The National Cancer Research Institute (NCRI) has announced that it is winding down after 22 years, due to “uncertainty” in the economic and research environment.
Income at the charity has been steadily dropping since 2019, when it was £2.85m. Charity Commission data for the financial year ending March 2022 puts the charity’s total income at £1.57m and total expenditure at £1.77m.
In a letter, NCRI’s chair, Fiona Driscoll, said “uncertainty in the wider economic and research environment has had an impact” and that NCRI consulted with stakeholders last year to produce a strategy.
As a result, the charity identified “a compelling set of priorities,” but it also “raised significant questions around the sustainability of NCRI’s operating and funding model, which we have not been able to resolve in such a way which would deliver long term viability for the organisation”.
The letter reads: “Reluctantly therefore, the board decided that the risk of operational failure was too great to continue. This decision has not been taken lightly and has a huge impact on the NCRI staff. We are grateful for their continued support, hard work and professionalism at such a challenging time.”
NCRI’s most recent accounts show that the charity has an average of 26 employees.
Driscoll said it was “with a mix of pride and regret” that the charity announced it was “winding down” after 22 “remarkable years”.
She added: “NCRI was established to formalise connections between organisations funding research into cancer, in order to identify where cancer research was most needed. Since then the cancer research landscape has matured significantly and we are proud that many of the original purposes of the NCRI have been achieved or taken over as business as usual by partners.”
Trustees are now working on the required steps to wind down the charity, “identifying and securing our assets; financial, data and IP”.
The chair said as the trustees have an obligation to apply assets in a manner which is consistent with NCRI’s research charitable purposes, they will be consulting with partners and other stakeholders, who might take forward some of NCRI’s activities.
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