The Contribution of Medical Research Funding by Charities to the Scottish Economy

Third sector medical research plays an important role both in the Scottish economy and society. Medical research makes huge contributions to society through developing new treatments, improving existing ones and advancing technologies that can help save lives, such as vaccines that help to fight against infectious diseases like Covid-19.  Charities are major funders of medical research in Scotland. Medical research funding by charities has been estimated to be 46% of all third sector and public funding of medical research in Scotland, with active research funding of £122m in 2018. Without charities funding medical research and development in Scotland, the government and other public bodies would need to increase direct funding by 73%to make up for the shortfall.  Our findings in the accompanying report show that medical research funded by charities has grown since 2014 in Scotland, with a fall in funding in 2020 due to the pandemic.