Rosalind Franklin Institute

The Rosalind Franklin Institute is a physical sciences research centre devoted to developing new technologies for medical research and the life sciences. They are supported by the Government of the United Kingdom located at the Harwell Science and Innovation Campus, Oxfordshire, England. It is named after an English chemist Rosalind Franklin, whose discoveries provided the key data for the correct explanation of the helical structure of DNA in 1953. Launched on 6 June 2018,^[1] it was officially opened on 29 September 2021.^[2]

The government approval was announced on 23 February 2017 by Greg Clark, Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. According to the press release the basis of the name was "in honour of the pioneering British scientist [Rosalind Franklin] whose use of X-rays to study biological structures played a crucial role in the discovery of DNA's 'double helix' structure by Francis Crick and James Watson". The objective was "to develop disruptive new technologies designed to tackle major challenges in health and life sciences, accelerate the discovery of new treatments for chronic diseases affecting millions of people around the world (such as dementia), and deliver new jobs and long-term growth to the local and UK economies."^[3]

The proposal of the institute was led by Ian Walmsley, Pro-Vice Chancellor at the University of Oxford, and the project was initiated under the lead of Andrew Livingston, Professor of Chemical Engineering at Imperial College London and James H Naismith, Professor of Structural Biology at Oxford University.^[4] Originally funded with £103 million by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council. The Franklin has twelve partners - the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC), Diamond Light Source, University of Birmingham, University of Cambridge, University of Edinburgh, Imperial, King's College London, University of Leeds, Manchester, University of Oxford, University of Southampton, and University College London.^[5]

In July 2018, Vivienne Cox was appointed the first Chair,^[6] and in June 2019, Jim Naismith became the first Director.^[7] Paul Matthews became the second Director of the Institute in April 2024.