London's Francis Crick Institute will house 1,250 cancer-fighting boffins

The first scientists are moving into the Francis Crick Institute, the biggest biomedical research institute under one roof, costing £650m. The super lab has a total floor space of 17.5 football fields – almost a million square feet. It is housed in an asymmetric silver building round the corner from King’s Cross station. By …

[James 51]

Heard one of them (boffins who have moved in) on radio 4 saying that Brexit was going to cost them £10,000,000 a year in funding. Not sure if it was just their program or the entire centre. Either way I hope that a way is found (direct funding from about five hours of EU funding from Whitehall would do it nicely) to plug the gap so they can focus on the science (as much as modern bureaucracy allows). After all, these people are working on something everyone directly or indirectly will benefit from, it shouldn't be a hard (c)ell.

[D@v3]

funding

My GF works for ICR (Institute of Cancer Research) and things sound pretty grim. Lots of positions with dubious futures due to either lack of, or difficulty of securing funding, which considering the work they do, (to me,) seems shocking.

[tmTM]

Re: funding

Funding for research in this country has been pretty poor for ages, more cuts are really nothing new.

The shear amount of money that came from Europe instead of our own government shows how little was being put in by Downing Street.

Now had they been mates from Eton working in Canary Wharf........................

[theModge]

Re: funding

I do research in an admittedly less vital area (data integration for railways) and we too are loosing money and people quite rapidly. Given that one of the people forced to leave research and work in industry (on a European funded project that can't easily be cut) was my girl friend I find this is quite annoying.

The question is: how much do I like Ghent? it seems a nice city and the uni there has a strong line in this area....

[tony2heads]

@theModge

Ghent is OK,

The beer there is good - see icon

[Chemist]

Re: funding

"Lots of positions with dubious futures due to either lack of, or difficulty of securing funding"

This is usual for lots of academic and institutional research and has be for years. I'm certainly not saying it good, far from it. It's often funded very short term, people exist on poor living grants, poor funding grants and a lot of chopping and changing. Generally much better in Pharma companies but there the research has to be directed to areas with greater potential returns.

Why, why, why in the centre of London though ?

[Alan J. Wylie]

Rosalind Franklin

Sir Francis Crick, a British molecular biologist who discovered the structure of DNA, along with his colleague James Watson

Don't forget Rosalind Franklin

[charlieboywoof]

#Fail

Photoshop Fail of the highest order in the name of PC'ness

LOL

https://www.crick.ac.uk/about-us/

[Lee D]

Re: #Fail

Eh?

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Eh? #Fail

...presumably because the headscarf wearing person in the photo seems to have a sort of halo, suggesting some sort of digitally enabled head substitution has taken place (unless its a weird compression artifact instead, I suppose...).

[Michael B.]

Re: Eh? #Fail

If it were Photoshop'ed then the man in that photo has been added as well. The back of his head has the same white halo so my bet is that it is a compression artifact due to over-compression, especially when you look at his back.

[That Awful Puppy]

Re: #Fail

Just a bit too much unsharp mask in Photoshop, I'm afraid, rather than a nefarious PC plot.

[Tom Paine]

Nice looking building too

Just opposite the smoker's last-chance doors by6 the St Pancras / Thameslink ticket barrier. Bonus points for a nice view of the British Library more or less next door, too. Well, _I_ like it, anyway. Maybe it's my choice of tobaccos...

[Baldy50]

A lot of extra useless, pointless work has gone into that building.

All the extra steelwork, that roof, not aesthetically pleasing to my eye and must have increased the cost tremendously, the statue gets my approval though.

They could have gone with an eco friendly roof full of grass and flowers, the bees would love it.

[Francis Boyle]

It's probably just a shield

to fend of attacks from that building that melts cars

[Bogle]

Salford

1. Research Scientist isn't a high paying job.

2. Part of the build was to retire multiple ageing facilities in the city.

So, London? The news of the Crick comes at the same time as reports of the Beeb's success with the Salford move [The Guardian, pg. 3, today]

<missed>opportunity</missed>

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Salford

I suggest that with the Bolshevik Broadcasting Corporation moving back to its Guardianista roots, you've had your share of pork.

But the point is very valid, that they've spent a truly vast amount on a swanky building in the most expensive, congested sh**holes they could find, although the staff won't be getting the salaries that other London employers could find. And if proximity to the universities is the limiting factor, then move them as well. I'm sure Exeter could have done it cheaper, and 99% of people would have been better off and happier than living in a rabbit hutch and still commuting long distances at high cost in London's smog. Or Norwich. Or Worcester.

Anywhere but the costly squalor of The Smoke.

[Anonymous Coward]

But does it have the creche that Professor Tim Hunt has been campaigning for?

“I fought for seven years to have creche facilities at the Okinawa Institute of Science of Technology – and was ultimately successful. Less successful have been efforts to get a creche at the new Crick Institute in London, but this is something I will continue to push for."

[Anonymous Coward]

UK Science

I left a post-doctoral position at ICR for the relatively stable employment in IT during the early 2000's due to poor funding and status of science. Very few UK students progress in Science and the low salaries are only attractive to students and researchers from Europe and Asia. Hence the kerfuffle about Brexit which is really about how cheaply can we get bodies in to do work.

[anothercynic]

Yay for the Wellcome Trust!

I've been waiting for this news! This is so exciting... as much as the Gibbs Building (Wellcome Trust's HQ) on the Euston Road is lovely, this... well... this is even lovelier! Moar eduroam, moar everything! And all this thanks to the ever-generous Wellcome Trust, who are arguably the biggest private contributor to science in the UK.

[Aerial 14]

Dare we assume that there's a "Watson" building to go with the Crick ?