The Rosalind Franklin Institute is building a national centre where physical scientists, engineers, and life scientists work together at scale to develop new instruments and methods for studying living organisms. The UK’s life sciences sector employs over 220,000 people and drives economic growth, but its research breakthroughs increasingly depend on advances in engineering and physical sciences—sophisticated imaging tools, sensors, and analytical techniques that can probe microbes, plants, animals, and the human body. Historically, such innovations have emerged through serendipity and linear processes. The Institute aims to accelerate them by deliberately integrating complementary expertise from academia and industry under one roof, with a hub at Harwell and spokes in leading universities across the UK. If successful, this collaboration could speed up the development of new treatments, improve food security and agricultural productivity, and strengthen public health. It is also expected to create high-value jobs, attract inward investment, and support the government’s industrial and regional strategies. The work spans fundamental understanding through to applied product development, so its impact will be felt across the entire research-to-market pipeline.
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The Life Sciences sector forms a key part of the UK economy: it employs over 220,000 people, contributes significantly to GDP and UK balance of trade, and is crucial for developing leading-edge treatments for patients. It is underpinned by the UK's world-leading research base in the health and life sciences. Many key research breakthroughs are, in turn, enabled by advances in engineering and physical sciences (EPS) research - which provide ever more sophisticated instrumentation and methods to support the study of living organisms (from microbes to plants, animals and the human body) and biological processes (including both disease pathology and drug action). R&D across all parts of this ecosystem - from fundamental understanding to applied research to product development - is crucial for the delivery of long-term economic growth and continued advances in agriculture, food security, healthcare and public health. Historic models of innovation have often been linear, involving a degree of serendipity. Disruptive technologies and scientific breakthroughs will be accelerated if physical scientists, engineers, life scientists and industry work together, and at scale. This is the domain of the Rosalind Franklin Institute (RFI): with a focal point (Hub) at Harwell Science and Innovation Campus, linked to formal Spokes in leading HEIs across the UK, it will integrate complementary expertise from academia and industry to create a national centre of excellence for methods development at the convergence of the physical and life sciences. It will create high-value jobs, protect and attract inward investment, and drive long-term growth; and contribute to the delivery of the Government's innovation, industrial and regional strategies.
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