What’s going on at the MRC John Savill Chief Executive Medical Research Council

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. 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. Work with industry to drive economic development Post-CSR10

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): MRC- Arthritis Research UK Centre for Integrated Research into Musculoskeletal Ageing. £2.5m over 5 years from 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 Research Changes Lives 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 Researchfish has already captured the results of more than £20bn of research funded since This will now grow by over £4.5bn each year. The MRC has eight years of output data linked to more than 5,000 awards. 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 ) 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 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.

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. HIRCs and the Farr Institute

MRC and industry 1:1 1:Many Many:Many MRC works with industry in a variety of ways

Biomedical Catalyst: Major Awards Committee The MRC’s translational research funding Basic research Prototype discovery & design Pre-clinical development Early clinical trials Late clinical trials Biomedical Catalyst: DPFS MRC/NIHR Methodology Research Programme Continued commitment to basic lab, clinical and population research Biomedical Catalyst: RMRC Translational Research Support Health Technology Assessment Efficacy, Mechanism and Evaluation Programme NIHR MRC Lead Health Technology Assessment Programme BMC: Confidence in Concept TSB

Example translational initiatives Stratified Medicine £60m over 4 years - funding for structured academic- industry 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.

Value -Mechanism of disease leading to new therapies -Diagnostics to better predict disease state, prognosis, response Affected population Tools Genetic / Molecular Therapeutic Response Clinical Presentation /Phenotype Outputs Disease Strata Stratified medicine has the potential to deliver improved diagnoses and therapies Input To fully capture the opportunity requires collaborative working between academics, clinicians and industry

Stratified Medicine Initiative Launched in December £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: 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?