[2] The Lapworth Museum is free to visit;[3] its galleries are aimed at a broad range of audiences, from families and children to undergraduate students and specialist geology groups.

The galleries use the Lapworth's collections to tell the story of the evolution of life and the planet over 4.5 billion years of Earth's history, with a particular focus on how the environment, climate, plants, and animals of the English Midlands have changed over time.

The Lapworth Museum is located within one of the wings of the Grade II* listed Aston Webb Building on the main campus of the University of Birmingham.

The Lapworth has occupied its current space from the 1920s, but the history of the museum dates back to 1880 and the foundation of Mason College, the forerunner of the University of Birmingham.

The aims of this project were to completely redevelop and expand the galleries and displays, making them more accessible and appealing to a broader, non-academic audience, add key visitor and educational facilities that were previously missing (e.g. Education Room, reception desk, shop, cafe, toilets), make all museum spaces fully accessible, and upgrade the museum collections storage facilities.

The strengths of the palaeontological collections reflect the geology of the local region, as well as the research interests of past and present University of Birmingham palaeontologists.

The limestone records animals living in and around ocean floor reefs when the Midlands was covered by warm, shallow tropical seas.

Other key collections include: plants and animals from the Coal Measures of the South Staffordshire Coalfield, particularly those preserved in exceptional condition in ironstone nodules from Coseley; ice age mammals such as mammoth and cave bear; exceptionally preserved fish fossils from Brazil, Italy, Lebanon and the USA; and specimens from famous international fossiliferous deposits such as the Solnhofen Limestone of southern Germany and the Burgess Shale of British Columbia.

A particularly important collection is that of William Murdoch, a Scottish engineer and inventor who worked at Soho House with James Watt and Matthew Boulton.

[citation needed] Following the redevelopment project, the Lapworth launched a new education programme including workshops aimed at a range of key stages, all of which have been developed to link to the National Curriculum.

Talks, hands on sessions and "behind the scenes" tours can be arranged for visiting groups wishing to learn more about natural history.

The Keith Palmer Lecture Series, named after the lead individual donor to the redevelopment, was established to promote the public understanding of natural science by a distinguished invited speaker.