MRC policy for supporting Institutes, Units and Centres
The MRC has a mission to support research and training with the aim of maintaining and improving human health. The usual support mechanisms are Programme and Project Grants awarded to UK Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). The MRC has a range of other mechanisms, used when there is a need for more concerted action to address important scientific opportunities and health needs and stand-alone grant support alone is insufficient These are:
- Institutes - very long-term flexible multidisciplinary investments
- Units – more focussed investments established for as long as needed to support a scientific need and/ or deliver a research vision
- Centres - build on existing MRC and other support to add value and help establish a centre of excellence.
Strategically driven initiatives, led by an expert scientific director, can help promote novel, high risk approaches, cooperative research programmes, or the development of shared infrastructure. These are key elements of the UK effort in their particular fields.
The MRC’s main support mechanisms here are Institutes, Units and Centres. All three are mission-focused and carry out ground-breaking research including innovative methodology and technology development. They are expected to recruit and, in partnership with the HEIs and other organisations, develop outstanding researchers with specialist and transferable skills for academic research, the health services and the national economy. They work in partnerships to ensure maximal knowledge transfer for health benefit. Institutes and Units are often preferred when the MRC intends to be the keystone of support for a particular area. Centres are usually set up to provide the core for developing initiatives in partnership with others.
In any field, the need for these support mechanisms will change over time. In some cases, success will manifest as approaches are quickly integrated into HEI research in the area. In other cases, successful research progress may mean a Unit or Centre has to change its form and direction.
Units and Institutes may be based on MRC or non-MRC employment models according to the setting. All new Units are embedded as fully as possible in a research-active University. In either case support is only justified if a suitable high quality research Director can be found.
Institutes
Institutes are charged with adopting broad multidisciplinary approaches to address major challenges in health-related research often requiring ground breaking methodology and technology development. They are provided with sustained support and state-of-the-art facilities over a long period of time.
They are therefore able to use highly innovative and risky approaches across a flexible range of disciplines that would not be feasible in a university setting, to tackle crucially important and complex issues over long periods of time.
Institutes attract and develop outstanding students and early career scientists from the UK and internationally, providing in-depth, advanced research training, and a broad multidisciplinary research environment.
Units
Units are set up to meet specific needs, for example, to provide scientific leadership in key research fields, or to tackle important research questions where the need cannot easily be addressed through grant funding. This can be because the research area calls for: strong and distinctive scientific leadership; close coordination across disciplines and activities; development of methods and technologies; and support for the development of novel or higher risk programmes and capabilities.
Units attract and develop outstanding students and early career programme leaders from the UK and internationally and often have a major impact through developing future research leaders in their specialist areas.
There is no set limit on the lifespan of a Unit but Units often make their major impact in the field within 15 years, with their successful approaches and lines of investigation increasingly integrated into HEI research in the field.
Units may be supported through HEI employment, or MRC employment, but the expectations of their scientific mission, distinctiveness, role of director, and research productivity are the same in both models.
Centres
Centres allow the MRC to help HEIs develop and consolidate internationally competitive, high-profile centres of excellence with a clear strategic direction in areas of importance for UK medical research. They provide intellectually stimulating and well-resourced programmes and environments which not only are attractive to established researchers but also to new investigators.
Centres, like Units and Institutes, have an important role in capacity development in a focussed area, with MRC’s funding for training often focussed at the PhD and individual fellowship level, in both clinical and non-clinical research.
MRC core funding is provided for a set period to develop the centre’s capabilities and research strategy, and is expected to help HEIs attract further support from other funders as well as MRC.