The Francis Crick Institute – Written evidence (STS0044)

Introduction

The Francis Crick Institute is dedicated to understanding the fundamental biology underlying health and disease. Our state-of-the-art building in central London brings together more than 1,500 scientists, postgraduate research students and support staff working across multiple disciplines, making it the biggest biomedical research facility under a single roof in Europe.

The Crick’s strategy of ‘Discovery Without Boundaries’ enables world-class research scientists to make transformative discoveries in biomedical research. Scientists are exposed to diverse and novel ideas which inspire their own thinking, and they have the freedom, space, funds, technology and expert advice to test their most creative theories.

As the Committee considers the Government’s ambition to make the UK a science superpower and the possible road to getting there, we wanted to share our model and how we operate within the wider research and development system.

Formed by bringing together the MRC’s National Institute for Medical Research (NIMR) and Cancer Research UK’s London Research Institute, the Crick opened in 2016 and commenced full operations at the beginning of 2017. We have six founding partners—the Medical Research Council (MRC), Cancer Research UK, Wellcome, Imperial College London, UCL and King’s College London. Our central location, immediately adjacent to St Pancras station, means that we can take advantage of the cluster of research and clinical care organisations in the area and benefit from the excellent transport links next door, and can attract high quality researchers from around the world.

The Crick was purpose-built to be designed to effectively support our mission and requirements. The total floor space is 93,000m2: there are 10 floors, including two below ground, over 1,500 rooms, and more than four kilometres of laboratory benching.

A multidisciplinary angle

The Crick’s unique open-plan laboratory architecture and the lack of traditional research departments were planned to promote collaboration between scientists from many different fields: as well as biological, biomedical and clinical scientists, we draw on people whose disciplines are not always found in a biomedical institute, such as physical scientists, theoreticians and engineers. Groups are not arranged by discipline within the institute, rather groups with different interests are co-located. This means that scientists are exposed to different ideas and alternative ways of thinking, making spontaneous and productive collaborations more likely.

Through our three university partners, we have a network of collaborations with multiple labs and departments. Interactions range from jointly appointed group leaders to satellite laboratories and temporary secondments. Crick staff also have opportunities to teach in the partner universities, developing skills that they can apply in their subsequent careers.

Medically trained scientists are also embedded within our workforce. More than 60 clinician scientists, at all career stages, offer different perspectives bringing expertise from the bedside to the bench. This helps us to remove traditional barriers between basic and clinical research, build partnerships with local hospitals and accelerate the movement of research ideas from the lab to clinical practice. These numbers are to be expanded.

Taking a multidisciplinary approach means that we can develop interesting collaborations and respond rapidly to new opportunities and challenges rather than being confined by restricted programmatic research areas. As an example of this agility, at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, we were able to repurpose our laboratories and set up a testing pipeline at speed.

Focusing on early career researchers

Unusually, the Crick is aiming for over two thirds of its group leaders to be junior faculty: the institute has made 32 early career appointments at group leader level between 2016 and 2021, with most recruited in open searches designed to hire the world’s best early career talent. We believe that the stable environment, access to technology and core funding we provide to these excellent early career researchers as they build their labs will help them to thrive as independent scientists. It is also a very popular model for female researchers.

Our aim is to act as an incubator, nurturing excellent scientists before exporting them to enhance the biomedical research endeavour particularly in the UK but also internationally, establishing a network of contacts across the world.

In a novel departure from the UK’s standard tenure-track system, the Crick’s early-career appointments are for a 12-year period, with a quality check at six years, after which group leaders are assisted to move to another institution. It is rare for organisations to adopt this model, as most prefer to permanently retain their best people, but we believe our ‘6+6 model’ ensures that our programmes can evolve over time, with new ideas and expertise keeping us at the forefront of scientific thinking. We think it is better at supporting early career group leaders more effectively, and also the whole UK biomedical research endeavour by providing a pipeline of trained research group leaders.

Embedding translation

Translation is proactively embedded at the Crick. Our dedicated in-house team work directly with scientists to educate and encourage them to think about the translational potential of their research, and they also manage a range of pre-competitive industry partnerships. Our model means that opportunities to translate research are maximised, and to date, the Crick has set up ten spin-off companies in the five years of its existence.

Through connections with GlaxoSmithKline, AstraZeneca and MSD, our researchers are also combining their expertise with industry specialists, accelerating the possibility of tackling fundamental science problems. This leads to publications, skills development, catalysing broader collaborations and enabling career progression. King’s Cross is emerging as a life science cluster, and the co-location of organisations including the Alan Turing Institute, MSD, AstraZeneca and DeepMind presents possibilities for close cooperation and shared knowledge.

Access to facilities, platforms and technologies

Shared resources through high-quality science technology platforms (STPs) are provided as part of our cost-effective centralised approach for the provision of technological expertise. These specialist technical labs are staffed by experts, which means that researchers can properly use the equipment. It is cost efficient, saves time and boosts outputs. There is a strong focus on collaboration and joint experimental design.

Supporting our local community

We work closely with the local community and take public engagement seriously, as we want the public to feel that science and the Crick are relevant and accessible to them.

Alongside our events and exhibitions, we run an education outreach programme engaging every child in state mainstream and special education in Camden, every year of their school lives. Nearly 20,000 young people and their teachers are reached each year through a varied array of practical science workshops, school projects, work experience placements, and teacher training sessions. We have also set up an in-house lab for primary school children which caters for 2,000 pupils each year. Embedding a culture of external engagement provides opportunities for mutual learning between our scientists and the public, whilst helping to inspire the next generation.

Operating within the UK’s R&D system

The Crick operates within a complex R&D ecosystem. We hope that the approaches we have put in place can change the status quo and deliver bold scientific outcomes.

Invitation: We would be delighted to welcome Committee members who would like to find out more about our model to visit the Crick and see how the model works in practice at first hand.

25 March 2022