Reports

Joint Report of the Council and the General Board on a change of name for the Wellcome Trust/Cancer Research UK Gurdon Institute

The Council and the General Board beg leave to report to the University as follows:

1. This Report proposes a change of name from the Wellcome Trust/Cancer Research UK Gurdon Institute to the Gurdon Institute, now that core funding from the two funders has come to an end. As the change involves amendment of a Special Ordinance, the proposal must be presented as a Report to the Regent House.

2. The proposal to change the name of the Institute is made by the Council and the General Board on the recommendation of the Council of the School of the Biological Sciences and with the support of the Institute’s Committee of Management.

3. Core funding from the Wellcome Trust and Cancer Research UK ceased in November 2024. Wellcome Trust and Cancer Research UK debranding guidance requires the removal of all instances of branding and text-only naming conventions once core funding has ended. Websites, documentation and signage have been updated. The renaming of the Institute in the University’s Ordinances and General Board Regulations will complete this process.

4. If the recommendations of this Report are approved, the General Board has agreed to make changes to the General Board Regulations for the Institute. These changes revise the name of the Institute, disband the Institute Administrative Committee (which acted as a forum for deciding administrative matters between the researchers funded by the two former sponsors), remove the Visiting Fellowships (now that funding for them has ceased), and also change the membership of the Institute’s Committee of Management to remove members appointed by the former funders.

5. The Council and the General Board recommend:

I.That in Section 3 of Special Ordinance A (vi) (Statutes and Ordinances, p. 71) the reference to the ‘Wellcome Trust/Cancer Research UK Gurdon Institute’ be replaced with a reference to the ‘Gurdon Institute’.

II.That in Regulation 1(b) of the Ordinance for the School of the Biological Sciences (Statutes and Ordinances, p. 596) the reference to the ‘Wellcome Trust/Cancer Research UK Gurdon Institute’ be replaced with a reference to the ‘Gurdon Institute’.

17 March 2025

17 March 2025

Annex A

If the recommendations of this Report are approved, the General Board has agreed to make the following changes to the General Board Regulations for the Wellcome Trust/Cancer Research UK Gurdon Institute (Statutes and Ordinances, p. 647):

(a) By replacing all references to the Wellcome Trust/Cancer Research UK Gurdon Institute with references to the Gurdon Institute.

(b) By amending Regulations 1 and 2 and replacing Regulation 4(b)–(e) with the following, and rescinding Regulation 5:

1. The Institute shall be under the general control of a Committee of Management which shall consist of:

(a)the Head of the School of the Biological Sciences or a deputy appointed by the Head, who shall be Chair of the Committee;

(b)the Director of the Institute;

(c)the Deputy Director of the Institute;

(d)seven persons appointed by the General Board who have an interest in the research of the Institute for such period as the General Board shall determine.

2. Members in class (d) who are not appointed ex officio shall be appointed in the Michaelmas Term to serve for four years from 1 January following their appointment.

[4.] (b) to make such reports to the General Board and the Council of the School as the Board or the Council of the School shall determine.

(c) By rescinding the Regulations for the Visiting Fellowships.