer for Locomotion early-years children. • Provide experiences for older National Railway Museum children and teenagers which Science and Industry Museum support their future career choices. UK school Science Museum population • Bring maths and computing fully into our offer for schools and families.

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By 2030: We aim to do science and technology exhibitions better • Total visit numbers to our sites will be sustained at more than anywhere else. Temporary exhibitions and programmes than 6 million per year. provide reasons to visit and revisit. The Science Museum has GROW OUR • The quality of visitor experience will consistently had some notable successes, such as Collider: Step Inside exceed baseline 2014/15 levels at all museums. the World’s Greatest Experiment, Cosmonauts: Birth of the • Exhibitions and programmes at all sites will be Space Age and Robots, demonstrating our ability to use recognised for excellence in content and presentation, rigorous scholarship, authentic objects and excellent design indicated by visit numbers, positive feedback from in popular exhibitions. AUDIENCES AND visitors and reviewers, and the receipt of awards. • Visitor profiles will reflect the communities we aim to Starting from successful transfer of exhibitions between serve, for the museums in general and for targeted London and Manchester, we now share exhibitions and programmes. programme planning more systematically across the Group. • Exhibitions and other public programmes will routinely For example, the tour of Tim Peake’s Soyuz spacecraft, EXCEED THEIR be shared and codeveloped between museums. Sokol spacesuit and VR experience went to all five museums • We will be the leading national museum for in 2018/19 and the National Railway Museum’s One Billion volunteering and apprenticeships. Journeys: Wang Fuchun’s Chinese on the Train will follow suit between 2019 and 2022. EXPECTATIONS Who, what, why – and how many? Since 2011/12 we have welcomed well over 5 million visits The Science and Industry Museum is investing in a per year to our museums. Millions more experience our new dedicated space for special exhibitions and has a We will understand and consistently meet or exceed offer online and elsewhere, eg at touring exhibitions, partnership with the Wellcome Collection. The National schools and festivals. Railway Museum’s major successes through events, such as our visitors’ expectations; we reach and reflect the the Mallard 75 and Flying Scotsman seasons, and productive communities we aim to serve. Our audiences vary between our museums, for different collaboration with York Theatre Royal have been mirrored events, at different times of year and even at different in exhibitions such as Testing and One Billion Journeys. times of day. We know a lot about their demographics, why The National Science and Media Museum has changed its they visit, what they do when they are here and what they focus to meet the needs of local audiences and the broader think about it. We also investigate why some people do not STEM agenda. This is manifested in projects such as the visit. We use this research in planning and evaluating our burgeoning annual Bradford Science Festival and Bradford’s activities, and constantly add to the body of knowledge. National Museum, the research project behind the exhibition But there is always more to do. Each of our museums has Above the Noise. an Audience Development Plan that identifies areas for improvement and potential growth. While visit numbers are important, and there is scope for increases at all our sites, we also focus on the quality of the Opposite: Young visitors go wild watching museum experience. We want people to be entertained, but Tim Peake’s launch into space during a day-long also to leave thinking that they have learned something and TV broadcast from the Science Museum see the world differently.

AUDIENCES Total visits Proportions of visitor types in 2018/19

6,000,000

5,000,000 100%

4,000,000 80%

3,000,000 60%

2,000,000 40%

1,000,000 20%

0 0% 2014/15 2015/16 2016/17 2017/18 2018/19 Science Locomotion National National Science and Museum Railway Science and Industry Museum Media Museum Museum National Science and Media Museum

Locomotion Cinema

National Railway Museum Education groups

Science and Industry Museum Independent adults

Science Museum Families

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Sector-leading audience research Deepening understanding, meeting As well as developing our employees, informs the development of our needs, exceeding expectations we know that our users have a lot to exhibitions and programmes from Notwithstanding growth in online visits offer. The contribution of volunteers to the start and throughout major and social media engagement, our our public programmes has been much projects, and evaluates outcomes primary means of engaging and serving appreciated by visitors and colleagues. after opening. We know that visitors our audiences are our five museums. We plan to extend this programme want clear explanations of the Our museums in the North offer the so that every major exhibition and science, technology and engineering greatest opportunities for increasing certain behind-the-scenes projects (eg on display, and why the selected visit numbers. This is especially true collections digitisation) are enhanced issues and artefacts are important. in York, where a set of major capital by volunteers, who themselves have a Visitors want different levels of developments – collectively known rewarding experience. interpretation, and artefacts embody as Vision 2025 – has the potential to multiple stories. Digital is a means of deliver 1.2 million visits per year by Audiences are increasingly providing multilayered information, positioning the museum as the cultural sophisticated in the technology by which users can go as wide or deep heart of one of Europe’s most ambitious they use, the places they go and the as they wish and may make their own city-centre regeneration projects. service they expect. There is more contributions. and more competition for their time Temporary exhibitions afford and attention, and their money. We We are committed to diversity and opportunities to focus on particular need to be similarly sophisticated in inclusion. We seek to eliminate or topics or issues, to look at our our understanding of what people minimise barriers to engagement and collection in different ways, and to – all types of people – want and, participation everywhere. We also bring in artefacts and expertise from where appropriate, what they might offer dedicated programmes for a elsewhere. Over time a broad range of pay for. Technology can help in range of audience groups where the audience segments may be targeted. this. A new customer relationship numbers hardly impact on our overall No single gallery or exhibition can management (CRM) system introduced figures, but where the experience is be all things to all people, and we at the Science Museum in 2016 and immensely valued by the participants. need to ensure that our entire offer subsequently extended to all museums Examples include Early Birds early- is integrated and consistently high has been a huge step in this direction. morning openings for families with in quality, both free and paid-for, Coupled with bold communications members who have an autistic and from basic facilities to specialist and a new visual identity, this fresh spectrum condition, the Science and content. We need to explain the choices approach to CRM is enabling us to Industry Museum’s targeted offer we make about acquisitions and connect better with visitors to build for low-income families, and the display: what is significant about the awareness and loyalty. We should National Science and Media Museum’s objects and ideas on display and what also surprise audiences sometimes, Award-winning adult ball pool installation at increased engagement with local stories can they tell? providing things they did not know they Diversity the Science and Industry Museum as part of Off-site reach the Manchester Science Festival communities that previously have been wanted and taking risks from time to In 2018/19 there were 1.4 million Proportion of all UK-based visits underrepresented. The Science Museum is working time. additional visits to Science Museum by lower socioeconomic groups in towards a regular pattern for Group activity outside our museums. 2018/19 (excluding education groups) The Science Museum receives over programming major exhibitions that We will: 38% 40% 3 million visits per year. Here the attract big audiences, alongside a • Consistently deliver exhibitions and 38,000 emphasis has been on countering the suite of other content streams of programmes at all sites that are 38,000 30% common perception that the museum varying scale to keep the offer fresh. critically acclaimed and popular. 208,000 20% is ‘just for kids’ and attracting more The Science and Industry Museum • Deliver the objectives and targets 20% adults – in addition to those who come will do the same with its Special for visitor numbers, demographics with children in family and school Exhibitions Gallery. Across the Group and quality of experience set 10% 39,000 groups. By, for example, tailoring the we want to share the development out in each museum’s Audience 69,000 0% content of the public programme and presentation of exhibitions to a Development Plan, and review and Science England and the commercial offer, opening much greater degree; the challenge refresh Audience Development Museum NS-SEC at different times and improving our is to reflect the individual remit and Plans every three years. Group population 1,004,000 facilities, we doubled the number of character of each museum and its • Apply the experience and data from adults visiting without children: 1.26 audiences. This requires continued the CRM system and Wonderlab: Proportion of all UK-based visits million in 2014/15 compared with 0.63 support for colleagues to enable The Equinor Gallery to develop new by BAME visitors in 2018/19 million in 2004/05. more sharing of ideas, expertise and subscription/membership services.

Flying Scotsman 20% 18% resources among our teams. • Share public programme content, heritage railway events We are now working to the Science skills and expertise across our sites. 15% 13% Museum Visitor Plan 2019–2025 that • Expand the volunteering Flying Scotsman passengers describes how we will realise our goal programme to support every major Off-site Bradford Science 10% of exceeding 3.5 million visits per year exhibition. Festival events by 2025, while improving the overall • Deliver an efficient and successful 5% Off-site Manchester Science visitor experience. apprenticeship programme. Festival events 0% Off-site learning activities Science UK BAME The world’s most famous locomotive, Museum population Flying Scotsman, making its inaugural Visits to touring exhibitions Group run from London to the National Railway Museum in York

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SUSTAIN AND GROW OUR WORLD-CLASS COLLECTION

Our collection will be the best in the world for our fields: well understood, well housed and accessible (physically and digitally), and used effectively by us and others for research, display, learning and pleasure.

By 2030: • New collection facilities at the One collection, one approach In the past our collection was treated National Collections Centre in Custodianship of our collection on as a set of separate collections Wroughton will provide improved behalf of the nation is our raison ‘belonging’ to our individual museums. accommodation by 2023: safe, d’être. In recent years we have In 2015 we adopted a single- secure and with appropriate made big strides in collections- collection approach, establishing environmental conditions and based scholarship and research, a new department for collections physical access. creating a new Dana Research services and shifting towards common • Almost all (about 425,000) of Centre and Library, establishing processes and practices. In 2016 the our artefacts collection will be the online Science Museum Group One Collection project began, one of digitised, so that more of our Journal and building a strong the biggest programmes of change collection is accessed and network of partnerships with we have undertaken in recent times, used online. universities. We share our expertise and one that will reinforce and make • Our collection will be well and enthusiasm through our manifest our pan-museums approach. documented and understood, not new galleries and exhibitions. In This will deliver a new purpose-built only through professional research addition, in this period we aim to collection facility at Wroughton, the and scholarship, but also through improve service for our users by National Collections Centre, that the contributions of diverse users. addressing three areas of historic will apply the latest in collections • The Group’s collection will retain its underinvestment in collections: management thinking to help us to use pre-eminent status through active preservation, acquisition and our collection better. It will provide acquisition and disposals. digitisation. improved and appropriate physical Objects from the Science Museum Group collection

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conditions for our collection, including items at our museums. In reactive generations, we need to establish a some 320,000 items currently held collecting, we need to be persistent programme of digital preservation for at Blythe House in west London, and and imaginative when important their collection and corporate records. enhanced access for the public. Moving acquisition opportunities arise. The digital preservation programme is the collection creates opportunities also a necessary part of ensuring that to review our holdings and improve Responsible collections management we achieve the national Archive Service our records and digitisation. Better requires a dynamic approach. In Accreditation standard for each of organisation of the collection will 2018 we embarked on a review of our museums. support its more effective use for the collection to provide a greater research and display throughout the understanding of the items in our We will: Group and beyond, via digitisation, care in light of curatorial research. • Complete the One Collection loans, touring exhibitions and visiting New insights into the collection are project by 2023. researchers. Mostly funded by the published online. Where items are • Prioritise our holdings through Treasury, and delivered in partnership better suited to display or research a rigorous programme of with DCMS, the project will be elsewhere, or duplicate items we collections review and ethical completed by 2023. already hold in the collection, we will transfer and removal. look to transfer them to other • Significantly increase the scope Effective collections management museums and public collections. In and pace of collections digitisation, for better access and use rare circumstances, if attempts to using collections moves for gallery The challenge of constructing a new find an alternative public home via developments, exhibitions and building to house a large and diverse a transfer are unsuccessful, we may research as prompts to populate museum collection, and of moving sell an item (reinvesting the proceeds the Collection Online launched hundreds of thousands of objects and in the collection) or remove an item in 2016. records, hardly needs to be stated. from the collection, recycling the item • Seek out opportunities for Moreover, a significant amount of whenever possible. significant acquisitions, funding remains to be raised. with particular emphasis on Collection digitisation provides the contemporary science and We continually improve our holdings fundamental building blocks of digital technology. through acquisition and ethical access and interpretation. We have • Commence a programme of digital transfer. We have resolved to be more not been sufficiently active in this area preservation in 2020 and from ambitious in collecting, especially in and in 2015 determined to step up the 2021 put in place the means to contemporary science and for gallery scope and rate of digitisation, and secure our born-digital collection developments and exhibitions. This other work that enables use of for the future. will often require funding, which we our assets. will attract from a range of sources. Researchers in universities and the Across our collection, a new category private sector rarely have posterity of born-digital objects has emerged in mind when disposing of their – those items that originate in a equipment and records, so important digital format and have no analogue parts of our science heritage equivalent, eg software, digital Opposite: Electronic ocean model are at risk. Through pre-emptive photographs, digital records and some developed by Shizuo Ishiguro, 1960–83, communications in identified areas we artworks. To ensure that these born- on display in Mathematics: The Winton will encourage the deposit of relevant digital objects are available for future Gallery at the Science Museum

COLLECTION HIGHLIGHTS • 49,000 items relating to model, Charles Babbage’s drawings commerce and industry and models, William and Lawrence The Science Museum Group holds • 26,000 scientific instruments Bragg’s X-ray machine, the apparatus the nation’s pre-eminent collections • 20,000 items relating to railway with which J J Thomson discovered in the fields of science, technology, locomotives and technology the electron, Amy Johnson’s Gipsy engineering, medicine, transport • 18,000 items relating to railway Moth aircraft, the record-breaking and media. life and work locomotives Mallard and Flying • 17,000 items of photographic, Scotsman, the world’s earliest Our collection comprises 7.3 million cinematographic and televisual known surviving photographic items. These include: technology negative (William Henry Fox Talbot’s • 7 million items of photographic, • 7,000 artworks ‘Latticed Window at Laycock Abbey’), archive and library material the earliest recording of British • 140,000 medical items, Among the standout items are television (the Baird Phonovision including the long-term loan Stephenson’s Rocket, Alan Turing’s disc), Richard Arkwright’s textile of the Wellcome Collection of Pilot Ace computer, Crick and machinery and John Dalton’s 114,000 items Watson’s 1953 DNA molecular surviving apparatus.

26 27 EXTEND OUR INTERNATIONAL REACH We will have a very strong international profile and reputation for excellence that enhances our offer, promotes the UK and generates income.

Valentina Tereshkova, Russian cosmonaut and the first woman to have flown in space, opens the Cosmonauts exhibition at the Science Museum

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By 2030: and lending; building capacity and (Collider) on offer, we have developed • We will have a small number improving standards in the sector a diverse repertoire on the road and of strong, sustained, mutually globally; growing and strengthening in development. In 2015/16 there were beneficial partnerships in our spheres of influence at home and nearly 300,000 visits to our exhibitions different regions of the world, abroad; developing our own people overseas. The new touring capability including China. and organisation; and generating also enabled sharing of exhibitions • The core partnerships will be income. Presenting ourselves as an within the Group and further afield in supported by a wider network of international, inclusive organisation the UK. cooperative relationships that supports audience diversity and can support and deliver our vision. be attractive to funders. Working In addition, we have established a • We will be sought out by internationally promotes not only our number of partnerships in Russia, international agencies for our organisation, but also the cities and Brazil, China, India and Europe content, expertise and influence. regions in which we operate, and the and forged supporting links with • We will be recognised as a vital UK as a whole. government departments and means of promoting the UK, both agencies, both in the UK and in the directly and through soft power. Since 2013 we have transitioned countries where we are active. UK • Income from international working from an organisation that undertook public bodies with whom we engage will increase compared with the pockets of international work, usually regularly via formal committees, 2014/15 baseline and deliver centred on a discrete project or specific projects and general liaison profit. on individuals, to one with a global include, in addition to DCMS, the outlook and presence that is widely Foreign & Commonwealth Office and An international organisation recognised and whose expertise and embassies (especially the Science As well as being a group of national services are sought out. and Innovation Network), the museums, in both name and action, Department for International Trade, we aspire to be an international Touring exhibitions are the most the Department for Business, Energy organisation. This is important for visible manifestation of our re-entry & Industrial Strategy, the British enhancing our museums’ offer through into the international arena. From a Council and the UK National international cooperation on research standing start and a single exhibition Commission for UNESCO. Launch of the Cosmonauts: Birth of the Space Age exhibition at the Science Museum

International collaboration enriches (2016). We were credited with adding An international future our programmes in the UK by bringing the ‘Science is GREAT’ strand to International collaboration will become in new artefacts and insights. In the government’s GREAT campaign more and more important, to the Group the wider context, it promotes and we expect to continue our and to the UK. The challenges for the ALL EU COUNTRIES understanding and cooperation support for this initiative and other future of our international working can SWITZERLAND between nations. Such cultural activity that promotes the UK and be characterised as factors that we GIBRALTAR RUSSIA diplomacy was demonstrated by our museums’ localities. We are cannot control, and those that we can. the exhibition Cosmonauts: Birth of enthusiastic participants in bilateral the Space Age in 2015/16. This was national celebrations such as the Externally, the UK’s relationships with the most complex and ambitious Cultural Olympiad between London the EU and other parts of the world exhibition project ever undertaken 2012 and Rio 2016. For the 2017 UK– remain unclear following the European SOUTH by the Science Museum, and at a time India Year of Culture we presented Union membership referendum vote KOREA of great political sensitivity. Not only a season of exhibitions and events in 2016. The impacts of this decision CANADA was it a popular and critical triumph, focused on India. within the timeframe of the Inspiring it enabled valuable lines of top-level JAPAN communication between the UK and USA Russia to be kept open.

Digital is a key means of reaching people throughout the world, including INDIA many who will never make a physical SUDAN visit. Online engagement is already strongly international, with 39% of the CHINA 10.3 million visits to Science Museum BRAZIL Group websites in 2018/19 originating overseas, and players from 208 HONG KONG countries taking part in the Science and Industry Museum’s citizen science project Hooked on Music.

Sustaining the UK’s leading position for soft power through international working is one of the four key planks Director Ian Blatchford at the Science Museum Group’s partner institution Locations of recent international activity by the Science Museum Group of the DCMS culture white paper the Museum of Tomorrow in Rio de Janeiro

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Collider on display in Hong Kong as part of its hugely successful international tour

Futures period are still being worked 2019 of a new business unit for Cultural be opportunities to increase income through. International relations are and Commercial Partnerships. Based from existing and new activities (eg also influenced by major geopolitical in Enterprises, this team has a remit to touring exhibitions and consultancy events, natural events, global work with colleagues across the Group respectively) and will proceed where economics and so on. We need to to research, develop, sell and promote there is a strong business case. But develop even stronger, wider networks commercial opportunities, focused we will also undertake international that will help to anticipate such events on (but not restricted to) touring cooperation where it enhances our so that we can mitigate negative exhibitions, consultancy and the profile and reputation, and where it impacts and exploit opportunities. Science Museum Group Academy. enriches our offer for UK audiences.

Within the Science Museum Group In extending our reach we will work We will: we have reached a pivotal point in with other bodies, such as the • Undertake market analysis for our international ambitions. Recent British Council and the Foreign & designated regions and activities, success has raised expectations, Commonwealth Office, to explore and initiate new collaborations internally and externally, and we opportunities in new territories: accordingly; China will be the first need to determine our appetite for opportunities for interesting partners priority. further investment and expansion. with whom we can work and from whom • Grow our touring exhibitions For example, our success in touring we can learn; opportunities where the programme according to a exhibitions so far has been through local need is greatest and where our sustainable business model. exhibitions primarily developed for inputs can add the most value; and • Strengthen networks for our sites; in future we may develop opportunities to grow income. The communication and advocacy of exhibitions solely for touring, with Middle East is emerging as a potential our international working. content tailored for particular regions region of interest. • Work closely with UK public sector and emphasis on income generation. agencies to add value to each We also believe that our Group can China remains a clear priority and we other’s work and help maintain take an even more prominent role have made great strides with a number the UK’s soft power ranking. in promoting British innovation and of exhibition and research projects • Devise specific programmes TRANSFORM manufacturing abroad, and dedicated coming to fruition in both the UK and to promote UK innovation and travelling displays could be an China by 2020, and significant growth manufacturing. effective means of doing this. Another in our professional networks. We will example of a potential growth area is in continue to consolidate and extend provision of professional training and fruitful partnerships, including new OUR ESTATE advice, where we know that there is a areas such as commercial activity. greater demand for our services than Our buildings, public spaces and facilities we can currently meet. We must be clear about the purpose will be welcoming and inspiring places to visit, and value of international working effective and accessible housing for the International working has been and where it sits within our other Opposite: Mathematics: The Winton Gallery bolstered by the establishment in priorities. We believe that there will at the Science Museum collection, and great places to work.

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A good deal of the significant and The Science and Industry Museum is Occupying listed buildings on In Bradford, the National Science and consistent reduction in the Group’s seeking synergies with new commercial an important historic site, the Media Museum has been building carbon footprint over the last two and cultural developments on its Science and Industry Museum has strong links with local organisations decades has come through estates boundaries, as well as exploring ways to experienced some of the worst and communities while refocusing its work and Masterplan projects – for integrate Manchester’s aspirations for effects of deteriorating buildings. It vision on STEM. This was physically example shifting to LED lighting, STEM education into its own plans. Work is therefore the focus of our Group- manifested in a new Wonderlab replacing plant, increasing use of on a new Special Exhibitions Gallery wide programme of capital works. interactive gallery which opened in solar power and embracing passive was well under way by the end of The much-loved Power Hall was 2017. Sound and Vision, a new gallery design principles. Masterplan 2016, and on completion in 2020 it will closed in 2019 and will reopen in to showcase highlights of the projects can also be key to explaining hugely increase the museum’s capacity sound condition and with refreshed collection related to image and and exploring sustainability issues to deliver world-class exhibitions. interpretation in 2021. sound technologies, is planned to with our audiences. The Science open in 2022. Museum Group will continue and strengthen this commitment to a more Between 2014 and 2019, over one-third sustainable future, not only through of public space at the Science Museum actions such as these but by adopting has been transformed through the a more holistic approach that Masterplan. The task is never finished, integrates technological solutions and though, and the next phase is already Young visitors at the National Science and Media Museum in Bradford culture change, as noted in the ‘Rising being considered. priorities at 2020’ section (p12). To thrive, we must remain ambitious By 2030: and the National Science and Media Our museums need to work in their and energetic. This inevitably requires • Our high standards of architecture Museum Wonderlab, which opened local and regional contexts. Multiple funding. As well as increasing and design will be reflected in the in 2017, further demonstrate this stakeholders may be involved, unrestricted income, we need to quality of responses to our briefs, approach and mark a step change in including local authorities, other nurture a virtuous circle whereby positive critical reviews and high children’s interactive galleries that will public bodies and commercial successful projects and fruitful visitor satisfaction. be extended to each of our museums. interests. In York and Manchester in The solar array at the Science Museum Group site in Wroughton, Wiltshire relationships with funders sustain • We will have the capacity and particular, museum developments each other. capability to consistently deliver Masterplans drive development and sit within and alongside bigger capital projects at all our sites that change across the entire organisation, neighbourhood developments. Here, Masterplan projects at 2019 (working titles) We will: are sustainable, effective, good from new academic research to and in Bradford and Shildon, our Science Museum • Deliver agreed Masterplan value and beautiful. improved infrastructure, and from museums have a particular role to play projects, and develop future • Our capital projects will be increased efficiency to increased in place-making and regeneration. Masterplan Phase 2 In development phases, using best practice in supported and facilitated by a inclusivity. IMAX refurbishment 2020 procurement standards, and strong network of stakeholders The National Railway Museum will Technicians gallery 2021 focusing on value for money (including funders, planners, For people and place see the greatest transformation and customer service. politicians, developers and Each site and each project during the period of Inspiring Futures Early Years gallery 2023 • Work with a wide range of partners communities). presents its own masterplanning through Vision 2025, a huge city- Modern Agriculture gallery In development and stakeholders to ensure that • Our estate will be consistently challenges, including areas of centre development that envelops our our museums deliver optimum Science and Industry Museum well maintained and efficiently historic underinvestment in estate site and presents a once-in-a-lifetime benefits for the places where run, and will deliver excellent maintenance. Wherever possible, opportunity to create a place that is Special Exhibitions Gallery 2020 they are located as well as for customer experience. improvements to buildings, more than a museum. Positioned at Power Hall repair and interpretation 2021 museum users. facilities and services (eg lifts) the heart of York Central, the museum • Use Masterplan projects to Public realm In development Integrated long-term planning are incorporated into capital will be a catalyst for take-up of new drive programmes for academic At every site a long-term framework projects. We are also investing in a residential and office space, and our Wonderlab In development research, collection digitisation for capital development is in strategic, prioritised programme stunning new public spaces will be 1830 Warehouse commercial In development and acquisitions, online content, place, described in an overarching of repair and maintenance and in a hub for the community. Inside the and for increased efficiency, National Railway Museum Masterplan. These plans encompass significant improvements to staff museum we will inspire tomorrow’s sustainability and social inclusion. some back-of-house functions and accommodation. much-needed engineers by increasing Wonderlab 2022 • Develop skills in project and essential services as well as galleries, access to the collection, telling New wing and gallery 2025 programme management across public facilities (eg lifts, lavatories Sustainability is an important powerful stories and doubling the the organisation. and circulation spaces) and exterior consideration and we seek to follow number of visiting schoolchildren. The South Yard 2025 • Deliver efficient and fit- spaces. Across the Group we aim to – sometimes to lead – best practice completion date of 2025 marks the Great Hall and Open Store 2025 for-purpose back-of-house combine strong visitor focus with high in our design, procurement and 50th anniversary of the museum and Conference suite refurbishment In development facilities and integrated estate standards of design and finish, as operations. We also recognise the 200 years since the founding of the management. embodied in the Dana Research Centre special responsibility we hold in Stockton and Darlington Railway. Locomotion and Library, Mathematics: The Winton respect of listed historic buildings. Historic Buildings repair 2020 Gallery, designed by the late Dame Zaha Reducing the operational and Locomotion in Shildon, which became Building Two 2024 Hadid, and Medicine: The Wellcome maintenance burden of our estate a full member of the Science Museum Galleries, designed by Wilkinson Eyre both reduces energy consumption and Group in 2017, will see big changes National Science and Media Museum Architects with Holmes Wood, which saves costs; we will continue to drive through Vision 2025. A new building Sound and Vision gallery 2022 opened at the Science Museum in 2019. this down as a priority, and to seek will enable us to house and display National Collections Centre Wonderlab: The Equinor Gallery at the opportunities to generate income more of our collection for more Science Museum, launched in 2016, through our estate. visitors. One Collection facility 2023

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By 2030: Museums in the digital age Digitisation is a fundamental means • Our websites will attract 40 million We have had some notable digital of accessing the collection via online visits per year (10.47 million in successes, such as innovative on-gallery catalogues and provides the building 2018/19). interactives and games at the Science blocks for other digital content. It • The objects in the collection will Museum. However, we recognise that can add layers of information and almost all be digitally accessible to the digital offer is uneven across our explanation for users to explore at an acceptable standard. museums and within the museums their own pace and via their own • Digitisation of photographic and themselves. We also know that the routes. Our holdings have been archive collections will be under status of our museums, the strength insufficiently digitised in both HARNESS way according to an agreed, of our collection and the expertise of quantity and quality and a key aim prioritised plan. our people means that there is vast of the digital strategy is to redress • Our websites will be the number-one dormant potential for the Group digitally. this. Priorities for digitisation destination for information, ideas Together these factors make digital an have been determined based and debate in our subject domains. urgent priority and there is appetite for on audience demand, research THE POTENTIAL • On-gallery digital interactives change throughout the organisation. potential, collections strengths will remain at the forefront and project opportunities. Our of technology and include The first phase (2015–17) of a new digital collection comprises about 7.3 million ‘centrepiece’ experiences. strategy established a set of digital items, of which the vast majority • Digital will be integral to the visitor principles and practicable objectives. are photographs and archives. We OF DIGITAL experience; we will have the These principles will continue to inform hold about 425,000 artefacts and knowledge, skills and capability our progress in digital throughout the by 2023 almost all of these, plus Our digital offer will be acknowledged as one of the to realise the potential of digital period of Inspiring Futures. Our digital the most significant items from the across all Group activities and offer will be: photographic and archival collections, best in the world and our websites will be a global across all channels. • Audience-centred to ensure will be accessible online to at least destination for their subjects. highest impact a minimum consistent publication • Sustainable and scalable for standard; this includes about 247,000 longevity and growth new object records arising from the • Entrepreneurial and innovative Medicine: The Wellcome Galleries and to provide audiences with unique One Collection projects. experiences • Open and generous to empower We also deliver digital outputs audiences through partnerships. For example, • Embedded across the organisation we worked with the BBC on its new to build capacity digital science platform, Tomorrow’s World, on which we also collaborated By the start of 2018 this phase of the with the Royal Society. We have strategy had addressed a great deal collaborated with the Google Cultural of the essential behind-the-scenes Institute on capturing our exhibitions infrastructure work that will underpin so that they can be enjoyed digitally future growth and started the cultural after they have closed, and with change in ways of working that will bring ArtUK to bring the Group’s art it about. collection to new audiences.

DIGITAL HIGHLIGHTS

Numbers • 10.47 million website visits in 2018/19 • 45% of Science Museum website visits are international • 2.9 million+ game app downloads, including 1.2 million of Rugged Rovers and 1.6 million of Transmission • 3 million+ plays of the Science and Industry Museum’s Hooked on Music game, across 208 countries • 5.4 million video plays on YouTube • 744,000 Twitter followers • 403,000 Facebook likes • 205,000 Instagram followers

Awards • Science Museum Group websites: winner GLAMi Awards, 2018 • Rugged Rovers: Gold, International Serious Play Awards, 2015 • Hooked on Music: Silver Award, Davey Awards, 2014 • Launchball: Best Game and Best in Show, SXSW, 2008

Digital display in the Science Museum’s Information Age gallery

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INCREASE INCOME

Sustainable unrestricted income from a variety of sources will be significantly greater than in 2015/16 and will be used efficiently to realise our vision.

A virtual reality headset demonstration at the press preview for Mathematics: The Winton Gallery

An evolving digital landscape for this once digitisation processes • Enhance the audience The qualities of our digital spaces have been tested through artefact experience by: shape the audience experience digitisation, and the plan will be • Delivering a programme of as much as the museum spaces. agreed and implemented in the centrepiece digital offerings The digital landscape and second half of this strategy period. beginning with an immersive audience behaviour evolve rapidly, mixed reality experience funded presenting us with exciting new In the digital age, audiences through Innovate UK’s Audiences ways to fulfil our mission through increasingly experience museum of the Future fund. increased reach, interactivity and artefacts through multimedia and • Responding to changes in participation, but also presenting interactivity. We must keep pace with technology and audience the challenge of how to keep audience expectations, connecting behaviour, and proactively up with ever-changing digital people to the collections in new managing the life cycle of digital technologies. The increasing ways and ensuring effective and interactives. prevalence of digital should also holistic use of digital media across • Communicating more effectively prompt us to reflect on the value the whole audience experience. with audiences, using increased and presentation of our physical Historically, museum collections data capture and customer collections, and on how the two were presented largely in a one-way relationship management tools. streams complement and support broadcast mode. Digital technology • Establishing the Digital each other. enables presentation that is two-way, Lab to foster new forms of interactive and participatory. Through partnerships and funding that There is vast potential to extend digital, the Science Museum Group enable innovation. our digital reach in an age when will enable audiences to shape their museums are global online places, own experiences, and to build on our • Enable audience participation by: accessible to all. For some, the content and intellectual output by • Adopting an open-by-default digital visit will be their only visit. engaging in a dialogue around STEM approach to increase the use If we are to become the go-to and the collections, and contributing and distribution of our digital destination for our subject domains, to the museums’ work. content. we need to put online presentation • Establishing platforms for of the collection and increasing We will: audience contribution to the use of digital to provide new forms • Increase audience reach by: museums’ work and building of contextualisation at the heart • Investing in continued (digital) communities of interest. of our global ambition. Digitisation digitisation of the collections. • Using the museums’ convening of the artefact collection will be • Ensuring that every powers tied to digital channels practically complete by 2023. programme and project has a to create two-way engagement Systematic digital records for digital aspect. with audiences. the bulk of the archives and • Undertaking analysis • Encouraging our own people photographs remain to be tackled, and research into digital to publish online to engage presenting both a huge challenge audiences. audiences, attract talent and and a huge opportunity. We will be volunteers, and establish the in a much better position to plan Group as a centre of expertise. A corporate hire function at the Science Museum

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By 2030: The new normal Funding for investment in the future We have some good foundations on • Self-generated unrestricted Entrepreneurship is valued throughout The Science Museum Group is already which to build. Recent initiatives have income will grow in absolute terms our Group and opportunities for income very successful at generating income included: with reference to 2015/16 results, generation are actively sought out. We through corporate sponsorship and • Individual giving – visitor donations and Grant in Aid will represent less seek to grow all our income streams, philanthropy. We will continue to generate around £3 million per year. than 50% of our total unrestricted including philanthropic income, but the pursue these sources, which are vital • Wonderlab: The Equinor Gallery at income. emphasis is on increasing sustainable to realise our ambitious vision for major the Science Museum generates • The Group will hold sufficient funds unrestricted income. The prize is exhibitions, acquisitions and capital income that includes direct ticket for investment, meaning that we greater freedom to determine our projects across the Group. But in order sales (£1.5 million in 2018/19). can plan and implement continued own future as reliance on government to invest in our people, our collections • Wroughton solar array – one of the improvements to public services funding diminishes. and our buildings for the benefit largest photovoltaic panel arrays with greater confidence and of our millions of users, we need to in the UK generates an average likelihood of success. The biggest part of the Science both diversify and grow sustainable, annual rental income of £250,000. • Every part of the Group will Museum Group’s income is direct Grant unrestricted income. • Paid-for major exhibitions not understand its role in ensuring in Aid (GIA) from the UK government only generate income directly from financial sustainability and actively via our sponsor department, DCMS. In 2015/16 GIA formed 80% of all our ticket sales but drive visitation contribute towards it, according to GIA declined in recent years (by 30% unrestricted income. The challenge and other on-site sales; they may agreed targets. in real terms between 2010 and 2015) here lies not only in generating more also be developed into touring • The Group will be an exemplar and in response we achieved efficiency income in a very testing economic exhibitions which raise our among museums for commercial savings worth millions of pounds. We climate, but in adjusting our museums’ profiles and are activity and entrepreneurship. will continue to bear down on the cost organisational culture and developing a growing source of income of operations, but there are diminishing the skills of our teams. All parts of from fees. returns. Museums must become the organisation need to be enabled more financially resilient just in order to contribute to income generation In 2018 the Science Museum Group to remain sustainable. We are more against targets that are meaningful agreed an income strategy with a core ambitious than that, and in order to and transparent. target of 38% growth in unrestricted fulfil our goals on behalf of our visitors income (excluding GIA) in 2020/21 we must prioritise income generation (compared with the 2017/18 baseline), A visitor enjoying afternoon tea at the Countess of York, a luxury dining experience to an even greater degree. in a restored railway carriage at the National Railway Museum representing additional sustainable profit of £3.2 million per year. This is to be delivered through new initiatives and growth in certain existing activity, including several areas of commercial INCOME DATA operations, touring exhibitions and consultancy, Academy professional Restricted/unrestricted income* (£000s) Unrestricted income sources in 2018/19 Grant in Aid (£000s) training, the visitor offer and fundraising. 100,000 The income strategy also looks further 90,000 into the future, to identify areas for 60,000 further potential growth, such as 80,000 through Vision 2025 and use of the National Collections Centre site. 70,000 50,000 Progress is monitored by a dedicated 60,000 Income Advisory Board that includes 50,000 Trustees and that reports to the Finance Committee. 40,000 40,000 We will: 30,000 • Implement the recommendations of our 2018 income strategy to 20,000 achieve the agreed targets. 30,000 • Use the new customer relationship 10,000 management system to provide GIA – 70% Estates – 3% 2010/11 2011/12 2012/13 2013/14 2014/15 2015/16 2016/17 2017/18 2018/19 2019/20 a holistic customer offer that 0 encompasses both the free and 2014/15 2015/16 2016/17 2017/18 2018/19 Enterprises – 7% Other – 2% Inflation-adjusted baseline paid-for elements and encourages Visitor giving – 6% Operating grants – 2% increased spend per head. Restricted 2010–11 allocation (baseline) Members, patrons and • Develop commercial skills more Investment income – 1% Science Museum Group GIA* Unrestricted other donations – 7% widely across the organisation. *Excluding major exceptionals Learning – 1% *Excluding special projects and Coal Mining Museum for England allocations

40 41 INSPIRING FUTURES: STRATEGIC PRIORITIES 2017–2030: REISSUED 2020 INSPIRING FUTURES: STRATEGIC PRIORITIES 2017–2030: REISSUED 2020 MONITORING PROGRESS

The Science Museum Group was established under the National Heritage Act 1983 with its own Board of Trustees, appointed by the Prime Minister.

It has the status of a Non-Departmental deliverables, alongside a number of Public Body (NDPB), operating within key performance indicators (KPIs). the public sector but at arm’s length This overarching strategic framework from its sponsor department, DCMS. also informs the subject and site- It is also an exempt charity under the specific strategies and plans that are Second Schedule of the Charities Act produced from time to time. Progress 1993, with DCMS acting as its principal against the Annual Plan and the regulator for charity law purposes. associated KPIs is reported biannually to the Board of Trustees. More The Board of Trustees is the senior detailed subject and site-specific decision-making body, supported by action plans are monitored regularly a system of specialist subcommittees by relevant internal teams. Monthly that comprise both Science Museum KPI dashboards containing KPIs from Group Trustees and external advisers. the Annual Plan, alongside more The Board has led, through a dedicated general management metrics, are working group, the review of long-term reported to each museum’s Senior strategy that resulted in this document. Management Team. The strategic The Board also approves both the priorities themselves will be reviewed Annual Plan, and the Annual Report and at intervals of five years or less. Accounts. Production of the latter is a statutory requirement, audited by the We have dedicated a good deal of time National Audit Office. The report is laid and thought to Inspiring Futures. For before parliament and published both a complex and evolving organisation, by HMSO and on our Group website. it was difficult to decide what – out of The Annual Report and Accounts are all the many and diverse things we do the primary formal means of reporting – should be included. This document on the Group’s performance against its captures the top-level long-term statutory purposes and objectives, priorities and is to be used actively and against certain indicators as a touchstone for decision-making Family visitors required by DCMS. throughout the next decade or so. We at the National anticipate looking back from 2030 onto Science and Media Museum The priorities and goals in Inspiring a period of continued challenge and in Bradford Futures are reflected in Annual Plans, hard work, but also one of sustainable which set out specific actions and growth and success.

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