LT: Welcome to this MRC podcast. I'm Laure Thomas and I'm here with Chris Watkins, Translational Theme Leader at the MRC to discuss the MRC's latest innovative approach to funding translational research in universities. The developmental pathway funding scheme launched in 2008 is funded from the £132 million extra investment from the Government, the MRC received in the last spending review. As part of the scheme the MRC is now introducing devolved portfolios, block funding given to universities to manage their own translational research.
How did the idea of devolved portfolios come about?
CW: The developmental pathway funding scheme was developed after we had long discussions with universities and they were very interested in the scheme and they highlighted to us the opportunities that a portfolio approach would bring in terms of the use of skills, resources and the ability of a university to actually take a strategic approach to supporting research within the university for these kind of studies.
LT: And how did you go about selecting which universities would take part in the pilot that you're now running? CW: So we wrote to the major universities with whom we have significant support and asked them if they were willing to participate with MRC in undertaking the pilot for DPFS portfolios and then we assessed the level of interest and activity in the DPFS type of research and the quality of the ideas and how they were going to manage and deliver a portfolio approach for us.
LT: What will you be watching out for to make sure that the pilots are a success.
CW: Clearly it's very important for MRC that the kind of research that the DPFS scheme was set up to support is continued to be supported in those universities that have a portfolio. So we will be looking at the types of research they fund, how they came to those decisions and how they manage the projects that they then support, looking at how that has helped the universities to deliver on their own strategic agenda as well as meeting MRC's goals. LT: And what do you think the extra flexibility will allow universities to do, that couldn't be done centrally from the MRC's DPFS panel? CW: Having a devolved portfolio will allow a university to make the most efficient use of underpinning resources and project skills and capabilities and will allow a rapid movement of such resources from individual projects as they succeed or meet their natural end points. It'll give the devolved portfolio holders much greater strategic flexibility in rapidly taking the exciting science in their universities towards utility. LT: And what do you hope the benefits will be for the man on the street from this new type of funding?
CW: The goal of this type of funding is to take the fundamental discoveries that are made in the universities and move them very quickly towards the development of new and exciting treatments and devices, diagnostics that will help improve human health and wellbeing.
LT: I've come to see Professor Stuart Bevan at the Wolfson Centre for Age Related Diseases to get the university perspective on this new funding method. Professor Bevan, why is it that Kings College London are keen to take part in this DPFS devolved portfolio pilot?
SB: Kings is really strongly committed to translational research and in the last few years we've made quite a number of strategic appointments in translational research staff. We also have a really excellent environment we think, for translational research. Kings is home to five MRC centres and we have strong research divisions and medical division and we house both the comprehensive and specialist biomedical research centre, so we have excellent underpinning research. I think we've also identified a rich vein of translational research projects at Kings which we identified in the course of an MRC funded translational research pilot scheme where we were able to identify and fund a number of projects that have the potential to build towards improved diagnostics and therapies. LT: And what do you hope to gain from the devolved portfolio package?
SB: What it will give us is several benefits. First the benefits of having portfolio managers who can work with the staff at several levels; they can work with applicants at the generation of the research proposal, helping them to tailor their proposal, to identify milestones that are suitable for a development project. Then for funded projects they can work as project managers alongside the successful applicants to improve the probability of the projects reaching some successful conclusion.
LT: What type of research do you think will be able to move ahead as a result of this funding?
SB: It will include development of new diagnostics as well as new therapies. Now these might be biological such as antibodies, they may be small molecules, low molecular weight compounds that can be used for disease treatment. They can also be diagnostics; these can be for kits for example for detecting disease or improving the match between recipients and donors for transplantation.
LT: Do you think it may be more difficult however, to be locally responsible for the allocation of funding to colleagues at the end of the day?
SB: I don't think this will be a problem. We've already had some experience with funding some projects as part of the translational research pilot scheme. We'll use the same criteria that the MRC use for their main DPFS funding, we'll use external referees, we'll have a panel including experts from other institutions and also representatives of the MRC. So I think this ensures a degree of impartiality for the decision making. And we found in the past that this also helps I think, satisfy some of the unsuccessful applicants.
LT: And in the past you've worked in a number of different countries. Do you think this type of scheme will make the UK more competitive internationally?
SB: I think it certainly will. The ability to identify basic scientific discoveries at an early stage and to translate them, to develop them towards patient benefit will be important for the UK as a nation and as a population for the health of the nation.
LT: So patients should look to Kings next for exciting discoveries?
SB: I think we will be producing some new and exciting discoveries and I think the whole scheme with universities across the UK participating, will really improve translational research in the UK.
LT: Professor Bevan, thank you very much.
For more MRC news go tomrc.ac.uk LT: Laure Thomas CW: Chris Watkins SB: Professor Bevan
