THE FRANCIS CRICK INSTITUTE LIMITED

Their core work

The Francis Crick Institute is one of Europe's largest biomedical research centres, conducting fundamental discovery science to understand how living things work — from molecular mechanisms of DNA replication and repair to the biology of cancer, immunity, and neuroscience. Their H2020 portfolio reveals deep strength in structural biology (cryo-EM), genome maintenance, cancer biology, and immune cell function. They serve as a major host institution for ERC grantees and Marie Skłodowska-Curie fellows, attracting top early-career and senior researchers to London. Their work spans from reconstituting biological processes in vitro to understanding tumour microenvironments and neural circuit function in vivo.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

In the first half of their H2020 participation (2015-2018), the Crick focused heavily on DNA repair mechanisms (homologous recombination, RAD51 paralogs, BRCA2), immune cell biology (miRNA regulation, T cell development, type-2 immunity), and tissue engineering. By the second half (2019-2023), the emphasis shifted markedly toward DNA replication, structural biology via cryo-EM and in vitro reconstitution, neuroscience (neural circuits, neuromodulation, sensory biology), and translational cancer topics like lung cancer and immunotherapy. This evolution reflects the institute maturing from classical molecular biology toward increasingly interdisciplinary and technology-driven research, particularly in high-resolution structural methods and systems neuroscience.

The Crick is investing heavily in cryo-EM structural biology and expanding into neuroscience and cancer immunotherapy, signalling strong future capacity in technology-intensive, interdisciplinary biomedical research.

How they like to work

The Crick overwhelmingly leads its projects: 65 of 79 are coordinated by the institute, almost all through individual ERC grants and MSCA fellowships hosted at the Crick. This means they function primarily as an independent research powerhouse rather than a consortium-building hub. When they do participate in multi-partner projects (10 as participant), these tend to be larger collaborative efforts in health or capacity-building. With 60 unique partners across 16 countries, their network is broad but their default mode is principal-investigator-led fundamental research.

The Crick has worked with 60 distinct partners across 16 countries, reflecting a wide European network. However, most of their projects are single-PI grants (ERC/MSCA), so deep consortium partnerships are concentrated in the smaller subset of collaborative projects, often in health and tissue engineering.

What sets them apart

The Francis Crick Institute is arguably the UK's flagship biomedical discovery institute, purpose-built in 2016 to concentrate world-class fundamental research under one roof in central London. Unlike university departments, it offers a uniquely integrated environment where cell biologists, structural biologists, immunologists, and neuroscientists share infrastructure — including major cryo-EM facilities. For potential partners, the Crick offers access to an extraordinary concentration of ERC-funded principal investigators and a track record of hosting top international fellows through MSCA.

Highlights from their portfolio

• DNA2REPAIR
  One of their largest grants (EUR 2.2M ERC), spanning 7 years of research into DNA strand break repair and links to human disease — a flagship of their genome maintenance programme.
• WHOLENICHE
  EUR 2M ERC grant investigating how the tumour microenvironment decides whether cancer grows or stays dormant — directly relevant to emerging immunotherapy approaches.
• ChromatidCohesion
  EUR 2.1M ERC grant on chromosome segregation mechanics using yeast model systems, exemplifying the Crick's strength in fundamental cell biology with disease implications.