Wellcome exists to improve health for everyone by helping great ideas to thrive.

We’re a global charitable foundation, both politically and financially independent. We support scientists and researchers, take on big problems, fuel imaginations, and spark debate.

Watch our video about the power of asking questions

We value breadth and depth in the activities we support

We remain true to the vision and values of our founder, Sir Henry Wellcome, a medical entrepreneur, collector and philanthropist. Our work today reflects the amazing breadth of Henry's interests, and his belief that science and research expand knowledge by testing and investigating ideas. Our governance is based on an updated version of his will.
Our funding supports over 14,000 people in more than 70 countries. In the next five years, we aim to spend up to £5 billion helping thousands of curious, passionate people all over the world explore ideas in science, population health, medical innovation, the humanities and social sciences and public engagement.
For example, one of the world’s biggest challenges is how to be better prepared for the next major epidemic. We take on this problem in many different ways – here are just a handful:
  • Vaccine development, such as when we co-funded the development of a new Ebola vaccine
  • Public health interventions, such as insecticide-treated bednets for malaria
  • Behavioural projects, such as training health workers(opens in a new tab) to reduce risk of infection while working on the frontline
  • Social science, including research into the ethics of medical trials involving pregnant women, of urgent importance because of the Zika virus.
  • Developing research leaders in regions most affected by infectious disease (as we’ve done through our DELTAS Africa initiative(opens in a new tab))
  • Advocacy, encouraging governments and global businesses to take part in building a more secure future for global health

We bring these activities together to make a difference

When we can, we bring together different people and strands of activity to create something greater than the sum of its parts.
Sometimes that means backing an idea in the laboratory, and then helping it develop into a new treatment or approach to patient care.
For example, the idea for how to prevent mitochondrial disease – a devastating genetic illness passed from mother to child – came after years of scientific research to understand the basic biology of mitochondria and what happens when they don’t work properly.
The development of new IVF techniques for preventing it followed, and our policy and campaign work to promote change means that UK law now allows these techniques to be considered for use.
At other times, we take an interdisciplinary approach from the start. The Hub(opens in a new tab), for example, is a specially designed space where researchers and other creative minds can collaborate. Created Out of Mind, a group exploring dementia, are our Hub residents until 2018.
A network including scientists, artists, clinicians, public health experts and broadcasters will examine and challenge perceptions of dementia through scientific and creative experiments, collaborations and public events. 

We can take the long view, while also acting flexibly

We have a £20.9bn investment portfolio, which funds all the work we do. This allows us to plan for the long-term, while having the independence to act flexibly and responsively.
We've funded the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute(opens in a new tab) since 1993. It played a key role in the Human Genome Project, mapping 30% of the human DNA sequence as part of an international collaboration. Our backing kept the results public, which meant researchers could freely – and permanently – access the data. Today, the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute continues to be a world leader in genome research.
We run Wellcome Collection(opens in a new tab), a free destination in central London that’s open to everyone. Wellcome Collection is also the home of Wellcome Library(opens in a new tab), one of the world’s best resources for the study of medical history.
These long-term investments – and many others – ensure discoveries and knowledge are freely available to all for generations to come.