Charities’ role in supporting medical research

Charitable organisations that are members of the Association of Medical Research Charities funded almost £1.3 billion’s worth of research in 2013, according to data it published on 19 September. By contrast, the Medical Research Council stumped up £767 million and the National Institute for Health Research £959 million.

More than 130 charities are members of the AMRC. Organisations with large annual research budgets, such as the Wellcome Trust and Cancer Research UK, contribute the lion’s share of the association’s total spend. Wellcome funded almost £665 million’s worth of health research in 2013, for example, and CRUK about £335 million.

The combined £1 billion spend of these two charities alone is more than the annual contribution to health science of the MRC or the NIHR.

holly.else@tesglobal.com