Research at The Norwegian Museum of Science and Technology contributes to historical and contemporary knowledge about technology, industry, natural sciences and medicine. It draws on our special advantage as a museum, and is an integrated part of the museum's other activities and takes place across disciplines. The museum's LAB was established in 2014 to further develop the interaction between research, dissemination and management, and as a place to gather different competencies.
The museum is approved as a research organization by the Research Council of Norway and participates in projects together with various institutions nationally and internationally. In 2021, the museum adopted a new research plan for the period 2021-2026, which provides guidelines for research activities at the museum and contains an overview of prioritized research areas. A joint integrity committee for research has been established in collaboration with the National Museum, the Norwegian Folk Museum Foundation and the Holocaust Center.
From 2025, research results from museum employees will be registered and made openly available through the joint solution National Science Archive (NVA). Several of the museum's employees contribute to research and education as colleagues, examiners and supervisors. Every year, the museum welcomes students for internships.
Bokprosjektet Norsk fotohistorie 1940 til 2011 er et samarbeid med Norsk Folkemuseum, Preus museum og Nasjonalbiblioteket om en bred fotohistorisk bok om etterkrigstidens fotohistorie. Boka bygger på forskningsprosjektet Norsk fotohistorie 1940 til 2011 som var støttet av Kulturrådet og ble avsluttet i 2021.
The book examines the role and function of photography in the post-war period, both from the perspective of the photography industry and the field itself, as well as from a usage perspective ranging from public administration to family albums in the home. The aim is to highlight photography's increasing presence in society and everyday life, and how it has contributed to shaping post-war visual culture.
In October, the book was launched to a full house at the Oslo Negativ photo festival with a panel discussion between the editors and authors Anja Langgåt (Norwegian Folk Museum), Hege Oulie (Preus Museum), Harald Østgaard Lund (National Library) and Thale Sørlie ( The Norwegian Museum of Science and Technology ) led by publisher editor and critic John Eik Riley. The book has been awarded support from the Arts Council's grant scheme for non-fiction literature within cultural preservation and it has been purchased by the Arts Council under the non-fiction scheme.
The Norwegian Museum of Science and Technology participates in SAMBA, supported by the Directorate of Culture. SAMBA is led by the Akershus and Østfold Museums with project participants Vitenparken, Alta and Varanger Museums, as well as the University of Oslo and the University of Stavanger. The project explores how museums can contribute to achieving Agenda 2030's sustainability goals, and how collaboration is a prerequisite for sharing knowledge and experiences.
The Norwegian Museum of Science and Technology will take a closer look at sustainability related to industrial exhibitions.
BEN focuses on the historical and contemporary mandate of museums and examines how this can be used critically to develop new narratives about energy and industry. The project is based on the premise that museums are not passive retellers of energy and industrial history, but are active participants in its creation. The goal is to increase understanding of how energy and industry have been organized, communicated and made public through the museums' narratives. The project is supported by the Directorate of Culture's Social Role Programme and is carried out in collaboration with the Aluminium Museum (Vestfold Museums), the Workers' Museum (Oslo Museum), the Norwegian Textile Museum (Museumssenteret i Hordaland), the Norwegian Water Resources and Energy Agency and the Norwegian Petroleum Museum.
I 2025 har prosjektgruppa jobbet med en antologi som blir gitt ut på forlaget Spartacus våren 2026, Et varslet uvær. Museer møter natur- og klimakrise tar gjennom syv kapitler for seg temaene vann, vind og kjernekraft, i tillegg til tekstil- og metallindustri og oljeutvinning.
Prosjektet Norske stoffer – design og industrihistorie tar for seg den store og landsomfattende tekstilindustrien som strakk seg fra starten midten av 1800-tallet til nedleggelsene hundre år senere. Hva ble produsert på fabrikkene? Hvem var designerne, og hvordan ble stoffene markedsført og spredt? Bokprosjektet bygger på det omfattende Hjula Væveris arkiv ved The Norwegian Museum of Science and Technology.
In addition, two sub-projects related to the project are underway: a book project about architect Knut Knutsen and the Knutsen School, which includes a text about Hjørdis Knutsen's interior textiles, used in her husband's room, led by the University of Oslo, IFIKK, and a project about Norwegian fashion, with a text about two fashion designers from the 1930s–40s, run by Christiania University College and the National Museum. Publication dates are 2026 and 2028, respectively.
The museum is participating in the research project REDUCE – less plastic in everyday life. The interdisciplinary project aims to reduce plastic in daily life. Plastic is a widely used material that can be used for almost anything, but which creates major problems with littering and leakage of toxins into the environment. The project's three main areas: hygiene, leisure and childhood are fields with high consumption of plastic. The museum will look at how the role of plastic has developed historically, and what it means for consumption today.
Prosjektet vil bidra inn i museets faste utstilling Plast i det moderne Norge. Det skal bygges en monter med gjenstander som formidler de historiske undersøkelsene av hvordan plast ble både nødvendig og usynlig i vår hverdagskultur. KTH i Stockholm jobber med en film om en familie som i en måned skal kutte ut sitt forbruk av plast. Filmen skal vises i utstillingen.
Prosjektet startet i 2021 og avslutningen er forskjøvet til 2026. Det ledes av Statens institutt for forbruksforskning (SIFO) ved OsloMet og er finansiert av Forskningsrådet. https://www.oslomet.no/forskning/forskningsprosjekter/reduce
Forskningsprosjektet Museums and Industry: Long Histories of Collaboration (MaILHoC) ble avsluttet i 2025. The Norwegian Museum of Science and Technology har deltatt i prosjektet sammen med partnere i Storbritannia, Spania og Frankrike. Prosjektets mål har vært å undersøke forholdet mellom tekniske museer og industri knyttet til samarbeid, sponsing og etikk, både i et historisk og et nåtidig perspektiv.
Prosjektet ble ledet av Science Museum Group London, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona og Aix-Marseille Université. The Norwegian Museum of Science and Technology har vært assosiert partner sammen med tenketanken Demos og University of London Press. Prosjektet har bygd på en rekke casestudier. Gjennom en serie offentlige arrangementer og diskusjoner, så vel som seminarer og undervisningssesjoner, har MaILHoC brakt sammen mennesker fra museer, akademia, næringsliv og etikkfeltet for å utvikle og formidle kunnskap. Det har blitt laget skreddersydde ressurser for utdanning, og ulike publikasjoner vil komme ut av prosjektet. Ved The Norwegian Museum of Science and Technology har MaILHoC blitt knyttet opp mot nettverksprosjektet Bærekraftige energinarrativer.
MaILHoC ble tildelt en støtte på 600.000 euro for perioden 2023 –2025 gjennom utlysningen Cultural Heritage, Society and Ethics under forskningsprogrammet Joint Programming Initiative on Cultural Heritage. Programmet administreres av det franske forskningsrådet (ANR).
Den årlige Artefacts-konferansen ble arrangert ved The Norwegian Museum of Science and Technology 12.–14. oktober. Artefacts er et internasjonalt museumsnettverk for fagpersoner innen teknologi-, medisin- og vitenskapshistorie, med mål om å fremme bruken av gjenstander og materiell kultur i forskningen. Årets konferanse var den 30. i rekken. Sist gang den ble arrangert hos oss var i 2007. Konferansen samlet om lag 50 personer fra Europa, Nord-Amerika og Asia.
The main theme of this year’s conference was “Care and Repair”. The theme linked together presentations related to the history of technology, the history of medicine and conservation work in a way that reflected the network’s and The Norwegian Museum of Science and Technology ’s academic breadth, not least considering that the National Medical Museum is an integral part of our museum. Care has been a much-discussed topic within the medical humanities, while repair and maintenance have been of great interest to historians of technology. However, bringing these conversations together is something that has not been done before. The conference was very successful, with several parallel sessions and space for open discussions.
Twelve of the presentations from the conference will be compiled into a publication in the Artefacts Network book series, published openly by the Smithsonian Institution Scholarly Press. One of the museum's conservators is the editor-in-chief of this publication.
In 2025, the museum's LAB has been used for project meetings, research and teaching. The various exhibition projects have regular meetings here. The area has also been used for exploration and discussion of the Hofgaard machine, as part of the PhD work. It is also used for teaching students from UiO Museology, the TIK Center, Oslo Met and the Academy of the Arts. The collaborative project between the Academy of the Arts in Oslo and the Norwegian Academy of Music on the development of performative situations in the museum's exhibitions is also being developed here.
The museum had two master's students from UiO, IFIKK, History of Ideas in internship during the spring semester. They both worked with the museum's library collection, one with the oldest books from the National Medical Museum, and one with the publications surrounding the world exhibitions of 1878 and 1889. Both contributed to the museum's website.
https://www.tekniskmuseum.no/kvinners-hemmeligheter?highlight=WyJrdmlubmUiXQ==
https://www.tekniskmuseum.no/norge-i-paris-1889?highlight=WyJ2ZXJkZW5zdXRzdGlsbGluZyJd
Museet har tildelt et stipend for skriving av masteroppgave. Masterstudent i museologi Sara Nygård leverte sin masteroppgave Norges mest utbredte bruksgjenstand. Å gjøre en lik ting på to ulike museer, The Norwegian Museum of Science and Technology og Nasjonalmuseet for kunst, arkitektur og design ved Universitetet i Oslo i desember 2025. Her sammenlignes utstillingene av telefonkiosken på to ulike museer, The Norwegian Museum of Science and Technology og Nasjonalmuseet, der hun undersøker ulike problemstillinger knyttet til de to museenes forskjellige ståsted. Sensur er i 2026.
DOCTORAL DEGREE STUDIES
Conservator Ingebjørg Kopperud Eidhammer has had her doctoral thesis at NTNU approved. It was defended at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) on December 19, 2025.
Denne avhandlingen handler om prosessene bryggeriene i Christiania gjennomgikk i perioden 1840–1890 i omleggingen til et øl som egnet seg for industriell masseproduksjon – et «moderne øl» som skulle være gjenkjennbart på smak og utseende, og som skulle kunne sendes helt til den andre siden av jordkloden og fremdeles smake likt som i Christiania. Basert på empiriske studier og systematiske analyser med utgangspunkt i arkivet etter bryggeriene i Christiania, undersøker avhandlingen hvilken rolle kunnskapssirkulasjon spilte i etableringen av det masseproduserte industriølet. Avhandlingen bygger på et teorigrunnlag satt sammen av kunnskapshistorie og vitenskaps- og teknologistudier (STS). 
Dr. Ingebjørg Eidhammer. Foto: Håkon Bergseth/The Norwegian Museum of Science and Technology
The project is based on Rolf Hofgaard's prototype computer from 1955. It is an object in the museum's collection that will shed new light on early computer history. The research work was completed in the spring of 2025, and the thesis was submitted in October. An evaluation committee has been established for evaluation in the spring of 2026.
The research project is affiliated with the Department of Historical Studies at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim (NTNU).
Dag Andreassen with the Hofgard machine. Photo: Jill Bottolfsen/ The Norwegian Museum of Science and Technology
Eidhammer, Ingebjørg Kopperud. Det ligger megen omtanke bak et glass øl. Kunnskapens rolle i etableringen av det moderne ølet i Christiania i perioden 1840–1890, Dr.-avhandling, Institutt for historiske fag, Det humanistiske fakultet, Norges teknisk-naturvitenskapelige universitet
Manshaus, Ann Tove og Bratland, Nina. Prosjekt – Mitt Drammen – Å aktivere fellesskapet. Aksess nr. 3, 2025
Bratland, Nina og Kollhøj, Jens Petter (red.), Fordi stein og vann - Since stone and water, Fossekleiva, Kunstneropphold 2015–2024 Artist residencies 2015–2024 (Fossekleiva: Fossekleiva kultursenter, 2025)
Loring, Phil. Refleksjoner og spekulasjoner om et etterlatt skjelett, i Livsblod - Edvard Munch, red. Allison Morehead og Heidi Bale Amundsen (Oslo: Munchmuseet, 2025); også utgitt på engelsk som Reflections and speculations on a skeleton left behind, i Lifeblood - Edvard Munch
Loring, Phil. The frog drawing machine, in Forty Years of Scientific Instrument Studies, ed. Schechner, Sara J. and Kremer, Richard L. (Leiden: Brill, 2025). https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004737587_021
Sørlie, Thale Elisabeth, Hysvær, Anja Langgåt, Oulie, Hege og Lund, Harald Østgaard. Usynlig til stede: Om hvordan fotografi har endret Norge etter 1945, (Forlaget Press: Oslo, 2025).
Skåtun, Thorhild. (2025). Engaging through Co-design in the Science Museum, Museum & Society, 23(1). https://doi.org/10.29311/mas.v21i3.4057
In 2024, the museum entered into an agreement with Store norske leksikon (Great Norwegian Encyclopedia) to transfer the rights to the website industrimuseum.no. The website was originally established as a joint project in the national museum networks for industrial and technological history and workers' culture.
The texts from industrimuseum.no have thus been published as part of Store norske leksikon (Great Norwegian Encyclopedia) , and in this way the content is preserved, updated and communicated to the public.
In 2025, 126 industrial history texts have been published in Store norske leksikon (Great Norwegian Encyclopedia), https://snl.no/.
The total number of articles from industrimuseum.no on snl.no is now up to 223, most of them new on snl.no, and reworked and updated compared to the previous version on industrimuseum.no.
The work of developing industrial history content on snl.no will continue.