By the Decree of the Russian Ministry of Culture from 12 May, 1997 the State Darwin Museum was approved as the Educational and Scientific Center of Natural History Museums of the Russian Federation.

The main objectives of the Center are:

Educational and scientific center leading by the State Darwin Museum joins 375 local history, zoological, botanical, and other natural history museums, museum-estates, and Zoos.

In 1996, the State Darwin Museum conducted Russian ICOM Conference, where the Association of Natural History Museums was established. The Association is a public organization comprising natural history museums and natural history departments of the local history museums.

In 1996, the State Darwin Museum organized the first Russian conference “Computerization in Museums”. More than 200 participants attended the conference. The conference stimulated rapid application of computer technologies to museum routine. This was the conference that gave incentive for many museums to organize Departments of Computer Services and for members of these departments to organize annual conferences. Two workshops were held over the period 1998-2000 in the museum: “Collecting, Preparation, Curation and Use of Natural History Collections” in March, 1998, and "Museum on the Turn of the Century. Experience of the Past, Glance into the Future" in October, 2000. The latter was devoted to 120th anniversary of the birth of Alexander Kots.

Annual qualification improvement workshops for natural history museum employees have been holding by the museum since 1998. The schedule was large and concerns altering approach to exhibition development, collecting, preparation, restoration, and storage of natural history specimens, publications, creating information computer sites, public relations, Internet, and children education programs.

Conferences for school biology teachers were organized by the museum for all administrative city districts annually. Conference “Education in XXI Century” was held at the museum in 1999. Lectures on contemporary knowledge about evolution and relationships between Man and Nature are conducting according to teachers’ qualification improvement courses.

The museum has been publishing annual proceedings on museology since 1997.

For the first time in Russia the museum's staff has started developing information computer sites for the museum visitors. The sites with computer installing right into the museum halls add exhibition by theoretical and reference data.

New methods to attract visitor's interest are invented by the staff. For the first time in Russia Personal Training Guide Booklets for all parts of the permanent exhibition have been prepared. Each personal guide serves as a some kind of book with funny questions, crosswords, pictures and puzzles for visitors of all ages. The experience was repeated in some Russian museums.

Temporary exhibitions education programs were established in 1998. A wide range of activities and programs for any visitors are offered at each temporary exhibition. These are contests for erudite persons, sculpturing from clay and dough, lotteries and many other activities.

Since 2000, we regularly arrange so-called “Ecology Days”, coinciding with the ecological days celebrated worldwide. During these Days our museum changes, and every visitor can participate in a large variety of activities. In 2000, the State Darwin Museum started to work out special program for taxidermists.