Medical Research Council (United Kingdom)

The Medical Research Council (MRC) is responsible for co-coordinating and funding medical research in the United Kingdom. It is part of United Kingdom Research and Innovation (UKRI), which came into operation 1 April 2018, and brings together the UK's seven research councils, Innovate UK and Research England. UK Research and Innovation is answerable to, although politically independent from, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.

Medical Research Council
AbbreviationMRC
Formation1913
TypeResearch Council within UKRI
PurposeCo-ordinating and funding medical research in the United Kingdom
Location
Region served
United Kingdom
Executive Chair
Patrick Chinnery
Main organ
MRC Council
Parent organisation
Websitewww.ukri.org/councils/mrc/ Edit this at Wikidata

The MRC focuses on high-impact research and has provided the financial support and scientific expertise behind a number of medical breakthroughs, including the development of penicillin and the discovery of the structure of DNA. Research funded by the MRC has produced 32 Nobel Prize winners to date.

History

edit

The MRC was founded as the Medical Research Committee and Advisory Council in 1913,[1] with its prime role being the distribution of medical research funds under the terms of the National Insurance Act 1911. This was a consequence of the recommendation of the Royal Commissions on Tuberculosis, which recommended the creation of a permanent medical research body. The mandate was not limited to tuberculosis, however.[citation needed]

In 1920, it became the Medical Research Council under Royal Charter. A supplementary Charter was formally approved by the Queen on 17 July 2003. In March 1933, MRC established the British Journal of Clinical Research and Educational Advanced Medicine, the first scientific published medical patrol, as a periodical publication intended to further the progress of science, usually by reporting new research. It contains articles that have been peer reviewed, in an attempt to ensure that articles meet the journal's standards of quality, and scientific validity, allow researchers to keep up to date with the developments of their field and direct their own research.[citation needed]

In August 2012, the creation of the MRC-NIHR Phenome Centre, a research centre for personalised medicine, was announced.[2][3] The MRC-NIHR National Phenome Centre is based at Imperial College London and is a combination of inherited equipment from the anti-doping facilities used to test samples during the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games[2][3] and additional items from the Centre's technology partners Bruker and Waters Corporation. The Centre, led by Imperial College London and King's College London, is funded with two five-year grants of £5 million from the Medical Research Council and the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR)[2][3] and was officially opened in June 2013.[4]

Notable research

edit

Important work carried out under MRC auspices has included:

Scientists associated with the MRC have received a total of 32 Nobel Prizes, all in either Physiology or Medicine or Chemistry.[17]

Organisation and leadership

edit

The MRC is one of seven Research Councils[18] that are part of UK Research and Innovation, in turn part of the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.[19] In the past, the MRC has been answerable to the Office of Science and Innovation, part of the Department of Trade and Industry.[citation needed]

The MRC is advised by a council which directs and oversees corporate policy and science strategy, ensures that the MRC is effectively managed, and makes policy and spending decisions. Council members are drawn from industry, academia, government and the NHS. Members are appointed by the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. Daily management is in the hands of the Executive Chair. Members of the council also chair specialist boards on specific areas of research. For specific subjects, the council convenes committees.[20]

Chairmen

edit

Chief executives

edit

As Chief Executives (originally secretaries) served:

Executive chairs

edit

Following the formation of UK Research and Innovation, the executive chair role replaced the chief executive officer role, and has been held by:

  • 2018–2022: Professor Fiona Watt
  • 2022-2023 (interim post): Professor Sir John Iredale
  • 2023-present: Professor Patrick Chinnery[21]

MRC CEOs are normally automatically knighted.[22]

Institutes, centres and units

edit

The MRC has units, centres and institutes in the UK, with units addressing medical issues in The Gambia and Uganda managed by the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine.[23]

The following is a list of the MRC's institutes, centres and units as of June 2024:[23]

Bristol

Cambridge

Dundee

Edinburgh

Exeter

Glasgow

  • MRC & CSO Social and Public Health Sciences Unit, University of Glasgow (SPHSU)
  • MRC–University of Glasgow Centre for Virus Research

Harwell

  • Research Complex at Harwell

London

Oxford

  • MRC Brain Network Dynamics Unit (at the University of Oxford)
  • MRC Molecular Haematology Unit at the University of Oxford
  • MRC Translational Immune Discovery Unit at the University of Oxford
  • MRC Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine at the University of Oxford
  • Population Health Research Unit, University of Oxford

Southampton

  • Versus Arthritis/MRC Centre for Musculoskeletal Health and Work, University of Southampton
  • MRC Lifecourse Epidemiology Unit at the University of Southampton (LEU)

Multiple sites across UK

  • Health Data Research UK (central team in London)
  • MRC/Versus Arthritis Centre for Integrated research into Musculoskeletal Ageing, Liverpool/Sheffield/NCL (universities of Liverpool, Sheffield and Newcastle) (CIMA)
  • MRC/Versus Arthritis Centre for Musculoskeletal Ageing Research (CMAR), Birmingham/Nottingham (universities of Birmingham and Nottingham)
  • UK Dementia Research Institute (hub at UCL; centres hosted by universities of Cambridge, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Surrey, Imperial College London and King’s College London)

Facilities and resources

edit

MRC facilities and resources include, as of June 2024:[24] In the UK:

  • Better Methods, Better Research guidance portal
  • Central Laser facility at the Rutherford-Appleton Laboratory
  • Clinical trials data sharing: ReShare (at the UK Data Service)
  • Cohort Directory
  • Diamond Light Source (UK national synchrotron facility, Harwell)
  • Dementias Platform UK
  • Electron Bio-imaging Centre at the Diamond Light Source
  • Genomics England
  • Health Data Research Innovation Gateway
  • ISIS Neutron and Muon Source at the Rutherford-Appleton Laboratory
  • LifeArc
  • Mary Lyon Centre (UK national facility for mouse genetics, Harwell)
  • MRC Biomedical Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) Centre
  • MRC Centre for Macaques
  • MRC scales (MRC dyspnoea scale; MRC muscle scale; neurological scle)
  • MRC-Wellcome Trust Human Developmental Biology Resource (HDBR)
  • Regulatory Support Centre
  • Research Complex at Harwell
  • UK Biobank
  • UK Stem Cell Bank
  • UK Clinical Research Collaboration (UKCRC) Tissue Directory

International collaborations:

  • Beamtime at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility, France
  • Biobanking and Biomolecular Resources Research Infrastructure (European Research Infrastructure Consortium)
  • Institut Laue-Langevin neutron source, France
  • Instruct – European infrastructure for structural biology (European Research Infrastructure Consortium)

See also

edit

Notes and references

edit
  1. ^ "Records created or inherited by the Medical Research Council". The National Archives. Retrieved 28 February 2012.
  2. ^ a b c "London 2012 legacy to include medical research centre". Times Higher Education. 1 August 2012. Retrieved 1 August 2012.
  3. ^ a b c "Legacy for anti-doping centre". BBC News. 1 August 2012. Retrieved 1 August 2012.
  4. ^ "New centre will decipher roles of nature and nurture in human health". Imperial College News and Events. Imperial College London. 5 June 2013. Retrieved 13 November 2014.
  5. ^ "Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography: Mellanby, Edward". Encyclopedia.com. Retrieved 28 February 2012.
  6. ^ "Social History of Medicine – Uses of a Pandemic: Forging the Identities of Influenza and Virus Research in Interwar Britain". Oxford University Press. 15 December 2011. Retrieved 28 February 2012.
  7. ^ Bud, Robert (2007). Penicillin Triumph and Tragedy. Oxford University Press. p. 43. ISBN 978-0-19-925406-4.
  8. ^ Doll, R.; Peto, R.; Boreham, J.; Sutherland, I. (2005). "Mortality from cancer in relation to smoking: 50 years observations on British doctors". British Journal of Cancer. 92 (3): 426–429. doi:10.1038/sj.bjc.6602359. PMC 2362086. PMID 15668706.
  9. ^ Torsten, Krude; Klug, Aaron (2004). Changing Science and Society. Cambridge University Press. pp. 3–26. ISBN 0-521-82378-1.
  10. ^ "The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2003". Nobelprize.org. Retrieved 28 February 2012.
  11. ^ "Therapeutic Antibodies and the LMB". MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology. Archived from the original on 22 December 2012. Retrieved 28 February 2012.
  12. ^ Centers for Disease Control (CDC) (1991). "Use of folic acid for prevention of spina bifida and other neural tube defects—1983–1991". MMWR. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. 40 (30): 513–516. PMID 2072886.
  13. ^ Collins, R.; Armitage, J.; Parish, S.; Sleigh, P.; Peto, R.; Heart Protection Study Collaborative Group (2003). "MRC/BHF Heart Protection Study of cholesterol-lowering with simvastatin in 5963 people with diabetes: A randomised placebo-controlled trial". Lancet. 361 (9374): 2005–2016. doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(03)13636-7. PMID 12814710. S2CID 28111189.
  14. ^ "The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2009". Nobelprize.org. Retrieved 28 February 2012.
  15. ^ Loos, R. J. F. (2009). "Recent progress in the genetics of common obesity". British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology. 68 (6): 811–829. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2125.2009.03523.x. PMC 2810793. PMID 20002076.
  16. ^ "Press release: Doctors more than halve local relapse of rectal cancer". insciences.org. 6 March 2009. Archived from the original on 2 May 2013. Retrieved 28 February 2012.
  17. ^ "Nobel Prize Winners". Medical Research Council. Archived from the original on 28 February 2012. Retrieved 28 February 2012.
  18. ^ "Governance and structure – UK Research and Innovation". Research Councils UK. Retrieved 10 October 2017.
  19. ^ "UKRI: Councils". Research Councils UK. Retrieved 28 February 2012.
  20. ^ "MRC Council". Medical Research Council. Retrieved 28 February 2012.
  21. ^ "Professor Patrick Chinnery appointed as MRC Executive Chair". 22 August 2023.
  22. ^ "Angelina Jolie made dame in thousand-strong Queen's birthday honours list". The Guardian. 13 June 2014. Retrieved 14 June 2014.
  23. ^ a b "MRC list of institutes, units and centres". Medical Research Council. Retrieved 21 June 2024.
  24. ^ "Find an MRC facility or resource". UKRI. Retrieved 21 June 2024.

Further reading

edit
  • Austoker, Joan, and Linda Bryder, eds. Historical perspectives on the role of the MRC: essays in the history of the Medical Research Council of the United Kingdom and its predecessor, the Medical Research Committee, 1913–1953 (Oxford UP, 1989)
  • Fisher D. "The Rockefeller Foundation and the Development of Scientific Medicine in Britain" Minerva (1987) 16#1, 20–41.
  • Sussex, Jon, et al. "Quantifying the economic impact of government and charity funding of medical research on private research and development funding in the United Kingdom." BMC Medicine 14#1 (2016): 1+
  • Viergever, Roderik F., and Thom CC Hendriks. "The 10 largest public and philanthropic funders of health research in the world: what they fund and how they distribute their funds." Health Research Policy and Systems 14#1 (2016): 1.
edit