Cancer Research UK announced it had been given a gift of £10 million from one of its supporters. This is the largest one-off donation the charity has ever received, and comes alongside an additional gift of £10 million from the same donor for the University of Southampton.
The contribution of £10 million is to Cancer Research UK's Create The Change campaign, which will raise £100 million for the Crick.
The additional gift to Southampton will help to build a cancer immunology centre that will have links to the Crick to speed up the translation of the Institute's discoveries into benefits for patients. The centre will also open in 2015.
Paul Nurse, director of the Francis Crick Institute, said: "The Crick is taking shape at its home at St Pancras in London. The Institute will support biomedical research and innovation across the UK by carrying out exceptional science, developing future scientific leaders, turning discoveries into benefits for patients, and engaging people in its work. This very generous gift will help us to bring together some of the world's best scientists for the benefit of us all."
Professor Peter Johnson, Cancer Research UK's chief clinician who is also based at the University of Southampton, said: "These two donations will transform our ability to move new immune treatments for cancer from the laboratories in the Francis Crick Institute to patients, through the new cancer immunology centre in Southampton. Harnessing the power of the immune system is one of the most promising areas of new cancer treatment, and this far-sighted initiative will really make a difference to both our scientific understanding and its practical application in the clinic."
Dr Harpal Kumar, Cancer Research UK's chief executive, said: "We're extremely grateful for these extraordinarily generous donations. The gift for the Francis Crick Institute accounts for 10 per cent of the total and takes us a huge step closer towards achieving our ambition of creating this world-class institute to help us beat cancer."
"This is a fantastic example of how investment in science in one part of the UK can lead to further investment elsewhere and reflects the way that the Francis Crick Institute will work with other medical research centres.
"The Francis Crick Institute is a game-changing initiative for medical research, which will benefit countless people in the future and we're thrilled to have received this donation for it."
