1.   INTRODUCTION

  We are grateful for the opportunity to make this submission to the Culture, Media and Sport Committee. The Natural History Museum is deeply committed to maintaining and developing its collections in order to use them to promote the discovery, understanding, responsible use and enjoyment of the natural world. Renowned for its unrivalled collections, internationally important research programmes, educational and enjoyable exhibitions and high standards of visitor care, the Museum combines a rich history with an emphasis on looking to the future to play a dynamic role in the UK and the world.

2.   CONTEXT OF APPLICATIONS TO THE FUND

   (i)  Today the Natural History Museum undertakes a greater range and amount of work to meet the growing demands for its collections, educational programmes, skills and expertise. The Museum and its staff make an essential contribution to meeting government objectives in education, training and environmental work, and the museum is a centre for UK and international biodiversity expertise. We are also the most popular charging museum in the UK, with visitor numbers reaching the high level of more than 1.824 million in 1997-98.

  (ii)  A short-term analysis demonstrates that all this has been achieved within a climate of declining grant-in-aid and increasing competition from other leading visitor attractions. A significant factor has been the Museum's success in generating its own income and attracting grants, donations and sponsorship. Self-generated income (excluding Lottery funding) has increased for the ninth year running and now stands at more than one third of total income.

  (iii)  Funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund has played a vital role in the Museum's continuing development by providing substantial funds to support two major capital projects (see sections 3 and 4). It is very likely that neither project would have been possible without HLF funding.

  (iv)  There will be a continuing need for substantial additional funding of the Museum in order to meet the costs of preserving the collections, increasing public access and providing a wider range of educational activities.

 3.  THE EARTH GALLERIES EXPERIENCE

  (i)  In July 1998, the new Earth Galleries will open to the public with four brand new exhibitions, marking the completion of a £12 million project to re-develop the former Geological Museum. The Museum bid for funding for the project from the Heritage Lottery Fund in 1994 and received more than £6 million contribution. The remaining £6 million was raised by the Museum through securing major private sponsorship deals and winning the generous support of many organisations.

  (ii)  Phase one of the Earth Galleries, when it was launched in 1996, was the first major National Lottery-funded project opened to the public. Visitor numbers have exceeded all expectations and a recent study by the British Tourist Authority attributed the Museum's record total visitor numbers in 1997-98 to the success of the first phase of the project.

  (iii)  The Museum was delighted to receive the award from the Heritage Lottery Fund. However, the Museum also believes that while the bid was successful, the application process was nevertheless hampered by several factors:

Experience in science education and modern exhibitions

  The assessors and the expert panel, to whom the bid was placed, were not seen to be particularly familiar with the nature and the importance of science exhibitions, especially the modern design and research techniques employed and the value of interactive exhibits to today's museum visitor. Furthermore, panel members and experts were almost exclusively from an arts or fine arts background. The Museum therefore feels that the context within which views on the Earth Galleries (as a science exhibition) application were formed was more challenging than for a comparable arts project bid. We understand that action has since been taken to address the balance of panels, and we hope that the Fund will continue to draw on people with a background and experience that match the needs of individual projects.

Lottery Monitors

  Given the important role of good communications for a successful application, the Museum felt that it would be beneficial to have more flexibility and a broader scope for contact with the Fund. At the time a single Lottery Monitor was allocated to the Museum and the working relationship thus flourished or floundered on the opinions and influence of a single individual.

 4.  THE DOWN HOUSE EXPERIENCE

  The Museum led a successful appeal for money to save the home of Charles Darwin. The Museum placed a £2.4 million application to the Heritage Lottery Fund to save Down House. The project eventually secured a £1,783,000 award and by 1994 the appeal had raised an additional £625,000 towards the cost of saving the house. Down House is now owned by English Heritage and the Lottery grant awarded passed to them.

5.  THE DARWIN CENTRE APPLICATION

  (i)  The Museum is committed to making its unique collections and the work of its scientists more accessible to the public. A bid was submitted in December 1997 to the Heritage Lottery Fund for a grant towards the cost of a major new project, The Charles Darwin Centre, to meet this commitment. The project will re-house the life sciences collections in properly controlled storage facilities to ensure the long-term preservation of49 million specimens for future generations. The Centre will also enable unprecedented access by visitors to the collections, the associated research and related work of the Museum.

  (ii)  The total cost of the project is £80 million. The application to the HLF related to the first phase of the project, which will cost £50 million. This application was turned down in June 1998. The need to re-house the life sciences collections in appropriate environmental conditions is so urgent that the Museum will proceed with the first element of the project, a new building for the zoological collections stored in alcohol, using the matching funds it has accumulated so far. However, no means of funding the remainder of the project have yet been identifed.

6.  COMMUNICATIONS

  (i)  The Museum's public relations department has experienced regular contact with the head of communications at the Fund, over the course of some of the applications. This helped the department establish a good general working relationship and to ensure optimum media coverage of the successful Heritage Lottery Fund project. It could benefit however, from a more detailed set of communication guidelines specifying what obligations successful grant applications need to fulfil at each stage of the publicity campaign.

  (ii)  Staff have sometimes found it extremely difficult to contact the Fund during the progress of an application. Although aware of the large administrative task of the Fund, the Museum is often keen to check on progress and would welcome more timely replies.

 7.  THE HERITAGE LOTTERY FUND'S ANNOUNCEMENT OF NEW PRIORITIES

  (i)  The Museum notes the Fund's recent announcement of a shift in policy emphasis towards awarding grants to a wider range of projects and applicants. The Museum welcomes the announcement of increased funding for applications which are designed to increase public enjoyment and understanding. Indeed, this is a central aim within the Museum's own mission.

  (ii)  Lottery funding has created a much-needed opportunity to address some of the many long-standing major capital needs of national and regional institutions. Declining grant-in-aid has been unable to meet those needs. Grants from the Lottery distribution agencies, including the Heritage Lottery Fund, have supported a number of visionary building projects that will increase public access to and ensure the long-term preservation of the nation's scientific, art and other cultural collections. However, there are serious consequences arising from the new policy. There are still many heritage organisations (including The Natural History Museum) that need major capital funding to ensure the future of their buildings and collections. These projects now have no prospect of funding. Private sector sponsorship and donations alone will not cover the costs of preserving the nation's heritage. The change in the Fund's policy therefore emphasises the need to identify how such costs will now be met.

  (iii)  The inability to fund these projects through awards from the Heritage Lottery Fund will necessarily affect the Museum's capacity to provide increased access for the public to world class exhibitions, science and education.

8.  SUMMARY

A:   The Museum welcomes the efforts made to ensure a broader spectrum of expertise among assessors and on Heritage Lottery Fund expert panels

B:   The Museum would welcome improvements in the communications procedures with the Heritage Lottery Fund

  This would help facilitate the necessary feedback on submitted applications and easier access to contact points within the Fund.

C:   The Museum has concerns over the Heritage Lottery Fund's recent announcement of a change in funding policy relating to applications

  The Museum is concerned that the current policy of the Fund indicates a new reluctance to fund larger projects and previous major grant recipients, which now have no alternative avenue of funding available to them.

June 1998