With academic medicine and medical research facing significant challenges and uncertainty, Mass General Brigham is looking to the future, working to unify our expertise and harness our strengths to broaden the impact of our world-changing research and innovation.
Recently, our system leaders announced plans to form a new Mass General Brigham Research Institute (MGBRI). The new MGBRI will replace our two academic medical center research institutes – the Brigham Research Institute and the Mass General Research Institute – and support our research community across multiple hospitals, with a strong presence in our academic departments.
Leaders are working now to develop a unified structure and integrate programming, with the goal of having a fully integrated MGBRI in place by the beginning of the next fiscal year.
“As we continue to face internal and external pressures, now more than ever, we need the shared and united voice of our community, and we will facilitate that by coming together as an integrated research institute,” said Paul Anderson, MD, PhD, chief academic officer, Mass General Brigham.
In recent years, we have already taken steps to unify our research community to drive even greater impact. The Mass General Brigham Gene and Cell Therapy Institute was formed in 2022 to bring together hundreds of investigators to advance groundbreaking discoveries and accelerate their clinical applications. Meanwhile, systemwide research offices under Anderson’s leadership provide systemwide support for researchers in areas like grant management and clinical trials.
As we continue to face internal and external pressures, now more than ever, we need the shared and united voice of our community, and we will facilitate that by coming together as an integrated Research Institute.
Paul Anderson, MD, PhD
Chief Academic Officer
Mass General Brigham
Lindsey R. Baden, MD
Researchers have also come together across our member organizations to design the future of our research enterprise. The process to design our Research Strategic Plan brought together hundreds of stakeholders through working groups, town halls, and surveys to capture the insights of our colleagues.
The process to develop the Research Strategic Plan, Anderson said, helped lay the groundwork for a single research institute. “Through our planning process, we brought together the brightest minds in research to define a path forward for advancing our research mission in the next decade, which underscored the power of harnessing our collective strengths,” he said.
“That approach will be a hallmark of the Mass General Brigham Research Institute, which will in turn provide us the structure needed to truly achieve our strategic goals.”
The new structure is meant to complement the integration of our academic departments, allowing our community to conduct research more efficiently.
In addition, as part of our ongoing effort to align and integrate our research enterprise, Lindsey R. Baden, MD, was recently named vice president of clinical research. In this role, he will work closely with Anderson to oversee all aspects of the clinical research enterprise at Mass General Brigham, including inpatient and outpatient clinical trials, infrastructure and compliance. He will work to advance our clinical research mission, facilitating collaboration across departments and fostering excellence in clinical trial design, execution and dissemination of findings.
“Despite the challenges our community faces today, I am optimistic that the combined strength of the research teams within our two academic medical centers will continue to make a positive impact on the lives of our patients well into the future,” Baden said. “As one research institute, we have the opportunity to meet and even succeed the goals outlined in our research strategic plan in the years to come.”
