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Science 20 April 2007:
Vol. 316. no. 5823, p. 353
DOI: 10.1126/science.316.5823.353c
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ScienceScope

LONDON--The upcoming availability of a 1.5-hectare site in central London could end the controversy over government plans to relocate the National Institute of Medical Research (NIMR) from its famous suburban campus in the Mill Hill area to a 0.4-hectare site in downtown London. Critics had complained that the planned site was so small it would limit NIMR's science (Science, 4 February 2005, p. 652). In a letter earlier this month to NIMR staff, Colin Blakemore, director of the Medical Research Council (MRC), said the agency was now considering with "enthusiasm" a larger site next to the British Public Library that another government agency plans to sell. It's also near research hospitals, fulfilling MRC's desire for a revamped NIMR to focus on translational research.

NIMR's Robin Lovell-Badge, a critic of the planned move, agrees that the location near the library is more promising but warns that its cost could still end up shrinking NIMR. "The devil is in the details," he says. Blakemore says that the new site has clear advantages, although he stresses that the original one, which used to house the National Temperance Hospital, is still acceptable. Blakemore says MRC's chances of getting the new site are unclear and so are its costs, but he hopes to have NIMR's future resolved before he steps down as MRC director in September.




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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)