Rather than replace or duplicate any of the functions of its members, it seeks to add value through joint planning, coordination and collaboration.
In May 1999, the UK Prime Minister held a Downing Street Cancer Summit which led to the formation of the Cancer Research Funders Forum, bringing together the main government and charitable agencies that fund cancer research in the UK for the first time.
[1] Ian Gibson MP, a former cancer researcher from the University of East Anglia,[2] called for the creation of a UK National Cancer Institute in November 1998, modelled on the National Cancer Institute in the USA.
[3] He used his influence as a member of the British House of Commons Science and Technology Committee to promote the idea and, in early 2000 the committee held an inquiry into the funding of cancer research in the UK which reported in July 2000, recommending "the creation of a new National Cancer Research Institute to set national research priorities and to co-ordinate and fund cancer research in the UK.
The NCRI Consumer Liaison Group was founded in 2000 and is administered by the National Cancer Research Network (NCRN).