A total of £60m is needed to create Inspired, a new interactive science museum near Swindon

Science Museum Swindon is bidding for £50m of Big Lottery funding for its Inspired project. The outcome will be decided by the votes of the British public, which will be televised later this year.

Currently a storage facility for 92 per cent of exhibits belonging to the Science Museum in London, Swindon Science Museum has entered the bid in order to transform the facility from a storage site with visitor tours and limited access to a fully functioning museum in its own right.

The museum is competing against five other candidates including Sherwood: The Living Legend project for Nottinghamshire’s Sherwood Forest.

“We want people to vote Inspired,” said Martin Earwicker, Director of the National Museum of Science & Industry. “There has never been a greater need, not only for UK Plc which will need a scientifically literate educated society to compete with developing powers of China and India but also for the human race in general.”

The Inspired project is proposing that the 545-acre site is transformed into an extensive museum to encourage aspiring scientists and entrepreneurs to enter this career field in an age where student numbers choosing scientific and mathematical subjects have gone into freefall since 1996.

The new museum would open one of the world's most extraordinary science-related collections to the public

The bid comes at a time when the Culture Minister David Lammy has publicly stressed the importance of nurturing young children with a love and knowledge for science.

Speaking at a the Natural History Museum on June 19 the Minister said: “Science is a tremendously important part of our cultural heritage and a vital part of our shared future, and something that doesn’t receive as much public attention as it should.”

Mr Lammy outlined the importance of how British scientists brought the world the television and the life-saving penicillin, and how key work like this needs to be produced by generations to come.

If crowned winner Swindon Science Museum hopes to create a ‘fun science’ environment similar to that of the Science Museum in London and to open up one of the most elaborate collections of previously unseen science exhibits in the world.

State of the art indoor and outdoor arenas are planned to house spectacular shows including acrobats and huge displays to get children and young people thinking about science. Designers of Inspired are also planning the development to be eco-friendly.

The £50m will be a sizeable chunk of the £64m total needed to finish the project as a brand new type of interactive museum by 2010.

A final TV vote will be televised later in the year but for now you can vote online at the vote inspired website or use the SMS text vote and send ‘SMS Inspired’ to 88833.