Following the life of a research institute: a biography of the Francis Crick

Dr Vermeulen will study the birth of the Francis Crick Institute and its new research strategy of ‘discovery without boundaries’. At 9,300m² and a cost of £700 million, the Francis Crick institute has international prominence and is unique in its availability of British scholars analysing knowledge creation and translation. The Crick has provoked debate about whether its size constitutes progress or uproots current practice. 

This project will explore this by looking at the ways in which the institute provides new opportunities for interdisciplinary knowledge creation. It will map the spatial design and initial functioning of the Crick, and organise a multidisciplinary workshop to design the first longitudinal and reflexive study of a biomedical institute.