Our Vision
The Wellcome Sanger Institute is a world leader in genome research that delivers insights into human, evolutionary and pathogen biology.
Our Mission
We apply and explore genomic technologies to advance understanding of biology and improve health.
Our 10-Year Vision
We seek to be a trusted global leader in deciphering life and empowering society.
Our Scientific Objectives
We focus on three objectives where large-scale genomic data is essential for advancing fundamental knowledge, each of which will deliver opportunities for societal benefit, and the combination of three reflects where Sanger can have the most impact:
- Disease genomics – deciphering the molecular underpinnings of health and disease
- Engineering genomics – elucidating how DNA sequences encode biological functions
- Planetary genomics – understanding planetary biology through genome sequences of diverse species
To read more about our Scientific strategy, please see the embedded flipbook below or download the PDF of the Organisational Strategy.
Our Scientific Programmes
Our Impact
Our research aims to change how the world thinks about biology and human health. Specifically, we seek to:
- Generate new, high-impact knowledge that is widely disseminated
- Propel a more productive global life sciences ecosystem, powered by foundational data resources and highly-trained genomics scientists
- Ensure the translation of our science for societal benefit, encompassing clinical, commercial and environmental opportunities
Our defining characteristics make us unique
In order to achieve our vision and have a distinctive and transformative scientific impact within the wider life science ecosystem, we commit to:
- Being bold – Our scientific strategy is independent, focused, programmatic and dynamic
- Conducting Faculty driven science – Making discoveries not easily made elsewhere
- Long-term thinking – Strategically deploying generous Wellcome core funding to enable long-term thinking and taking risks
- Operating at scale – Delivering cutting-edge data generation and analysis at an unmatched scale
- Being global – Collaborating, convening, training and engaging
- Working openly – Sharing and building on our ethos of open, democratised science
- Being creative – Developing our cultural blend of creativity, innovation and operational excellence
- Carrying out cross-cutting research – Embracing scientific areas and challenges that encompass basic and translational science.
Our Culture
“Our culture underpins all that we do at the Institute to fulfil our scientific mission. Our shared values guide how we work together to achieve our research goals and to draw on everyone’s contribution to define, shape and deliver our world-leading science together.”
Professor Matthew Hurles
Director of the Wellcome Sanger Institute
We strive to have a culture at Sanger where people can flourish, maximising everyone’s input and achieving the extraordinary potential of our mission.
We recognise the diversity of skills, experiences, perspectives and roles that make up the infrastructure of the Sanger Institute in order to deliver our strategy. We place people and inclusion at the heart of our Institute, meaning everyone can contribute and participation, feel valued and respected. Only then can we maximise the potential of our workforce, to be innovative, creative and world-leading in our science.
Our culture powers our inclusive, collaborative science by:
- celebrating and supporting everyone at Sanger as a vital contributor to our science and mission
- our collective embodiment of our values in our daily work, behaviours and decision-making
- seeking out, and listening to, different views, perspectives and experiences to achieve and recognise success
- embedding equity, diversity and inclusion in our work as an employer and as a scientific leader
To find out more about Culture and Values, please click here.
How we measure our impact
Fundamental discovery research constitutes most of the Sanger Institute’s activity and is evaluated using both quantitative and qualitative impact indices. We assess our impact through evaluating six areas of organisational activity. These do not capture every element of work carried out within the Sanger Institute, but they represent key areas for evaluating our work against the Institute’s mission and articulate the underpinning themes of the organisational strategy.
- Bibliometric analysis of research publications
- Narratives of research
- Data resources generated
- Incubating future leaders in genome research
- Spinout organisations
- Knowledge exchange
- Contribution to the ecosystem
Sanger Institute Highlights documents
Please click on the images below to download our annual highlights.
