The Franklin reveals new Science Strategy
To mark the five years since it opened its doors, the Rosalind Franklin Institute has today unveiled a refreshed, forward-looking science strategy. This refreshed strategy clear sets out, the science ambitions that will be prioritised going forward. It provides a clear roadmap for Franklin scientists to follow in their mission to develop disruptive new technologies able to transform life sciences discovery.
The refreshed strategy highlights opportunities for new academic and industry partnerships. The new science strategy also is introducing a new model of flexible, interdisciplinary teamwork that promises to realise greater value from the Franklin’s unusual concentration of expertise drawn across the full range of fields from physics and chemistry to computer science and biology.
The Franklin was founded by UK Research and Innovation’s Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) with a mission to “to develop disruptive new technologies designed to tackle major challenges in health and life sciences and accelerate the discovery of new treatments for chronic diseases affecting millions of people around the world”.
Construction of the Franklin with its advanced laboratories, state-of-the-art instrumentation and almost 200 staff and students were completed in 2021. The Franklin is unique amongst UK life sciences research centres in the public sector for its interdisciplinary, team-based working, focus on solving big problems that elude immediate solutions and commitment to developing new technologies that push the boundaries of what is possible.
The Franklin already has begun to realise impact through its discovery science, leadership in research practice and standards, support for bringing new products to market through instrumentation development partners and work with biotech. Thus far it also has leveraged research grants with a total value of more than £266m.
Dr Andrew Bourne, Executive Director for Innovation and Partnerships at EPSRC, said “From its inception the Franklin has aimed to do things differently. Following some impressive early impacts, the new strategy will help further focus research efforts to make the technology innovations to boost our understanding of biology and health.”
Since joining in April 2025, Professor Paul Matthews, the Director of the Rosalind Franklin Institute, has been guiding the development and implementation of the new strategy. He said, “Our new strategy focuses on addressing an unashamedly ambitious set of technology innovation and life science challenges. These challenges are uniting our researchers in highly interdisciplinary, agile and dynamic teams. They also are attracting exciting new partnerships that will accelerate progress.”
Dame Vivienne Cox, Chair of the Franklin Board of Trustees, said, “The need for technology innovation to support our economy is clear. To create skilled jobs, new companies must form around new ideas, and these will be seeded through work at the very cutting edge of technology.
“Working across the most fertile technology landscape in the UK around Harwell and the wider Oxford-Cambridge arc, and through work with national and global collaborators, we are determined to translate the economic and social benefits of our innovations.”
New Science Challenges are at the core of the Franklin’s new science strategy. These Challenges will focus on Technology Innovation and questions from the Life Sciences.
The science strategy launch event held at the Royal Institution in London on 13 March 2025 allowed a wide range of stakeholders from academia, industry, funders and government to engage with the Franklin to create new collaborations and opportunities for further innovation.
Technology Innovation Challenges
Multidimensional Imaging of Molecular Structures
Developing new technologies to see the molecules of life and their dynamics with unprecedented detail.
Integrated Chemical Imaging in Cells and Tissues
Driving innovations that will wed mass spectrometry with advanced structural biology techniques to map the molecules at cellular resolution across healthy and diseased tissues.
Molecular Perturbations: Chemistry Engineering Biology
Discovering innovative chemistries and applying the rigour of chemical thinking to better understand and modulate the molecules of life.
AI and Informatics for Predictive Biology
Embedding data management and science to use AI and machine learning to accelerate life sciences research towards the goals of both describing and predicting complex biological systems.
Life Science Challenges
Quantitative Biology Across Scales
Integrating innovative imaging methods and AI in ways that will allow researchers to flexibly image complex tissues across large and small scales, transforming what doctors can learn about their patients from conventional clinical imaging by enabling seamless views from the level of whole organs to that of cells and the intricate structures within them.
How Pathogens Interact with Human Cells
Discovering new ways of detecting, preventing and combatting human infectious diseases by discovering the mechanisms by which viruses and bacteria interact with human cells and tissues.