The museum, whose collection includes more than 1.5million objects, celebrated its 150th anniversary last year.
Museum director Ian Griffin said work would be undertaken over about the next six to eight months to develop the museum's master plan.
"Any significant organisation is always planning for the future," Dr Griffin added yesterday.
The plan would then be submitted for consideration in the Dunedin City Council's planning process.
The museum had already worked to raise funds from beyond its contributing councils, and had matched those operating funds with money raised from internal commercial operations and outside grants.
Dr Griffin believed the museum had a strong "special case" for government funding, and for support from the Ministry of Culture and Heritage's Regional Culture and Heritage Fund.
After celebrating its 150th anniversary, the museum faced the challenge of "looking after treasures of our region" not just in the short term, but for "hundreds of years".
"You can divide $50 million by 100 years - it's not a large sum," he said.
Dunedin has been "blessed with this rich collection", but the challenge was to ensure it was protected in a way that was "fit for the purpose for the 21st century".
The Tangata Whenua gallery would be the first major gallery to be redeveloped, and this could take three years, also allowing time for public consultation.
Among the options for redevelopment was the idea of restoring parts of the museum's initial 1877 building on its current site to its original look.
Apart from redeveloping the galleries, the museum also had to meet some other needs, including some physical maintenance, and a sprinkler system was also needed to cover the half of the institution without this fire protection.
The museum's galleries include the Nature gallery; the Victorian-inspired Animal Attic; People of the World; Pacific Cultures; and the Maritime gallery.
