Summary

• The medical research charity sector in the UK plays a vital role in the UK’s health and economy, filling in a niche often not covered by government and other funders (public and private). Charity research funding is a crucial component of the research funding landscape for UK universities. Charities choose to fund in UK universities because of the world-class research environments they provide. The financial sustainability of university research is important to charities to ensure that charity-funded research leads to patient benefit.
• Charities fund the direct costs of research in universities, in line with their mission and charitable objectives, and the wishes of their donors. Charities also make a number of strategic infrastructure investments in universities and beyond. Some of the indirect costs of research are supported in partnership with Government through the Charity Research Support Fund (CRSF).
• The CRSF has declined in value and is increasingly overstretched. The pressure on the CRSF is threatening the partnership between Government, charities and universities that allows the public to support university medical research.
• We are calling on the next Government to make R&D funding sustainable and cover the full end-to-end cost of university research. This includes backing existing mechanisms such as quality-related (QR) funding (and its equivalents in the devolved nations) and enhanced government support to underpin the indirect costs of charity investment in universities.

Charities believe university research should be sustainable

UK universities are renowned for their world-leading research and high-quality education. The links between the medical research charity and university sectors are strong – in 2022, 85% of AMRC member grants were awarded to British universities. The long-term sustainability of university research is therefore a key priority for all AMRC members.

There are growing concerns around research sustainability in UK universities, and the increasing gap between the full economic cost (fEC) of research and the level of resource that funders contribute. The 2023 Academy of Medical Sciences report on future-proofing health research and the Nurse review of the RDI Landscape have both flagged this issue and called for government and charitable funders to work together to explore how to fund proper end-to-end research support.

Charities support high quality research in universities but believe that it is ultimately the role of Government to fund the underpinning infrastructure on which competitively awarded funding sits – including disease-specific charity funded research projects. This is essential to ensure research in universities is sustainable and that charity funding can be additive and spent in line with donor priorities to ensure patient benefit.

Charities fund the direct costs of research and support in other ways

Charities fund the directly incurred costs of research in universities, in line with their mission and charitable objectives, and the wishes of their donors.

Charities may pay some directly allocated costs of research on a case-by-case basis, if these are in line with their charitable mission.

Beyond these costs, charities make a number of strategic infrastructure investments in universities and beyond. This includes support for centres and institutes based in a university, investment in research facilities and equipment, investment in research assets such as registries, cohort studies or tissue banks, and provision of training programmes.

The Charity Research Support Fund (CRSF)

Charities have funded research in UK universities in partnership with government for almost two decades. The Charity Research Support Fund (CRSF) was first put forward in the Labour Government’s  Science & innovation investment framework 2004 – 2014, and was set up in 2006, as a partnership approach in recognition of the charity donor model.

The CRSF underpins charity investment in university research. It is an important component of the Quality-Related (QR) university funding across England (similar funds are provided in the devolved nations).

The CRSF enables universities that receive charity funding to recover some of the indirect costs that are not covered by charitable grants, such as estates, shared IT and administration overheads.

The declining value of the CRSF is threatening the sustainability of charity-funded university research

The CRSF is increasingly out of step with levels of charity spend. The Fund has been stagnant - and in real terms has declined in value - over the past decade (see graph).

The CRSF was proposed to have a budget of £270 million by 2010 but has so far only reached £219 million. By 2030, the CRSF is expected to provide less than 12p per £1 of charitable investment, less than half of what it represented in 2012.

The pressure on the CRSF is threatening the partnership between Government, charities and universities that allows the public to support university medical research.

Graph 1: Government support of charity-funded research in universities has not kept up with charity research funding

Why is the CRSF so important?

The CRSF is a partnership between charities and government – and it is an important signal of the value that the UK places on charity-funded research in universities. The existence of the CRSF makes the UK a uniquely attractive environment for charitable investment, incentivising home-grown charities to support university research in the UK rather than funding overseas. It also enables charities to invest in-line with their mission and charitable objectives.  

Without the Government's long-term investment in the CRSF partnership, the charity sector’s funding for life saving research will not go as far. Without charity funding, the UK health research sector would be less dynamic and less productive, progress at crucial stages of the research pipeline would slow, research into many rare diseases would decrease and underfunded conditions would lose crucial research investment. Without the CRSF, it would become harder for universities to accept charitable grants for research.  

What are we calling for to support the sustainability of charity funded research in universities? 

We are calling on the next government to support the fundamental building blocks that underpin UK R&D to ensure optimal health and sustainability of the research landscape. It is vital for government to make R&D funding sustainable and cover the full end-to-end cost of university research. This includes continuing to prioritise block grant funding to universities through QR funding, and maintaining and boosting the Charity Research Support Fund to safeguard charity-university partnerships. 

Further information  

• FAQs on the CRSF

• AMRC’s position statement on supporting research in universities.

• How the Charity Research Support Fund enables the unique contributions of charities to health and well-being

• Options for partnership-support for charity-funded medical research in universities. (blog, full report and summary).