PhD student at work.
© Noel Murphy

The Francis Crick Institute is founded on the principle that people come up with the ideas, make the conceptual leaps and have the creative insight to advance medical science.

The Institute's scientific career structure will aim to develop world-class researchers, many of whom will go on to hold leadership positions in biomedical research institutions in the UK and across the world. One measure of the Institute's future success will be that a high proportion of its alumni hold such positions.

The Institute will provide superb opportunities for outstanding researchers from different disciplines and at all career stages to develop themselves and their research. It will select from a global pool of scientific talent, and provide comprehensive training programmes for graduate students, clinical fellows and postdoctoral fellows that will allow them to develop their potential while contributing to the success of the Institute.

A majority of the research group leaders will join The Francis Crick Institute to establish their own independent research programmes after a period of postdoctoral research. To enable its scientists to develop world-class research programmes, tackling important biological questions relevant to human health, the Institute will provide substantial long-term core support over a period of about 12 years, as well as a strong mentoring programme.

The Francis Crick Institute group leader career structure will include the following:

• An initial research period of six years, towards the end of which the scientific programme will be subjected to external peer review. The review will assess whether the research programme is of high quality and is making significant impact internationally.
• Subject to the success of the initial review, an individual will progress to senior group leader status, and core support will be renewed for a further six years.
• At the end of this second six-year period, most group leaders will have become established as international leaders in their fields and will be expected to progress to scientific leadership positions in other institutions. The Francis Crick Institute will cultivate appropriate external relationships to facilitate such transitions, particularly within the UK. The group leader mentoring programme will be used to ensure that career transitions are made smoothly.
• Long-term group leader positions will become available at The Francis Crick Institute from time to time and recruitment for these positions will be on a worldwide competitive basis. Group leaders in the 'six plus six' career pathway will be free to apply for these positions.