A petition has been launched in an attempt to reinstate the Science Museum’s Inspired scheme, following its recent elimination from the £50m Living Landmarks competition.

If the project had been successful, a further 92 per cent of the Science Museum's collections, currently being held at Wroughton Airfield in Swindon, would have been put on display at the storage site, with free admission to the public.

Chris Rapley, director of the Science Museum, said: “We are extremely disappointed to find that we have been eliminated from the final round of the Big Lottery Fund’s People’s Millions.

“Inspired was a project to open up the 92 per cent of our collections which are at present not on public display. It was a critical project for the nation’s heritage and for attracting the next generation of scientists and engineers to combat the pressing issues of our time.

“We are devastated, especially for the people of Swindon, with whom we have had the closest and most positive of working relationships.

The public can add their name to the petition, posted on the 10 Downing Street website, until 30 November.

In the meantime, the Science Museum “will be exploring ways to make these world class collections available to the public in spite of this setback.”

The project was one of two proposals knocked out by a board, selected by the Big Lottery Fund, leaving four projects still in the running for the live public vote for a final winner, which will be televised on ITV1 in December.