Records of the Research Boards of the Medical Research Committee and the Medical...

Division within FD

1919-1989

Records of the Research Boards of the Medical Research Committee and Medical Research Council.

Minutes and papers of the boards will be found as follows:

• Industrial Fatigue (Health from 1929) Board in FD 3;
• Biological Research Board in FD 16;
• Cell Biology and Disorders Board in FD 18;
• Clinical Research Board in FD 15;
• Health Services Research Panel, and its successor the Health Services Research Committee, in FD 25;
• Neurobiology and Mental Health Board in FD 17;
• Physiological Systems and Disorders Board in FD 19;
• Tropical Medicine Research Board in FD 20;

Public Record(s)

English

8 series

Topics

Research

Medicine

The Research Boards were adjuncts of the Medical Research Committee (MRC) and Medical Research Board, appointed to give advice on or investigate specific areas of concern or interest. Most were ad hoc and of a limited lifespan. Others were standing committees, chief among which are the advisory boards, which act in effect as sub-Councils in given fields. A number of the MRC's boards and committees included nominees and were attended by assessors from other bodies.

Following a reorganisation in September 1974, the Clinical Research Board and the Biological Research Board of the Medical Research Council were replaced by three boards (the others being the Cell Biology and Disorders Board and the Physiological Systems and Disorders Board) which, with the Tropical Medicine Research Board, came under the newly-formed Social and Environmental Medicine Research Policy Committee (SEMRPC). Each of the boards assumed responsibility for developing and maintaining research capabilities in a number of related disciplines and clinical specialities by supporting research and research training, particularly in universities.

Unlike their predecessor boards, the new boards were made responsible for the formulation and the implementation of scientific policy and had considerable financial authority delegated to them by the Medical Research Council (MRC). However, MRC would continue to lay down overall policies from time to time regarding the maintenance of a broad balance of resources between types of support (establiments, grants, training), manpower, and other demands (including costs). These objectives with regard to continuity of policy, as well as research on problems that extended beyond the purvieu of a single board (especially those which dealt with environmental hazards and industrial medicine), were to be the primary functions of SEMRPC.