Cancer Research UK has announced a partnership with HSBC to support future scientific leaders, which includes a contribution worth over £16m towards the development of the Francis Crick Institute.
The Francis Crick Institute, a new state-of-the-art biomedical research facility, is currently being built in King’s Cross, London, and is due to open in 2016. The donation is for $25m (£16m), and CRUK will receive $5m a year from HSBC for the next five years to go towards the facility's construction.
CRUK and HSBC have been working together since 2006, but the latest collaboration will see 150 PhD students provided with an opportunity to conduct vital research at the new institute. Scientists will be selected from across the world for the PhD programme.
Harpal Kumar, chief executive officer at CRUK, said: “Cancer Research UK has a long history of working with HSBC, but this donation really is game-changing for us. This extraordinarily generous gift will cement our commitment to investing in the highest quality science by helping us to support some of the best and most imaginative scientists in the world.”
The donation from HSBC forms part of a series of community investments being made globally to mark the bank’s 150th anniversary. Overall $150m of additional funding has been committed to community projects over three years around the world.
Douglas Flint, HSBC Group chairman, said: “We are very proud to support the 150 PhD students at the Francis Crick Institute. In working with the team at Cancer Research UK, it became clear that the Crick would be an environment where the best and brightest talent from all over the world would come together in new fields of research, to make ground breaking progress in the fight against some of the most urgent health and disease issues.
“We hope our PhD students will be the future leaders in their field and wish them all the best in their vital work at the Crick.”
The Francis Crick Institute will see more than 1,200 scientists, representing a variety of disciplines, collaborating to tackle diseases, including cancer, heart disease, lung disease, HIV and malaria.
