Phenome centre to become self-standing

The National Phenome Centre is looking to raise £1.5 million a year to ensure its financial sustainability and become independent from public funding.

The centre was announced in 2012 amid the fanfare of the London Olympics and after receiving two £5m grants from the Medical Research Council and the National Institute for Health Research for its first five years. In April, the MRC quietly extended its funding period until 2018 to cover delays in setting up the centre.

The starting grants, along with other funding including a £1m grant to undertake a dementia study and a few commercial phenotyping projects, should sustain the centre for at least the next two years, Jeremy Nicholson, the centre’s director, told Research Fortnight.