Sir Leszek Borysiewicz - a year at the helm of the MRC
28 October 2008
Reflecting on his first year in charge of the MRC, Sir Leszek Borysiewicz has spoken to Network about the “huge amount of change” that has taken place: the emphasis on translation; securing the rebuild of the Laboratory of Molecular Biology; the ongoing programme to develop the UK Centre for Medical Research and Innovation; strengthened funding for basic, response mode research; more diverse and different funding schemes; and changes to the development and implementation of the MRC’s strategy.
Sir Leszek’s arrival at the MRC coincided with a significant increase in the organisation’s budget from £543 million in 2007/08 to £682 million a year by 2010. He told MRC Network: “We’ve talked a lot this year about translational research but at all times, the success of UK biomedical science has been absolutely dependent on our continued excellence in basic research. One of the things that thrilled me most of all was that within days of starting, I was able to announce that we could achieve the translational changes without detriment to our basic science programme. If we do not continue to support basic science there will be nothing to translate in ten years’ time.”
In the drive to push forward basic research into benefits as quickly as possible, Sir Leszek has pursued the shared agenda for health research which is being developed across the UK. He has helped to foster a close working relationship with National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) – the research and development arm of the NHS in England, as well as the devolved administrations, under the auspices of OSCHR (the Office for the Strategic Coordination of Health Research).
“I’m quite delighted how OSCHR has developed,” he says. “It has enabled and supported the interface that has developed actively between NIHR and MRC. By establishing leads in certain areas, we’re able to achieve good coordination between our two organisations and ensure that applicants do not fall into the trap of double jeopardy which was the thing I wanted to avoid most of all.”
The MRC has created new schemes to enable investigators to take developments from basic science forward into clinical or commercial exploitation: “You come in with an application once and once only. And between us [NIHR and MRC], we work out the best way to handle that application. And we’re trying to ensure that there are no gaps in the funding stream as we move into that translation agenda such that investigators can have confidence that if they’ve got a good idea, and if it passes the quality and excellence test, we will be looking for the optimum way that it can be funded into the future.”
But he also wants to develop new ways of working with major partners including universities, charities, and industry: “They are stakeholders in the MRC operation,” he says. “We want to engage with them more actively in this process. And that extends to the National Health Services in Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland as well as NIHR in England to make sure that we can really achieve the endpoints that were outlined in the Cooksey Report but also because they are the right things for the UK.”
