The Medical Research Council (MRC), Cancer Research UK (CRUK), and Wellcome have announced commitments totaling £1 billion ($1.18 billion) in support of the London-based Francis Crick Institute.

Established in 2015, the Crick Institute works to advance understanding of how living things work to help transform treatment, diagnosis, and prevention of human disease such as cancer, heart disease, infections, and neurodegenerative diseases. The biomedical research institute also has launched 10 spin-out companies, generating economic opportunities.

The investment will fund the institute’s work for the next seven years, enabling it to expand its world-leading role, forge connections across the United Kingdom and beyond, and make the UK a place where researchers work at the forefront of global innovation.

“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,” said Crick Institute director Sir Paul Nurse.

“The Crick has been a flagship discovery biomedical science center since its formation in 2015, and this funding from the MRC, CRUK, and Wellcome will continue to support them in advancing their world-class biomedical research and solving scientific challenges,” said MRC executive chair John Iredale. “Since its founding, the Crick has already produced many important advances in human health and disease—spanning cancer, COVID-19, neurodegeneration, and embryo development—and we’re proud to continue supporting their ground-breaking research.”

(Photo credit: Janie Airey)