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2021

The board's annual report

The Norwegian Museum of Science and Technology Foundation is one of Norway's largest contemporary and historical museums. The museum is the national museum for technology, natural sciences, industry and medicine and aims to visualize and spread knowledge about the interaction between these fields and society at large. The museum is housed in its own premises at Kjelsås in Oslo and is mainly financed through public funds. In addition, there is income from private actors, as well as own income.  

The overall goals, challenges and areas of focus of the organization follow the guidelines related to the transfers from the Ministry of Culture, the Directorate of Health, the Ministry of Local Government and Modernisation and the Ministry of Education, as well as the museum's statutes. The museum's main goal is to secure tangible and intangible cultural heritage from the past and present as an irreplaceable source of insight, identity and experience. 

In 2021, the museum had 105,929 visitors at the museum, 1,464 visitors at external venues and 2,965 participants in digital education, a total of 110,358. The visit corresponds to the visit in 2020, but represents a decrease of 56.4 percent from 2019. The decrease in visits is due to the Covid19 pandemic, which has, among other things, resulted in the museum being closed in the period 01.01.2021-28.05.2021 and has had reduced offerings in the fall of 2021. The visit to the museum is registered in the museum's checkout system.  

The Norwegian Museum of Science and Technology is in a unique position among museums in Norway when it comes to visits by children and young people.  A total of 54,074 people under the age of 18 visited the museum in 2021, which corresponds to 51 percent of the total visits. The museum was visited by 19,195 schoolchildren and teachers. This is 4,764 more than in 2020, but significantly less than school visits in the years before the pandemic. This is due, among other things, to travel restrictions in schools during the pandemic. Schoolchildren make up 36 percent of the proportion of children and young people who visit the museum. In the future, the museum will work to further develop current operations and visitor numbers. 

Mediation

The Norwegian Museum of Science and Technology focuses broadly on communication by producing new exhibitions and having an extensive school  program, a broad activity program and events aimed at special target groups. The museum's main focus in 2021 has been the new permanent exhibition on medicine – “Life and Death” . In line with the museum's strategy, the museum has worked on renewing a basic exhibition on ICT – “I/O” , with a planned opening in 2022. In , the museum has shown the exhibitions “Sand in the Machinery” and “Gerhard Munthe – Fairytale Interiors”.

Administration

The museum's collections consist of approximately  91,800 objects, 2.67 million photographs, 1,670 metres of archive shelving and more than 140,000 books . 23,712 were catalogued and 291 were registered in 2021 .

Research

In addition to working on exhibitions and several book projects, three employees are in the process of obtaining a doctorate; 

The doctoral project Museums potential in children's learning was initiated in autumn 2016 and is being carried out at the School of Museum Studies, University of Leicester. The project will explore how museums can be an active part of children and young people's learning world. 

The doctoral project The Hofgaard machine – an early Norwegian computer? was initiated at the Department of Historical Studies at NTNU in 2019. The project is based on an object in the museum's collection, which can shed new light on early computer history. 

The doctoral project Enabling Technologies for Norwegian Beer Exports from 1860-1900 was initiated in the fall of 2019 and is being carried out at the Department of Historical Studies at NTNU. The project is based on the museum's historical archive of Frydenlund and Ringnes Brewery. 

The research project "The Museums' Knowledge Topography" (2018 – 2020) was initiated by The Norwegian Museum of Science and Technology and is carried out in collaboration with Østfold Museums, Malmö Museums, Gothenburg City Museum and the Technical Museum. The project is supported by the Arts Council's museum development program Research in Museums. The project has been continued in 2021 and will be completed in 2022. 

National museum networks

The Norwegian Museum of Science and Technology is responsible for coordinating and developing the Medical History Museum Network and the Network for Technology and Industrial History. In addition, the museum participates in the Network for Science Centers, the Network for Workers' Culture, the  Network for Photography and the Network for Music and Musical Instruments.

The Norwegian Museum of Science and Technology 's Friends

The Norwegian Museum of Science and Technology Association is formally independent of The Norwegian Museum of Science and Technology , and keeps its own accounts. Fifty percent of the paid membership fee goes to the museum, which amounted to NOK  174,042 in 20 2 1 . The Friends have contributed voluntary work to restore an industrial model from 1954. The Friends' members have free admission to the museum. The personal membership of the association was 549 in 20 2 1 and the number of corporate members was 5 .

Organization, construction and health, environment and safety

Frode Meinich is the museum director. The museum employed a total of 91 people and 64.2 man-years of work were performed in 2021. No occupational accidents were registered in 2021. Sickness absence was 6.0 percent. Work on health, environment and safety has been carried out in line with plan and budget. The museum does not conduct activities that pollute the external environment beyond what is permitted by laws and regulations. 

The museum building was built in 1985 and today bears the marks of more than 35 years of wear and tear. Expenses for operation and necessary maintenance of the museum buildings in 2021 were NOK 9,998,758, which is 17.6 percent above budget.  

Measures against discrimination and for accessibility

The museum places emphasis on gender equality, and  equal pay for equal work is provided. 51 of the employees were women and 40 were men. The museum has two employees with an ethnic minority background. In its outreach work, the museum has a particular focus on accessibility. In 2021, the museum continued a project with outreach aimed at people with dementia, outside the museum's regular opening hours. The exhibition rooms are partially adapted for people with disabilities. Reference is also to the separate chapter on the museum's diversity work in the museum's annual report for 2021.

Economy

The museum's financial risk is considered to be limited. The museum has investments in securities funds with a total market value of NOK 13,706,576, in addition to bank deposits. In November 2021, the museum paid off the remaining loan on the warehouse building in Gjerdrum. The interest cost for the loan in 2021 was NOK 262,266. 

The museum's equity amounts to NOK 42,098,341, of which the share capital amounts to NOK 18,125,792  

The museum has good management, financial control and liquidity. The Ministry of Culture is responsible for basic financing of the operation with NOK 34,105,000. The Ministry of Health and Care Services, through the Directorate of Health, has contributed NOK 7,900,000 to the National Medical Museum. For the operation and development of the Science Centre, the museum received NOK 8,400,000 from the Science Centre Committee, appointed by the Research Council of Norway on behalf of the Ministry of Education and Research. For the operation of the telecommunications area, the museum received NOK 7,300,000 in grants from the Ministry of Local Government and Modernisation, of which NOK 500,000 is earmarked for regional measures. Of the regional grant, NOK 186,302 has been allocated to the establishment of sanitary facilities at the Bergen transmitter station, Rundemanen in 2022. The museum has received extraordinary grants from the Ministry of Culture with NOK 7,446,000 and the Science Center Committee with NOK 324,716 in extraordinary support in connection with the Covid19 pandemic. In addition, the museum's operations are financed by entrance fees, sales in the museum shop and other own income. 

Total operating income in 2021 was NOK 93,674,398. This is NOK 6,670,398 above budget. The result for 2021 shows a deficit of NOK 3,995,489 . The deficit is due to the planned use of accumulated liquid funds to realize new basic exhibitions within medicine and ICT. The foundation capital and other equity are considered adequate for continued operation. The accounts are based on the principle of going concern, as the basis for this is present. The board believes that the accounts, together with the board's report, provide a true and fair view of the development and results of the museum's activities and financial position. Liability insurance has been taken out for the board. 

Board composition 2021

Appointed by the Ministry of Culture:
Chosen by the association
Friends of the Norwegian Technical Museum:
Chosen by and among the staff
at The Norwegian Museum of Science and Technology :
Ingvild Myhre (chairman of the board) Trond Markussen Shahzia Vira
Ingunn Rotihaug Ragnar Skjærstad Arne B. Langleite
Rasmus Brodtkorb Anne Brit Thoresen (1st deputy member)

Thomas B. Fjærtoft  (1st deputy member) 
Jonny Edvardsen Nils Marstein, (2nd deputy member)

Ellen W. Lange  (2nd deputy member) 
Kristin Vinje    
Morten Lie (1st deputy member)    
Runa Haug Khoury, (2nd deputy member)    
The Ministry of Culture has appointed new members to the museum's board from 01.01.2022. The board members in 2022 are; chairman Dag Terje Andersen, board members Zaineb Al-Samarai, Arnfinn Bjerkestrand, Lise Lyngsnes Randeberg, Ingunn Rotihaug, Trond Markussen, Ragnar Skjærstad, Arne Bolstad Langleite and Shahzia Vira.