Our founders
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The establishment of the Francis Crick Institute was made possible through an innovative partnership between a UK government funding agency, two charities and three leading universities.
Our founders are individually recognised for the support they provide to biomedical research and their strong track record of achievement. By joining forces and coordinating activities at the Crick, our founders are ensuring that even more will be achieved in the future.
Meet our founders
The Medical Research Council (MRC) has been at the forefront of scientific discovery to improve human health. Founded in 1913 to tackle tuberculosis, the MRC now invests taxpayers' money in some of the best medical research in the world and across every area of health.
The MRC's largest institute, the National Institute for Medical Research (NIMR) became part of the Francis Crick Institute on 1 April 2015. NIMR was dedicated to studying important questions about the life processes that are relevant to all aspects of human health.
Cancer Research UK is the world's leading charity dedicated to cancer research. Its vision is to bring forward the day when all cancers are cured.
Cancer Research UK's research is funded entirely by the public, whose donations support over 4,000 scientists, doctors and nurses across the UK. Several hundred of these scientists worked at Cancer Research UK's London Research Institute at Lincoln's Inn Fields and Clare Hall (LRI), which became part of the Crick on 1 April 2015. The LRI had an international reputation for cancer biology research and was the source of many significant breakthroughs.
The Wellcome Trust is a global charitable foundation dedicated to achieving extraordinary improvements in human and animal health. It was created in 1936 on the death of Sir Henry Wellcome and remains independent of both political and commercial interests. The Trust's breadth of support includes public engagement, education and the application of research to improve health.
The Wellcome Trust has made a major contribution to research over the decades, supporting the brightest minds in the biomedical sciences and the medical humanities and building world-class research environments in universities and other institutions. As well as being a founder and contributing to the cost of establishing the Francis Crick Institute, the Wellcome Trust is also supporting research within the institute.
UCL is London's global university. Founded in 1826, it is a research and teaching powerhouse, focused on the translation of research to address the world's biggest challenges.
The UCL School of Life and Medical Sciences (SLMS) brings together four faculties to create one of the largest and most prestigious centres for life, medical, brain and population health sciences. SLMS fosters a truly multidisciplinary approach, working in close collaboration with UCL's Faculties of Maths and Physical Sciences and Engineering to respond to real world issues.
UCL is also a founding partner of UCLPartners, an accredited academic health science system established to harness academia to improve population health, in London, nationally and beyond. Drawing together academic strengths and prestigious partner hospitals, UCLPartners' objective is to enable new discoveries in basic science to be translated into treatments more quickly; delivering proven innovation into practice at scale, both to improve patient and population health outcomes, and to generate wealth for the nation.
Imperial College London is a science-based university with a reputation for excellence and impact that is consistently rated among the world's best. Imperial's research explores the interface between science, medicine, engineering and business, delivering practical solutions that improve quality of life and the environment, underpinned by a dynamic enterprise culture.
Imperial's partnership with Crick will provide access to bespoke research facilities, technology innovation, a multidisciplinary approach to research and training, and an entrepreneurial culture based on a strong track record in technology transfer and forging relationships with industry.
Imperial West - a new 25 acre research and innovation district in White City, west London - and the College's Academic Health Science Centre will offer the Crick valuable opportunities for translation and collaborations with the NHS and industry.
Imperial's translation expertise along with strengths in medical research, physical sciences and engineering will all contribute to realising the Crick's vision.
King's College London is one of the top universities in the world and among the oldest in England. King's has a particularly distinguished reputation in the humanities, law, the sciences (including a wide range of health areas such as psychiatry, medicine, nursing and dentistry) and social sciences including international affairs. It has played a major role in many of the advances that have shaped modern life, such as the discovery of the structure of DNA and research that led to the development of radio, television, mobile phones and radar.
King's College London is one of the founders of King's Health Partners (KHP), the Academic Health Sciences Centre (AHSC) formed with Guy's and St Thomas', King's College Hospital and South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trusts. KHP is a pioneering global collaboration that brings together expertise in research, education and clinical practice across a wide range of disciplines to ensure rapid translation of biomedical discoveries into innovative treatments.
King's partnership with the Crick spans our four main science and health faculties, and enables a wide range of joint initiatives from joint post-graduate research and clinical training through to research collaborations, which bring the Crick's science strategy to life.
