MRC NMGN Public Partnership Strategy
The MRC National Mouse Genetics Network aims to follow the MRC public partnerships strategy (PPS) set out by the 2024 –2027 document, released in the summer of 2024 and attached below for reference. The Network’s research fits into the non-clinical category. However, the presence of clinicians in many of the clusters enhances the possibility of contact with health settings and patient groups, which is a clear strength of our initiative.
Our priorities, goals and actions
1. Public partnership culture to permeate Network’s activities
What we are doing now:
- Creating a web of contacts between our network and the community, which will allow us to expand the reach of the Network and involve the community with our mission
- Making use of our extensive Network to amplify our message
- Involving school children in our activities
We want to:
- Increase the number of Network members and associates taking part in our public partnership (PP) initiatives
- Encourage Early Career Researchers to become involved as part of their broader training programme
2. Involve Network’s leaders in public partnership activities
What we are doing now:
- Representatives of all Network Clusters are included in the PP Working Group
We want to:
- Include PP activities and initiatives as a requirement for Network membership
3. Identify Network-unique themes that are important to our mission and the public
What we are doing now:
- Carrying out initiatives aimed at broadening understanding and encouraging informed discussion about efficient and ethical inclusion of animals in preclinical research
- Targeting the rare disease research space to increase contact opportunities with underrepresented groups to establish a framework of engagement and collaboration in addition to engaging the established networks of patients and advocates involved in all disease areas of the clusters.
We want to:
- Include in vivo, ex vivo and in vitro research in our PP discussions and initiatives to broaden the horizons of our partnerships
4. Identify partners to develop an effective two-way process for research direction and disease focus
What we are doing now:
- Establishing contacts with organisations in the rare disease space to bridge with the complete remit of the Network Clusters disease spectrum
- Harnessing the relevant experience of our extensive network of members to inform our PP activities and initiatives
We want to:
- Build a portfolio of initiatives that maximise our impact on both scientific and non-scientific communities
- Include our new partners in any future funding applications to gather as much of their unique perspective as possible
5. Make The Network’s science accessible to everyone and engage the next generations
What we are doing now:
- Involving school children in our activities
- Participating in initiatives to highlight our animal and non-animal research projects
- Supporting young researcher initiatives
We want to:
- Improve understanding of the reasons behind the use of animals in biomedical research
- Improving openness in animal research