The MPL is funded by a Wellcome Trust project grant entitled "The Membrane Protein Laboratory at Diamond", awarded in April 2006. Staff members were appointed to the grant in October, 2006. The MPL labs were available for equipment installation in April 2007 and user operations began in February 2008.

In addition to the MPL Wellcome Trust funding, some of the crystallisation equipment was purchased by the Iwata Human Receptor Crystallography project. Four members of the ERATO/HRC project are based in the MPL facility at Diamond.

The Membrane Protein Structure Initiative, Director Neil Isaacs, part funded one of the hotel/imager systems used in the integrated crystallisation system. So Iwata is on the MPSI grant and Liz Carpenter is an associate of the MPSI.

In addition the PX scanner system for taking X-ray images of crystals in situ in crystallisation plates was funded by the Diamond Light Source. This equipment is available for use by Diamond staff and Diamond synchrotron users. It is installed in the MPL facility.