Landmark £1bn boost for Francis Crick Institute to strengthen UK’s future as ‘a science superpower’
In what is seen as a landmark investment in UK science, several of the UK’s largest health bodies have come together to unveil £1bn in funding for the Francis Crick Institute.
The Medical Research Council (MRC), Cancer Research UK (CRUK) and Wellcome said the funding for the biomedical research centre was an investment in helping secure the future of the UK as a scientific powerhouse.
Crick was formed in 2015 in an effort to understand more about how living things work to transform the treatment, diagnosis and prevention of human disease.
Some of the centre’s biggest achievements include identifying how therapies can outpace lung cancer, and the discovery of a new vaccine against tuberculosis.
The new £1bn investment is set to fund the centre for the next seven years.
Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng said: “From the invention of penicillin and the first successful blood transfusion to the ground-breaking coronavirus vaccination developed by Oxford scientists, the UK has an impressive legacy in the life sciences.
“I am therefore thrilled that the government has been able to make a significant contribution to this £1bn investment for the brilliant Francis Crick Institute.
“This funding will support the outstanding research they do to advance biomedical discovery and develop new approaches to tackling disease, strengthening the UK’s future as a science superpower.”
Kwasi Kwarteng
Sir Paul Nurse, director of Crick, said: “This is an investment that promotes UK science. The Government has recognised the need to expand research budgets, because our future relies on it.
“For the UK to be a global science power, we also need to be collaborators in the international science community and critically need to maintain our current powerful links with scientists in Europe.”