Wellcome Trust
UK-based global charitable foundation funding health research, with a £37.6 billion endowment
Wellcome – About Us (official site)The Wellcome Trust is a charitable foundation headquartered in London, United Kingdom, established in 1936 using legacies from pharmaceutical magnate Sir Henry Wellcome, founder of Burroughs Wellcome (a predecessor of GSK plc). Its mission is to ensure that everyone benefits from science's potential to improve health and save lives, and it describes itself as politically and financially independent.
Wellcome is the UK's largest non-governmental funder of scientific research and the fourth wealthiest charitable foundation in the world, with a £37.6 billion endowment. Under CEO John-Arne Røttingen, who took the role in January 2024, Wellcome has committed to spending £16 billion over the decade to 2032, with charitable expenditure of £1,577 million in 2023/24 alone. Julia Gillard serves as Chair.
The foundation concentrates its funding on three major global health challenges — climate change, infectious disease, and mental health — alongside broader Discovery Research. Its global reach spans Europe, Asia, and Africa, encompassing major funded institutions such as the Wellcome Sanger Institute, UK Biobank, and the KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Research Programme in Kenya.
As a major funder of health and biomedical research, Wellcome is highly relevant to innovations in infectious disease, genomics, mental health, and climate-health intersections. Its scale and independence make it a key driver of translational and curiosity-driven research worldwide.