Some 48% of our research is carried out at third-party institutions which are grant-funded by the Charity. Research expenditure included in the Statement of Financial Activities on page 25 continues to reflect the requirement to account for our research grants to universities and hospitals at the time we make an award. The remaining 52% of our research is carried out through directly funded activities, where research work is accounted for in line with activity in the year. These are together accounted for as ‘costs of research’ in the financial statements, and the total for the year was £325 million (2010: £308 million).
The way that we account for grants impacts on the reported cost of research. We determine the periods over which the progress of each research grant can be assessed and set appropriate scientific milestone review. We then provide in advance for the expected payments up to the next scientific reviews.
As an example, many five-year programme grants are recognised in two tranches of three years and two years each, not annual tranches. The gap between the dates we provide for grants and when we actually pay them affects the picture of costs over time. Where grants are recognised in larger, less frequent tranches, the pattern of research costs can be more volatile than the underlying trend of annual research activity.
We measure the research undertaken during the period, which shows the cost of the research carried out in the year, excluding the forward commitment. This is defined as ‘annual research activity’. The annual research activity remained stable at £332 million (2010: £334 million).
260 280 300 320 340 360
06/07 07/08 08/09 9/10 10/11
Costs of research and annual research activity (£m) 355
330 315 306 303 338 308
For more information on the research we fund, visit our website at
science.cancerresearchuk.org/research/ who-and-what-we-fund
06/07 0/11 07/08 08/09
Costs of research Annual research activity
9/10 10/11
1 Site-specific research includes an apportionment of research that is relevant to all sites. Wherever possible research is assigned to a specific cancer type; however, some research is neither biology of cancer nor can it be tied to an individual cancer, e.g. a project on pain control relevant to all cancer patients.
2 The figures include apportionment of uncoded work totalling £11 million in 2010/11 (2010: £19 million), which cannot be tied specifically to one piece of research but underpins all areas of research.
334 325 332
Annual research activity Some 37% of our research activity is directed towards the biology of cancer, which underpins our understanding for all types of cancer. The remaining 63% is directed to specific cancer types. The 21 most common cancer types are shown below.
2011 £000
Total research into the biology of cancer
Site-specific research1 Breast
Colon and rectal Prostate
Leukaemia Lung
Ovarian Melanoma
Non-Hodgkin lymphoma Pancreatic Bladder Skin
Oesophageal Brain
Cervical Myeloma Kidney
Testicular Sarcoma
Kaposi’s Sarcoma Neuroblastoma Other
Total site-specific research
Total annual research activity in the year2
Difference between annual research activity and accounting cost of research
123,404
44,821 25,182 18,519 17,147 11,681 11,323 8,593 8,461 8,201 5,911 5,363 5,132 3,767 3,764 3,231 3,172 2,479 2,314 1,985 1,752
15,612 208,410 331,814 (7,150)
Total cost of research as per financial statements (page 25) 324,664
2010 £000
132,527
41,376 24,767 17,305 15,028 11,912 10,605 6,815 9,515 9,384 6,081 6,464 4,188 4,829 3,358 2,644 2,443 2,227 2,252 1,924 1,873
16,527 201,517
334,044 (25,940) 308,104
Annual Report and Accounts / Our finances / 11
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