Creating a Centre of Perception Research at the Science Museum (360G-Wellcome-096562_Z_11_Z)

Led by Neuroscientist Beau Lotto in collaboration with key staff of London's Science Museum, Lottolab Studio is creating the world's first Centre of Perception Research (CoPR - previously called 'The Box'). CoPR will be a public science lab housed in a large, open and prominent gallery in London's Science Museum. CoPR's ambition is to transform the public's view of science and themselves by enabling the public to become integral to the process of scientific research into human perception. The concept at the core of the centre is simply this: The best form of public engagement is science itself. What's needed is a topic that transcends disciplines and is relevant to everyone (perception), and an approach to engagement that enables the public to take ownership of science (a public lab environment). We have devised 7 programmes that put the public at the heart of the process of discovery. This proposal seeks to clarify and trial these public programmes at London's Science Museum, which will result in critical research and specific deliverables into a fundamentally different form of public engagement in public spaces.