Records of the Darwin Trust of Edinburgh

Comprises annual reports, meeting papers of committees, financial records, papers relating to events and requests for funding and student and academic files.

The Darwin Trust was founded in 1983 as an independent charitable trust for the support of research and education in natural sciences. Its initial assets comprised a modest sum from a molecular biology development fund and a block of Biogen ordinary shares with an anticipated continuing and increasing income from royalties from licensees of Biogen's patents on hepatitis B virus antigens.

The Trust developed a programme of scholarships for postgraduate, and later also undergraduate, research students from overseas. From the mid 1980s, the Trust introduced senior research fellowships, one of which was associated with the Scottish Aids Research Foundation (to which the Trust had made a founding contribution). At a later date, the Trust made an endowment to the Royal Society to provide funding for the Royal Society Darwin Trust of Edinburgh Professorship on a continuing basis. A Visting Professorships programme ran from 1992 to 1999 to enable internationally distinguished biologists to spend a sabbatical term in the University of Edinburgh's Division of Biological Sciences.

The Trust also funded a number of capital projects in partnership with other sponsors. These include the Darwin Library for the University of Edinburgh's Biological Sciences (opened in 1986), and later the new Kenneth and Noreen Murray Library... Most significantly, the Trust offered to part-fund a new building for Cell and Molecular Biology as an annexe to the Darwin Building on the University's Kings Buildings site. With further support from the University, Wolfson Foundation and the Wellcome Trust, the Michael Swann Building was completed in 1995.

The Trustees established and part-funded a Biocomputing Research Unit within the then Department of Molecular Biology at the University of Edinburgh, and subsequently contributed to the cost of the Cray Super Parallel Computer and ancillary faculties in the Edinburgh Computing Centre.

In addition, the Trust made contributions to a number of other projects and initiatives, including scientific meetings, workshops, conferences and education programmes such as the Scottish Initiative for Biotechnology Education.

These records are currently closed to researchers. Enquiries concerning access should be directed to Professor David Finnegan, University of Edinburgh, at david.finnegan@ed.ac.uk.

On deposit from the Darwin Trust of Edinburgh.

This material has been weeded of duplicates.

Further accruals likely.

Catalogued by Clare Button, June 2016.