Health & Wellbeing Environment & Climate 2025
Wellcome Trust (Wellcome)

Annual Report and Financial Statements 2024/25

Wellcome is one of the world's largest independent charitable foundations, funding science to solve urgent health challenges. In 2024-25, charitable expenditure reached £1.916 billion — a 20% increase on the prior year — including £841m for discovery research, £228m for infectious disease, £145m for climate and health, £138m for mental health and £232m in cross-mission grants. 711 awards worth £1.3bn were made from 4,289 applications; 2,723 active grants are held at 1,443 organisations in 133 countries. The investment portfolio grew to £39.9bn, delivering a 10.2% return. £5.2bn spent since 2022 toward a £16bn decade target.

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📋About

Discovery Research grants (£841m); Infectious Disease research (£228m); Climate and Health (£145m); Mental Health (£138m); Cross-mission grants (£232m); Wellcome Leap (DARPA-inspired US non-profit); Wellcome Genome Campus; public engagement and science communication; policy influencing; net zero investment programme; Wellcome Photography Prize; Wellcome Collection (London museum and library) Custom geography from upload: Global (HQ London, grants in 133 countries)

📊Key Metrics

Charitable expenditure £1.916 billion in 2024-25 — up 20% from £1.58bn; £5.2bn spent since 2022 toward £16bn decade plan (2022-2032) Key Metric 1
711 grants awarded worth £1.3bn from 4,289 applications; 2,723 active grants at 1,443 organisations across 133 countries with total active value of £7.3bn Key Metric 2
Investment portfolio grew to £39.9bn (10.2% total return, 6.4% after inflation); total funds £35.7bn; spending rise driven by renewals of Malawi-Liverpool-Wellcome, Mahidol Oxford Research Unit and co-funding of UK Health Data Research Service Key Metric 3

✅Key Outcomes

  • First healthy babies born in UK through mitochondrial donation — Wellcome funded research, public engagement that changed UK law, and clinical trial; new oral antibiotic for plague found as effective as injection in Madagascar trials; digital interventions for mental health led in UK
  • £10m awarded to Synthetic Human Genome Project (SynHG) — UK scientists developing first synthetic human chromosome; Coalition for Mental Health Investment launched with African Venture Philanthropy Alliance, Clinton Global Initiative, Kokoro, McKinsey and Wellcome
  • Spending on discovery research down slightly (£841m vs £910m prior year) but infectious disease, climate and mental health all increased; cash elevated at 8.9% of gross portfolio assets; net zero portfolio target by 2050; AAA/Aaa (stable) credit rating maintained; no new bonds issued in year

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