Museum funding

The 2004 Treasurehouse & Powerhouse report pointed out that the Museum’s turnover is broadly equivalent to that of a Premiership football club or a medium-sized hospital. Between 80 and 90 per cent of the Museum's funding is received as grant-in-aid from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS).

The remainder comes from admission charges for special exhibitions, sponsorship and donations, and the Museum's commercial activities that include retail and catering, consultancy, conference and events, our picture library and our publishing activities.

Our research funding is awarded by research councils, the European Union (EU), trusts, charities and other grant-awarding bodies. For example, the Museum is receiving £1.8million from the EU for overseeing SYNTHESYS, the network of Europe’s leading natural history institutions to ensure that collections and knowledge are shared and used to the maximum benefit of all members.

The long term aim for the Museum is to reduce our dependence on grant-in-aid. This is being achieved by maximising revenue from our trading operations and opening up new sources of financial support for our scientific research and exhibitions.