About us

The Francis Crick Institute is an independent charity, established to be a UK flagship for discovery research in biomedicine.   

Intro

The Crick’s mission is discovery without boundaries. We don’t limit the direction our research takes. We want to understand more about how living things work to help improve treatment, diagnosis and prevention of human disease, and generate economic opportunities for the UK.

In our institute more than 2,000 staff and students use their wide-ranging knowledge and expertise to work across disciplines and explore biology at all levels, from molecules through cells to entire organisms.

The Crick is the outcome of a merger between the MRC's National Institute for Medical Research (NIMR) and CRUK's London Research Institute (LRI). The new institute was named after the UK scientist Francis Crick in recognition of his contributions to understanding the genetic code, the key to understanding how living things work.

We were established by our six founding partner organisations: the Medical Research Council (MRC), Cancer Research UK (CRUK), Wellcome, UCL (University College London), Imperial College London and King’s College London. 

We began operating in our new, purpose-built institute in early 2017 and now have more than 100 research groups. Research groups from NIMR and LRI have been joined by groups seconded from each of our three partner universities, and we have recruited a significant number of newly recruited group leaders.

The institute is governed by a Board of Trustees, comprised of independent members and representatives from each of our founding partners. We are funded through core funding from the MRC, CRUK and Wellcome, as well as external research grants.

Our strategy

Image of the Crick with researchers lining the walkways.

Our refreshed Discovery Without Boundaries strategy sets out how we carry out world-class discovery research.

Learn more