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Strategic Aim Three - Partnerships and shaping the agenda

The landscape for research across the world is changing due to large investments in science and innovation in emerging economies, particularly Asia, and increased opportunities for international cooperation. Governments recognise that investment in research and development is a key factor for economic growth, and are creating centres of excellence in rapidly developing areas of research such as stem cells or neuroscience. The MRC has opportunities to develop strategic partnerships to develop world-leading collaborative research and to enable UK scientists to engage with the best minds, ideas and resources wherever they are located.

Objective

To provide international leadership in partnerships which enhance the competitiveness of the UK knowledge and health base.

Now

The MRC is the UK lead on the health theme for the EU’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) and provides the national contact point for UK academics. We engage with UK stakeholders, within both the public and private sectors, to ensure that the UK is in a strong position to maintain its success in FP7 and also in related programmes such as the Innovative Medicines initiative, a programme co-funded by the European Commission and the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations.

We are committed to developing the European Research Area, a shared European vision through which researchers based in Europe will benefit from greater opportunities for transnational movement and cooperation. Pooling European resources to maintain and develop world-class research infrastructures is a vital part of this goal. The MRC advises on the strategy regarding European infrastructure projects, including biobanking and infrastructure for structural biology and informatics.

MRC-funded research includes a high proportion of collaboration with scientists overseas – the top collaborating countries are the US, Germany, France and the Netherlands. Publications from MRC units and institutes show that about a quarter of overseas collaborators on co-authored publications are from the US, with just over half co-authored with Europe and most of the rest with Asia, Africa and Australasia.

Future

The MRC aims to use its experience, expertise and resource to encourage international partnerships to tackle important and challenging research goals. Our objective is to encourage opportunities for UK scientists to engage with the best researchers in the world.

  • We aim to capitalise on the MRC’s reputation for excellence, authority and independence to influence the international research agenda.
  • In Europe, we aim to play a leading role in influencing the research agenda and to strengthen the European Research Area.
  • We aim to work with RCUK offices in China, India and the US to strengthen international research links.

How

We will develop large international projects and partnership schemes to help stimulate interactions between MRC scientists and scientists in other countries which offer a particular competitive benefit and where links are not strong or need to be shaped.

  • Working with other research councils and the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills, we will ensure that we can influence the development of the next European Framework Programme and work effectively with funding agencies in other countries.
  • We will develop strategic alliances with the major European national funding agencies, including a new European Union initiative on joint programming in areas such as neurodegeneration or ageing.