Medical Research Council

History

The MRC was founded as the Medical Research Committee and Advisory Council in 1913, with its prime role being the distribution of medical research funds under the terms of the National Insurance Act 1911. This was a consequence of the recommendation of the Royal Commissions on Tuberculosis, which recommended the creation of a permanent medical research body. The mandate was not limited to tuberculosis, however.

In 1920, it became the Medical Research Council under Royal Charter. A supplementary Charter was formally approved by the Queen on 17 July 2003. In March 1933, MRC established the British Journal of Clinical Research and Educational Advanced Medicine, the first scientific published medical patrol, as a periodical publication intended to further the progress of science, usually by reporting new research. It contains articles that have been peer reviewed, in an attempt to ensure that articles meet the journal's standards of quality, and scientific validity, allow researchers to keep up to date with the developments of their field and direct their own research.

In August 2012, the creation of the MRC-NIHR Phenome Centre, a research centre for personalised medicine, was announced. The MRC-NIHR National Phenome Centre is based at Imperial College London and is a combination of inherited equipment from the anti-doping facilities used to test samples during the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games and additional items from the Centre's technology partners Bruker and Waters Corporation. The Centre, led by Imperial College London and King's College London, is funded with two five-year grants of £5 million from the Medical Research Council and the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) and was officially opened in June 2013.

Notable research

Important work carried out under MRC auspices has included:

the identification of the dietary cause of rickets by Sir Edward Mellanby. Mellanby also carried out human experimentation regarding vitamin A and C deficiencies on volunteers at the Sorby Research Institute;

the discovery, in 1918, that influenza is caused by a virus;

the description of neurotransmission and the first neurotransmitter, acetylcholine, by Sir Henry Hallett Dale and Otto Loewi, leading to a Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1936;

the development of penicillin by Sir Alexander Fleming, Sir Ernst Boris Chain and Lord Florey, gaining them the 1945 Nobel Prize;

linkage of lung cancer to tobacco smoking by Sir Richard Doll and Sir Austin Bradford Hill in the British doctors study, published in 1956;

the discovery of the structure of DNA by James D. Watson, Francis Crick, Rosalind Franklin and Professor Maurice Wilkins. Three would receive the 1962 Nobel Prize for Physiology and Medicine for their discovery;

the development of magnetic resonance imaging in 1973 by Professor Peter Mansfield and independently by Paul Lauterbur. This would lead to the 2003 Nobel Prize;

the development of monoclonal antibodies at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology by César Milstein and Georges Köhler in 1975 (1984 Nobel Prize);

the development of DNA sequencing by Frederick Sanger of the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in 1977 (1980 Nobel Prize);

the identification, in 1983, of folic acid as a preventive measure for spina bifida and neural tube defects;

Organisation and leadership

MRC is a council of UK Research and Innovation, a non-departmental public body sponsored by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology. In the past, the MRC has been answerable to the Office of Science and Innovation, part of the Department of Trade and Industry and the later to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.

The MRC is advised by a council which directs and oversees corporate policy and science strategy, ensures that the MRC is effectively managed, and makes policy and spending decisions. Council members are drawn from industry, academia, government and the NHS. Members are appointed by the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology. Daily management is in the hands of the Executive Chair. Members of the council also chair specialist boards on specific areas of research. For specific subjects, the council convenes committees.

Chairmen

1913–1916: Lord Moulton

1916–1920: Major Waldorf Astor

1920–1924: George Goschen, 2nd Viscount Goschen

1924: E. F. L. Wood, 1st Earl of Halifax

1924–1929: Earl of Balfour

1929–1934: Edgar Vincent, 1st Viscount D'Abernon

1934–1936: Victor Hope, 2nd Marquess of Linlithgow

1936–1948: George John Gordon Bruce, 7th Lord Balfour of Burleigh

1948–1951: Christopher Addison, 1st Viscount Addison

1952–1960: Edmund Pery, 5th Earl of Limerick

1960–1961: Viscount Amory

1961–1965: Lord Shawcross

1965–1969: Viscount Amory

1969–1978: Hugh Percy, 10th Duke of Northumberland

1978–1982: Malcolm Shepherd, 2nd Baron Shepherd

1982–1990: George Jellicoe, 2nd Earl Jellicoe

1990–1998: Sir David Plastow

1998–2006: Sir Anthony Cleaver

2006–2012: Sir John Chisholm

2012–2018: Sir Donald Brydon

Chief executives

As Chief Executives (originally secretaries) served:

1914–33: Sir Walter Morley Fletcher

1933–49: Sir Edward Mellanby

1949–68: Sir Harold Himsworth

1968–77: Sir John Gray

1977–87: Sir James L. Gowans

1987–96: Sir Dai Rees

1996–2003: Professor Sir George Radda

2003–2007: Professor Sir Colin Blakemore

2007–2010: Professor Sir Leszek Borysiewicz

2010–2018: Professor Sir John Savill

Executive chairs

Following the formation of UK Research and Innovation, the executive chair role replaced the chief executive officer role, and has been held by:

2018–2022: Professor Fiona Watt

2022-2023 (interim post): Professor Sir John Iredale

2023–present: Professor Patrick Chinnery

MRC CEOs are normally automatically knighted.

Former institutes, centres and units

The MRC previously had units, centres and institutes based in universities in the UK. In 2022, they announced they would not longer fund university hosted centres, units and institutes. Withdrawal of funding began in 2025. The following is a list of the MRC's institutes, centres and units up until June 2024 prior to the withdrawal of funding.

Bristol

MRC Integrative Epidemiology Unit, University of Bristol (IEU)

Cambridge

MRC Biostatistics Unit, Cambridge (BSU)

MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit

MRC Epidemiology Unit, University of Cambridge (EU)

MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology (LMB)

MRC Metabolic Diseases Unit, University of Cambridge (MDU)

MRC Mitochondrial Biology Unit at the University of Cambridge

MRC Toxicology Unit at the University of Cambridge

Wellcome-MRC Cambridge Stem Cell Institute, University of Cambridge

Dundee

MRC Protein Phosphorylation and Ubiquitylation Unit at the University of Dundee

Edinburgh

Institute of Genetics and Cancer at the University of Edinburgh

MRC Centre for Reproductive Health, University of Edinburgh

Facilities and resources

MRC facilities and resources include, as of June 2024:

In the UK:

Better Methods, Better Research guidance portal

Central Laser facility at the Rutherford-Appleton Laboratory

Clinical trials data sharing: ReShare (at the UK Data Service)

Cohort Directory

Diamond Light Source (UK national synchrotron facility, Harwell)

Dementias Platform UK

Electron Bio-imaging Centre at the Diamond Light Source

Genomics England

Health Data Research Innovation Gateway

ISIS Neutron and Muon Source at the Rutherford-Appleton Laboratory

LifeArc

Mary Lyon Centre (UK national facility for mouse genetics, Harwell)

MRC Biomedical Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) Centre

MRC Centre for Macaques

MRC scales (MRC dyspnoea scale; MRC muscle scale; neurological scle)

MRC-Wellcome Trust Human Developmental Biology Resource (HDBR)

Regulatory Support Centre