The contribution of medical 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.
Our results estimate that, in 2019, medical research funding by charities supported:
- 7,475 jobs,
- £470m output and
- £320m GVA in Scotland.
The pandemic had a significant impact on medical research funding by charities, placing jobs in research and the wider economy at risk. In 2020, the fall in medical research funding by charities put 575 jobs, £36m output and £25m GVA at risk in Scotland.
We also estimate multipliers for medical research funding by charities and compare these to 97 sectors of the Scottish economy. Every £1 million spent on medical research funding in Scotland by charities supports:
- £1.98 million of output – 23rd highest multiplier out of 97 sectors.
- £1.33 million of GVA – 4th highest multiplier out of 97 sectors.
- 31 jobs – 6th highest multiplier out of 97 sectors. "
