[7] The idea of a public outreach facility was developed in 2005, championed by Prof. Mike Coey, who was invited to be a resident scientist at the Naughton Institute building under construction on the corner of Westland Row and Pearse Street.

Members include academics Aoife McLysaght, Emma Teeling, Aoibhinn Ní Shúilleabháin, Shane O'Mara, Patrick Prendergast and Peter Gallagher, journalists Karlin Lillington and Will Goodbody, and senator Lynn Ruane.

There is also a group for younger advisors, the Young Leos, which contributed to gallery considerations around, among other things, themes for exhibitions, marketing and social media, and other educational opportunities.

It was part-funded by Trinity College, by profits from the shop and cafe, and by sponsorship for specific exhibitions, as well as a grant from the Department of Arts, stated to be at the level of 280,000 euro per annum for some years.

The gallery's opening show, from 2–11 February 2008, was Lightwave, billed as a "festival with installations ... by leading engineers, scientists, lighting designers and artists".

[19] The gallery was featured on a limited edition 2015 An Post stamp, which was part of a series along with the BT Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition, celebrating recent Irish scientific achievements.

[15] Following strong negative reaction to the planned closure, including from professors such as McLysaght and the gallery's founding chairperson, Chris Horn,[9] the provost posted a Tweet on 29 October referencing a positive phone call with the Minister for Higher Education.

Trinity, having initially refused to comment on the matter, released a statement on 3 November, noting that grants and donations had dropped since 2017, and that the gallery had accumulated losses of 1.65 million euro.

In November 2022, it was announced that a tender would be issued for assistance in preparing the gallery to reopen in 2023, with an exhibition plan from 2023 to 2028, and pursuit of external funding partners.

In December 2024, Trinity announced that, after the failure to find a sustainable business model, the Science Gallery would not reopen and the space would be used instead for a dedicated student centre.

SGI creates and manages tools and resources, certain forms of technology, and materials, and facilitates knowledge-sharing and inter-location support, for the members of the Science Gallery Network.

[36][37] It ran from September 2018 to January 2019 and included work by Richard Billingham, Dryden Goodwin, Joachim Koester, Olivia Locher, Rachel Maclean, Melanie Manchot[37] and Natasha Caruana.