UK Centre for Medical Research and Innovation

Supplementary written evidence submitted by the

Medical Research Council (UKCMRI 09a)

Inquiry into the UK Centre for Medical Research and Innovation

I would like to thank the Committee for the opportunity for the MRC and the other founding partners of the UKCMRI to present evidence to your Inquiry into UKCMRI and to address the questions resulting from the written submissions. As you will recall, I agreed to write with further information on a number of issues. These included any conditions relating to the approval of the MRC Business Case, arrangements for the delivery and management of UKCMRI outlined in the Joint Venture Agreement for the partnership, the clarification of facilities for containment and the reference for the paper I referred to when discussing evidence around co-location and collaboration.

1. Government approval of the MRC Final Business Case for UKCMRI

As I informed the Committee on 9 February, the Department for Business Innovation and Skills (BIS) had just granted approval of the MRC’s business case for UKCMRI before the evidence session. This approval related to MRC participation in the UKCMRI project, the approval of MRC expenditure up to defined limits on construction and transition costs, and within an agreed annual profile. Approval was also granted for the MRC to gift assets from NIMR to UKCMRI. BIS’ approval of the business case was granted on the basis that:

o UKCMRI is one of the most significant developments in biomedical science for a generation.

o The goal of UKCMRI is to understand the biology underlying human health, finding ways to prevent and treat the most significant diseases affecting people today.

o UKCMRI will enable interactions between physical, biomedical and clinical scientists, playing a key role in ensuring that advances in biomedical sciences are translated swiftly and effectively into benefits for patients in the NHS.

o UKCMRI will foster collaboration with other centres of excellence to harness the full capacity of this country’s brightest and best researchers for the benefit of patients and the economy.

Approval was granted on the following conditions:

o There is no successful challenge to the Planning Consent granted by the London Borough of Camden on 16 December 2010

o Any increase in costs to the MRC is at the MRC’s risk; the MRC must seek prior approval for any increase in its expenditure on construction or transition.

o The project provides for at least the minimum number of researchers within the agreed financial envelope of the project as set out in the business case

o UKCMRI provides a certificate to the MRC that VAT is not payable in respect to the building

o The MRC remains a party to the Joint Venture Agreement (JVA) signed in November 2010 and must clear any changes to this JVA with the department.

o The MRC obtains the department’s agreement to the schedule of transition costs.

o The MRC continues to ensure provision for a BIS representative to attend the UKCMRI Construction Project Board as an observer.

2. Joint Venture Agreement

The Committee asked a number of questions around the governance arrangements for UKCMRI that have been agreed by the four founding partners. As we discussed, these terms are outlined in the Joint Venture Agreement (JVA) concluded in November 2010 and which describes mechanisms for taking decisions, operating voting rights and the responsibilities and appointment mechanisms for key positions. UKCMRI has been established as a charitable company and has provided a redacted version of the JVA to the Charity Commission, this redacted JVA will be accessible via the public register and I enclose a copy for the Committee’s information. Only a small amount of commercially sensitive information has been redacted.

3. Containment Level Facilities

There was significant interest in containment level facilities. As discussed, I can confirm that UKCMRI will have appropriate containment facilities to work on Human Hazard Group 3 agents and will not work on Human Hazard Group 4 agents. The planned containment facilities for UKCMRI are required to carry out research into important diseases such as influenza, HIV and tuberculosis.

Research into prevention and treatment of these types of diseases will make an important contribution to the Coalition Government's commitment to improvements in Public Health.

Containment level 3+ is not a formal classification but has been used to indicate enhanced control measures in level 3 containment facilities, if risk assessments indicate that these are desirable. An example of where this might be required is to handle particular strains of influenza.

These facilities will allow UKCMRI to continue all the present activities of NIMR on infectious disease, including the Influenza Centre.

4. Evidence for co-location

I also agreed to provide the reference for the paper I referred to – ‘Does Collocation Inform the Impact of Collaboration’ - published in PLoS One. The details are as follows:

Lee K, Brownstein JS, Mills RG, Kohane IS (2010) Does Collocation Inform the Impact of Collaboration? PLoS ONE 5(12): e14279. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0014279

Professor Sir John Savill, Chief Executive

Medical Research Council

March 2011