1.  Science and Discovery Centers are a diverse set of organisations that make a significant contribution to our cultural and education life. They are often seen purely in entertainment or leisure terms, yet they invariably have much more substantive agendas, especially to support informal learning and public engagement with science. The recent movement towards such centres, which is a world-wide phenomenon, arguably dates from the late 1960s, with the opening of the Exploratorium in San Francisco and, in the UK, with the Exploratory in Bristol in 1983. However, interactive approaches were employed in science museums much earlier, including the Children's gallery at the Science Museum, London in the 1920s. The `Launch Pad' interactive gallery at the Science Museum opened in 1986.

  2.  Their accessible style and philosophy draws people into involvement, leading to retention and learning from experiences over a long period. For young people in particular, they complement and enhance the national curriculum, providing a valuable role in keeping children switched on to science when take up of the subject is declining. Science and Discovery Centres offer important vehicles to help scientists communicate the results of their research to the public, both directly in person and through the medium of exhibitions, and to engage people in dialogue to promote involvement with controversial fast-moving science issues.

  3.  The diversity of Science and Discovery Centres, encompassing spaces within existing museums (such as Launch Pad), purpose built new institutions (such as at-Bristol) and a range of other places such as zoos and aquaria, poses a major challenge of definition. It has the consequence, from the public policy perspective, that no government department has clear oversight and responsibility, in particular for those which were set up with public money via the Lottery, although they contribute substantially to the agendas of the DCMS, DfES and DTI, amongst others. Considerable public money has been invested in the creation of many of these Centres, yet that capital funding has not been followed by sufficient capital or revenue support to ensure their sustainability and success. Across the world, it is the general experience that such Centres can be expected to generate no more than 80% of their revenue funding from commercial activity.

  4.  This lack of public policy oversight is a particular problem in England: in Scotland, for example, a recent externally-informed study led to a clear strategy by the Scottish Executive to support a defined network of science centres.

  5.  It would be timely at this point to have a full independent study of the impact of these Centres and their relationship to the cultural and educational sectors, to identify the contributions they make to society and their potential for the future, and to make recommendations about their future sustainability, both in terms of capital and revenue.

June 2007