21st Century Infrastructure

This proposal to the AHRC Capability for Collections Fund is to improve online and physical access to the Science Museum Group (SMG) collection and enable growth of its vibrant emerging research culture.

The equipment requested will replace and upgrade existing life-expired equipment across SMG, particularly at its northern museums: the Science and Industry Museum (SIM), Manchester; the National Railway Museum (NRM), York; the National Science and Media Museum (NSMM), Bradford; Locomotion, Shildon. Some investment will also take place at the Science Museum (ScM), London.

It will replace old existing equipment to enable the continued care of the collection, its digitisation and efficient provision of physical access.

Specifically, it covers conservation equipment (environmental monitoring system and microscopes) photographic equipment (cameras, lighting and other photographic equipment), and equipment used for tracking the location of objects. The equipment collectively covers the stages in an object's journey from storage to being examined by a researcher.

It will enable a step change in efficiency and effectiveness of the teams working with the collection, in turn resulting in objects that are better cared for, more accessible digitally online, and more accessible physically to both external researchers and the museum's own staff carrying out research.

The equipment will enhance the capacity of SMG's museums, particularly the four northern museums, for providing access to the collections both online and to visiting researchers.

Because the collection will be better maintained through the upgrade of the environmental monitoring system and microscopes, more digitisation and greater physical access will be enabled.

Additionally, the use of upgraded microscopes to capture digital images will provide additional information available to researchers. More efficient digitisation equipment will enable digital capture of the collection on a larger scale.

This is particularly important given the need for large datasets for digital humantities research: only when sufficient quantities of objects have been digitised do some technologies become applicable.

The SMG collection plays a significant role bringing the UK's science, technology, engineering, medicine and media heritage to a network of national and international museums, thus presenting Britain's role in these sectors on a global stage.

The digitisation equipment will make more of the collection discoverable and accessible by researchers, museum professionals, designers, creative producers, and users, ensuring that the collections can play their role as a stimulus for the production of imaginative, creative and research informed exhibitions, designs, publications and digital experiences.