Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government how much funding they have provided for brain tumour research since 2018; and how that funding was broken down by category, including (1) direct research funding awarded to projects, (2) funding allocated to the National Institute for Health and Care Research Brain Tumour Research Consortium, (3) funding that remains conditional on approvals, milestones or reporting, (4) research infrastructure funding, and (5) funding delivered through UK Research and Innovation, including the Medical Research Council.

Government responsibility for delivering brain cancer research is shared between the Department of Health and Social Care, with research delivered by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), and the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, with research delivered via UK Research and Innovation (UKRI).

We are committed to furthering our investment in brain cancer research and have already taken steps to stimulate scientific progress and build scientific capacity to do research on brain cancer.

As announced in the National Cancer Plan, investment in the NIHR Brain Tumour Research Consortium, co-funding of the Cancer Research UK Brain Tumour Centres of Excellence, and other direct programmatic spend through NIHR funding streams totals a combined investment of £32.3 million since July 2024, and a total of £45.2 million since 2018, all of which is designed to accelerate brain cancer research.

The total investment in the NIHR Brain Tumour Research Consortium is over £25 million over the course of the awards. This includes an initial £13.7 million investment announced in December 2025, which has been fully contracted. In January 2026, the NIHR announced further investment of a minimum of £11.7 million in the Consortium through funding of work packages. For all work packages, contracting and further payments are contingent upon teams submitting and reviewing detailed costs and, if applicable, agreeing to the suggested amendments and requests for clarification which are currently in progress.

The NIHR’s wider investments in research infrastructure, such as research centres, which run studies, facilities, and services, and the research workforce, leverages research funding from other donors and organisations. These NIHR investments in infrastructure are estimated to be £44.5 million over the period 2018/19 to 2024/25, enabling 298 brain tumour research studies to take place.

Research delivered through UKRI, which includes the Medical Research Council, is the responsibility of the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology. Over six years, from the financial year 2018/19 to 2023/24, UKRI committed £46.8 million to brain tumour research. This is the most recent data we hold.

The NIHR continues to welcome high-quality applications for research into any aspect of human health and care, including brain cancer. These applications are subject to peer review and judged in open competition, with awards being made on the basis of the importance of the topic to the public and health and care services, value for money, and scientific quality.