Transcript Slide 1

What’s going on at the MRC
John Savill
Chief Executive
Medical Research Council
MRC mission
• Encourage and support high-quality
research with the aim of improving
human health.
• Produce skilled researchers.
• Advance and disseminate knowledge
and technology to improve the quality
of life and economic competitiveness
in the UK and worldwide.
• Promote dialogue with the public about
medical research.
Post-CSR10
• Encourage and support high-quality research
with the aim of improving human health.
• Produce skilled researchers.
• Advance and disseminate knowledge and
technology to improve the quality of life and
economic competitiveness in the UK and worldwide.
• Promote dialogue with the public about
medical research.
• Work with industry to drive economic
development
MRC investment in research, 2013/14
MRC research expenditure - £845.3 million in 2013/14
• £328m for programmes in MRC research units and
institutes.
• £104.4m on programmes within university units.
• £332.3m on grants to researchers in universities, medical
schools and research institutes.
• £62.9m on studentships and fellowships in universities,
medical schools and research institutes.
• £17.7m on international subscriptions.
MRC investment in the North East
• £78m to Newcastle University in MRC grant funding between
2004/05 and 2013/14. £4m to Durham University in the same
time period.
• Newcastle University: Centre for Brain Ageing and Vitality
– part of the cross-council Lifelong Health and Wellbeing
programme. Renewed funding in Jan 2014 of £2.8m for 5
years (inclusive of BBSRC).
• Newcastle University (with Liverpool and Sheffield): MRCArthritis Research UK Centre for Integrated Research into
Musculoskeletal Ageing. £2.5m over 5 years from 2012.
• Core funder of Fuse (Centre for Translational Research in
Public Health) partnership between Durham, Newcastle,
Northumbria, Sunderland and Teesside universities. MRC
funding of £3m for 5-year period from 2013.
MRC Strategic Plan 2014-2019
Research Changes Lives 2014-2019
Strategic intent: to support excellent discovery science and partnerships
to promote translation to accelerate the pace of improvements in health
and wealth.
•
Strategic Aim One: Picking research that delivers
Setting research priorities which are most likely to
deliver improved health outcomes
•
Strategic Aim Two: Research to people
Bringing the benefits of excellent research to all
sections of society
•
Strategic Aim Three: Going global
Accelerating progress in international health research
•
Strategic Aim Four: Supporting scientists
Sustaining a robust and flourishing environment for
world-class research
Researchfish: collecting information about the
outputs, outcomes and impacts of research
•
In 2008 the MRC launched MRC e-Val, an online database for capturing output
information.
•
In 2012 we licensed the approach to Researchfish Ltd.
•
Researchfish is already used by 15,000 researchers across more than 80
research organisations, including charities such as CRUK and the BHF and
public bodies such as NIHR, the Scottish Funding Council and the British
Council.
•
In June 2014 it was announced that the remaining five research councils would
be joining the MRC and STFC in using Researchfish from September 2014.
Researchfish has already captured the results of more than £20bn of research
funded since 2006. This will now grow by over £4.5bn each year.
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The MRC has eight years of output data linked to more than 5,000 awards.
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We’ve collected more than 150,000 reports on outputs such as publications and
patents, influences on policy, the development of new products and
interventions and the creation and growth of new businesses.
Economic benefits (data 2006-2013)
• The development of more than 900 products and
interventions.
• Creation or growth of 109 companies.
• 667 patents granted or published since 2006, with around 34
per cent licensed.
• 30 per cent of the MRC’s further funding comes from outside
of the UK – this equates to £958m since 2006. Six per cent of
the MRC’s further funding comes from the private sector –
equalling £197m.
• MRC researchers have reported embarking on almost 14,000
unique collaborations since 2006 – 7 per cent of these are
with industry partners.
MRC Delivery Plan 2015/16
• Major strategic initiatives will include:
• Health and biomedical informatics: recently established
Farr Institute includes partners in the N8 group of Universities,
MRC commitment for this area is expected to grow to £90m.
• UK Dementias Research Platform: Newcastle has
acknowledged strengths in ageing research c.f. RCUK Centre
for Brain Ageing and Vitality.
• Antimicrobial Resistance: MRC is to commit £15m and lead
a cross-council initiative.
• Translational research: more ‘open innovation’ and
‘proximity to discovery’ collaborations with industry.
MRC Delivery Plan 2015/16
• Experimental Medicine: third round of challenge grants.
• Stratified medicine: close working with the TSB diagnostics for
precision medicine; plus a continuation of strong partnerships in
public health (eg UKCRC centre for translational research in
public health (“fuse”) which includes Durham, Newcastle,
Northumbria, Sunderland and Teesside Universities).
• Regenerative medicine: strategic coordination of infrastructure
(eg stem cell derivation and supply), monitoring UK Regenerative
Medicine Platform hubs against delivery plans.
• National capability: UK clinical research initiative (currently
committing £150m), opening of the Francis Crick Institute, UK
Biobank to release substantial new imaging and genotype data
for discovery science.
HIRCs and the Farr Institute
• March 2012: 10 UK funding agencies, coordinated by the MRC,
awarded four centres in e-health informatics research (HIRCs)
(£19m).
• The HIRCs aim to optimise the use of health records in research
and build the UK’s capacity to create a sustainable health
informatics research base.
• Together involve a total of 20 universities and two MRC units.
• July 2013 the MRC invested a further £20m into the four HIRCs
to create the Farr Institute of Health Informatics Research:
• Support partnership - NHS, industry, other UK academic
centres.
• Facilitate collaboration, sharing datasets, adoption of common
standards.
• Develop new opportunities for linkage and data analysis at
scale.
• There will be more on the Farr in the next session.
MRC and industry
1:1
MRC works
with industry
in a variety
of ways
1:Many
Many:Many
The MRC’s translational research funding
TSB
Translational
Research
Support
BMC:
Confidence
in
Concept
Basic research
Biomedical Catalyst: DPFS
Biomedical Catalyst: RMRC
Prototype
discovery
& design
Pre-clinical
development
MRC Lead
Continued
commitment
to basic lab,
clinical and
population
research
Biomedical
Catalyst:
Major
Awards
Committee
Early
clinical
trials
Efficacy,
Mechanism
and
Evaluation
Programme
Late
clinical
trials
Health
Technology
Assessment
Programme
Health
Technology
Assessment
NIHR
MRC/NIHR Methodology Research Programme
Example translational initiatives
• Stratified Medicine
£60m over 4 years - funding for structured academicindustry disease consortia
• Experimental Medicine Challenge Grants
£60m investment over 3 years to support ambitious,
challenge-led studies of disease mechanisms in humans.
• MRC/AstraZeneca: Mechanisms of Disease initiative
£10m to fund a unique initiative giving academic
researchers access to deprioritised experimental assets
from AstraZeneca.
Newcastle translation case studies
• £1.1m has been awarded to Professor John Isaacs via the
Biomedical Catalyst programme to investigate potential
‘repurposing’ of an anti-cancer drug developed by the
company Cyclacel.
A clinical trial will determine if the cyclin dependent kinase
inhibitor seliciclib, developed for use in lung cancer, could be
used to help patients with treatment-resistant rheumatoid
arthritis.
• Professor Derek Mann has been awarded £1.6m via our
Population and Systems Medicine Board over 5 years to
conduct research into myofibroblast cells.
The collaboration with global biopharmaceutical company
GlaxoSmithKline aims to develop new medicines to combat
liver fibrosis.
Stratified medicine has the potential to
deliver improved diagnoses and therapies
Input
Tools
Outputs
Affected
population
Disease Strata
Clinical
Presentation
/Phenotype
Genetic /
Molecular
Therapeutic
Response
Value
- Mechanism of
disease leading to
new therapies
- Diagnostics to
better predict
disease state,
prognosis,
response
To fully capture the opportunity requires collaborative
working between academics, clinicians and industry
Stratified Medicine Initiative
• Launched in December 2012.
• £60m initiative to develop disease-specific research
consortia defining strata and exploring underpinning
mechanisms, where there is evidence that
therapeutically relevant strata exist.
• To date we have supported nine consortia, which bring
together a total of 30 academic/clinical and 41 industrial
collaborators.
• Newcastle PIs lead two consortia and are partners in
a further four.
• We are currently running a second call for consortia and
by end of year expect to be supporting a total portfolio
of c. 15 internationally competitive disease-focused
stratified medicine discovery engines.
Molecular Pathology
• To capture the opportunity presented by stratified medicine, we
need to translate its therapeutic and diagnostic outputs into patient
and economic benefit.
• An MRC review has found that the landscape for diagnostics
development is complex and fragmented. To address this we have
recommended:
• Development path - better mapping of the needs of the regulatory,
evaluation and commissioning agents along the development path, and
consideration of whether these agents provide appropriate coverage
and support.
• Infrastructure – that the clinical research base, pathology services
and industry are brought into closer proximity.
• People – that the skills base of the UK is improved, including
developing future research leaders in pathology, and increasing
capacity in data analysis and health economics.
Antimicrobial resistance (AMR)
• The MRC leads and manages the AMR Funders Forum, made
up of representatives from the research councils, government
bodies and charities.
• Will coordinate and/or support the initiation of funding and
delivery programmes.
• June 2014: launch of ‘Tackling the Research Challenges in
AMR – a Cross Council Initiative’.
• £20m available for research under four themes:
• Understanding resistant bacteria in context of the host
• Accelerating therapeutic and diagnostics development
• Understanding the real world interactions
• Behaviour within and beyond the health care setting
MRC UK Dementias Platform (UKDP)
A national, collaborative and managed 5-year+ programme to:
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•
•
•
•
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assemble the world’s biggest dementia research cohort
identify the molecular determinants of neurodegeneraton
integrate knowledge of co-morbidities
translate research into therapeutic and public health
interventions
drive partnership between academia and industry
nucleate international collaborations
• £12m MRC funding + £3.6m industry contribution.
• Potential £6m NIHR-MRC ‘deep and frequent phenotyping’
study.
• Potential £40m capital award.
UKDP - resource for dementias research
UKDP readiness cohort
Any questions?