Wellcome has been distributing grants for more than 80 years. Over the past 10 years, it has provided £11.8 billion in grants to various health initiatives worldwide.
The organization is primarily a health funder, and while much of its work is focused on supporting research in universities in the global north, its most recent strategy, published in 2022, places a greater emphasis on funding to tackle global health challenges.
In that strategy, Wellcome announced that it would allocate £16 billion toward various research activities addressing urgent health matters until 2032.