NIMR renewal at UCL moves forward

The group - which has members from MRC Office, NIMR and UCL - has considered the next steps for the project. The outcome of an application for financial support from the Office of Science & Technology's Large Facilities Capital Fund should be known by January 2006. In the meantime it has been agreed that MRC and UCL should work closely together actively to promote awareness of the advantages of the partnership within the scientific community.

The group has discussed ways in which the momentum and enthusiasm generated by the science and business work streams during the preparation of the Business Plan could be maintained and deployed over the coming months. Over and above the existing funding mechanisms for major programmes and appointments, the group agreed that funding should be available for simple but effective short-term measures to facilitate collaboration at the NIMR-UCL interface. These measures would focus primarily on new translational or multidisciplinary collaboration. The scheme would be simple and use existing processes wherever possible.

The group discussed the potential value and practicality of:

• clinician scientist appointments as programme leader(s) to spearhead the links between NIMR and UCL
• enhanced funding to support new full four-year PhD studentships and/or funding of a fourth year for existing three-year studentships; in either case rotations through UCL and NIMR were essential
• collaborative post-PhD clinical fellows
• small pump-priming grants to promote new interactions that could lead to full-scale projects.

These possible actions do not preclude a range of other initiatives that the two institutions were already engaged in together, such as joint seminars and possible joint appointments.

These opportunities will be further explored over the coming weeks before a formal request for funding is made in October.

The group has also discussed a number of other issues of common interest. These include: the purchase of the National Temperance Hospital site; the appointment process for the next Director of the NIMR, in particular the provision for early input from senior scientists of NIMR; UCL's strategic review of Biomedicine; and communication.