Development Co-operation Profiles

Wellcome Trust

Introduction

The Wellcome Trust is a United Kingdom-based independent charitable foundation established in 1936 by the legacy of the American-born pharmacist and medical entrepreneur Sir Henry Wellcome. Guided by the founder’s broad interests and his conviction that health can be improved when research generates, tests and investigates new ideas, the Wellcome Trust takes on big health challenges, campaigns for better science. It helps everyone get involved with science and health research.

The Wellcome Trust directly funds research every step of the way, from discovery to impact. Its funding schemes offer grants across biomedical science, population health, medical innovation, humanities and social science, and public engagement. The foundation also identifies areas where Wellcome can lead significant change within five or ten years, aiming to transform the global response to some of today’s biggest health challenges, such as vaccine development, drug-resistant infections, snakebites and mental health.

Private development finance

The Wellcome Trust provided USD 396.4 million for development in 2022 through its grantmaking activities. Compared to 2021, this amount represents a decrease of 17.2% in real terms.

 

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COVID-19 response

In 2022, the Wellcome Trust provided USD 83.2 million to support developing countries’ COVID-19 response. Of this, 75.7% concerned activities to control the spread of the coronavirus through medical interventions.

Bilateral and multilateral allocations

In 2022, the Wellcome Trust channelled its development finance mostly through universities, research institutes or think tanks (USD 238.1 million), non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and civil society (USD 85.3 million) and multilateral organisations (USD 31 million).

 

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Multilateral channels

In 2022, the Wellcome Trust provided USD 31 million to the multilateral system, representing 7.8% of its development finance, all of which was earmarked for specific countries, regions, themes or purposes. These multilateral contributions were provided to the World Bank Group (39.8%), United Nations (UN) entities (39.8%) and other multilateral organisations, notably the International Vaccine Institute (20.4%).

 

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The UN system received USD 12.3 million from the Wellcome Trust in 2022 in support of the activities of the WHO.

 

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Civil society organisations

In 2022, civil society organisations (CSOs) received USD 85.3 million of the Wellcome Trust’s gross development finance, all of which was earmarked for specific projects or programmes. Most of these contributions were channelled through NGOs based on donor countries.

Learn more about the DAC Recommendation on Enabling Civil Society in Development Co-operation and Humanitarian Aid.

 

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Geographic and thematic focus

In 2022, the Wellcome Trust’s development finance was primarily focused on Africa and Asia (excluding the Middle East). USD 53.4 million was allocated to Africa and USD 45.6 million to Asia (excluding the Middle East), accounting respectively for 13.5% and 11.5% of gross development finance. A sum of USD 281 million (70.9%) was unspecified by region in 2022, mainly including multi-regional programmes and research grants.

Figure. Bilateral private development finance by recipient country

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In 2022, 23% of gross development finance went to the top 10 recipients, most notably Viet Nam, South Africa, Kenya, Brazil and India.

 

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Least developed countries (LDCs) received USD 16.9 million (4.3%) of the Wellcome Trust’s gross disbursements in 2022. The Wellcome Trust allocated the highest share (13.3%) of its development finance to lower middle-income countries in 2022, followed by upper middle-income countries (9.4%), noting that USD 289.6 million (73.1%) was unallocated by income group.

 

Notes: LDC: least developed country; LIC: low-income country; LMIC: lower middle-income country; UMIC: upper middle-income country; MADCTs: more advanced developing countries and territories.

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Furthermore, the Wellcome Trust allocated USD 10.4 million of its development finance to land-locked developing countries in 2022, and USD 0.9 million to small island developing states (SIDS) in 2022, notably Jamaica.

Fragile contexts

Support to fragile contexts reached USD 27 million in 2022, representing 6.8% of the Wellcome Trust’s development finance.

 

Notes: HDP: humanitarian-development-peace. The chart represents only gross bilateral contributions that are allocated by country.

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Learn more about support to fragile contexts on the States of Fragility platform.

Sectors

In 2022, the Wellcome Trust allocated its contributions to social infrastructure and services and, more specifically, the health and population sectors.

 

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Sustainable Development Goals

In 2022, the Wellcome Trust committed the largest shares of its contributions to good health and well-being (SDG 3) and partnerships for the goals (SDG 17).

 

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Additional resources

Official website: https://wellcome.org

The methodological notes provide further details on the definitions and statistical methodologies applied, including core and earmarked contributions to multilateral organisations, the Sustainable Development Goal focus of private development finance, channels of delivery, unspecified/unallocated allocations, the gender equality policy marker, and the environment markers.