Access to this article via Institution of Civil Engineers Library is not available. The Francis Crick Institute opened in 2016 to pursue world-class biomedical discovery research 1 .
We reflect on the Crick’s approach to scientific translation — which integrates excellent science, specialist capabilities and a culture that embraces translation — to draw ten lessons on the convergence of discovery and innovation 2 . The Crick is a discovery research institute open to translation 3 .
Excellent science is recognized as such, whether fundamental or translational, encouraging exploration of the translational potential of discovery research. Research groups are small, focused and autonomous, supported by shared technology platforms, within an ethos of interdisciplinarity.
Collaboration with founding university partners — University College London, King’s College London and Imperial College London — further broadens scientific capability. Translation projects integrate academics, technology specialists and clinicians, often alongside external partners, mirroring matrixed industry research and development (R&D) rather than efforts led by individual postdoctoral researchers.
S.M., D.A. and D.R.
all hold positions as paid employees of the Francis Crick Institute.
The authors reflect on the Francis Crick Institute’s first decade (opened 2016) to extract ten lessons about integrating discovery science and translation.
The piece aims to describe institutional approaches that promote translation alongside basic research rather than to report a formal empirical study.
and D.R.
are paid employees of the Francis Crick Institute.