Head of the National Media Museum (NMM), Colin Philpott, has resigned.

Philpott, a director of the NMM, announced he is to step down after deciding not to take up a new job as head of the museum, in a non-director capacity.

As part of a plan by the NMM’s owners to forge closer links with the Science Museum in London, there will no longer be a ‘director-level’ role at the NMM.

Instead, the head of the museum will report to the deputy director of the Science Museum.

‘Colin’s announcement is part of a reorganisation at the senior levels of the National Museum of Science and Industry (NMSI),’ said the NMM in a statement.

The NMSI is the parent group to which the NMM, which is based in Bradford, belongs.

‘The reorganisation of the NMSI is focused on further developing closer links with the science museum,’ the statement added.

Meanwhile, a photo gallery is due to open behind London?s Science Museum in spring 2013.

The gallery is backed by the NMM which wants to create a London presence.

It will include space for workshops as well as exhibitions, according to its creative director Charlotte Cotton.

In an interview with the Guardian last month, Cotton said it will be a place to discuss new media in a ?non-institutionalised way?.

?The Media Space? will view its audience as contributors to vision, rather than passive viewers,? she said.

Philpott will step down in the spring.

An NMM spokesman said he was not yet able to release details of the NMSI reorganisation, or the Science Museum gallery.