Key stats

A collection of key facts and statistics about medical research in the UK

Public engagement with medical research

At least 8 million people donated to medical research charities in 2017
Medical research is the most popular charitable cause in the UK
97% of the public think health research is important
94% of the public believe that medical research will lead to an improvement in the quality of life for people in the UK in the next 20 years
In 2015 one in eight members of the public said they had, at some point, taken part in a medical research project.
77% of the public would be willing to allow their anonymised medical records to be used in a medical research study

Every £1 invested in medical research delivers a return equivalent to around 25p every year, for ever.
Every £1 of public or charity investment in medical research is also associated with an additional £0.83-£1.07 of private sector R&D spend. This spillover effect leads to a real annual rate of return (RoR) on the investment of 15–18 %.
Combined, the total annual rate of return on public or charitable investment in medical research is 24-28%.

£1.3bn of research funding in the UK invested by medical research charities in 2018
Medical research charities have invested £13 billion in research in the UK since the sector started collecting data in 2008
AMRC members fund 41% of all publicly funded medical research nationally
94% of all UK charity funded research takes place in universities and hospitals
Over 17,000 researcher salaries were funded by medical research charities in 2017

200,000 people in the UK were recruited into over 1,300 clinical studies or trials funded by AMRC charities
31% of non-commercial research supported by the NIHR Clinical Research Network was funded by charities in 2018