The CIMUSET Award recognises innovative practices and formats in science and technology museums and science centres that contribute to shaping more equitable, sustainable, and peaceful futures. The award highlights emerging, experimental, and futures thinking approaches that expand the role of science and technology museums in contemporary society.

Grounded in the transformative potential of museums and collections of science and technology, the award acknowledges projects that generate meaningful impact for individuals, communities, and society at large. Nominated projects should demonstrate how they actively contribute to more desirable futures – particularly in relation to the implications of science and technology, including sustainability, social justice and cohesion, equity, accessibility, inclusion, decolonisation, and environmental and ecological issues.

In a rapidly evolving museum landscape, the CIMUSET Award serves as a mark of distinction within the field of science and technology museums and science centres, recognising institutions and individuals who move beyond conventional practices. It celebrates projects that reimagine these institutions as active agents in societal transformation.

The award aligns with the current ICOM definition of museums, while emphasising the specific role of science and technology museums as spaces that engage publics with science and technologies, and their consequences. In this spirit, the CIMUSET Award honours initiatives that not only communicate science and technology but also foster dialogue, reflection, and collective engagement with the challenges and opportunities they present.

By highlighting innovative and hybrid museological practices, the award underscores the evolving role of science and technology museums – not merely as custodians of scientific and technological heritage, but as dynamic spaces that engage critically with past developments, present challenges, and future opportunities.