Funding Infectious Disease Research: A Systematic Analysis of UK Research Investments by Funders 1997– 2010 Joseph R. Fitchett 1 *, Michael G. Head 2 , Mary K. Cooke 2 , Fatima B. Wurie 2 , Rifat Atun 3,4 1 King’s College London, Department of Infectious Diseases, London, United Kingdom, 2 University College London, Department of Infection and Population Health, UCL Royal Free Campus, London, United Kingdom, 3 Imperial College Business School and the Faculty of Medicine, Imperial College London, South Kensington Campus, London, United Kingdom, 4 Harvard School of Public Health, Harvard University, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America Abstract Background: Research investments are essential to address the burden of disease, however allocation of limited resources is poorly documented. We systematically reviewed the investments awarded by funding organisations to UK institutions and their global partners for infectious disease research. Methodology/Principal Findings: Public and philanthropic investments for the period 1997 to 2010 were included. We categorised studies by infectious disease, cross-cutting theme, and by research and development value chain, reflecting the type of science. We identified 6165 funded studies, with a total research investment of UK £2.6 billion. Public organisations provided £1.4 billion (54.0%) of investments compared with £1.1 billion (42.4%) by philanthropic organisations. Global health studies represented an investment of £928 million (35.7%). The Wellcome Trust was the leading investor with £688 million (26.5%), closely followed by the UK Medical Research Council (MRC) with £673 million (25.9%). Funding over time was volatile, ranging from ,£40 million to ,£160 million per year for philanthropic organisations and ,£30 million to ,£230 million for public funders. Conclusions/Significance: Infectious disease research funding requires global coordination and strategic long-term vision. Our analysis demonstrates the diversity and inconsistent patterns in investment, with volatility in annual funding amounts and limited investment for product development and clinical trials. Citation: Fitchett JR, Head MG, Cooke MK, Wurie FB, Atun R (2014) Funding Infectious Disease Research: A Systematic Analysis of UK Research Investments by Funders 1997–2010. PLoS ONE 9(8): e105722. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0105722 Editor: Gemma Elizabeth Derrick, Brunel University, United Kingdom Received October 18, 2013; Accepted July 28, 2014; Published August 27, 2014 Copyright: ß 2014 Fitchett et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Funding: The authors have no support or funding to report. Competing Interests: The authors have declared no competing interests exist. * Email: joseph.fitchett@doctors.org.uk Introduction Since 2000, there has been substantial increase in international financing for global health from donor governments and innovative financing, in particular for infectious diseases.[1] While the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) tracks donor contributions to overseas development assistance for health, including for selected infectious diseases, there are no internationally adopted systems for tracking innovative financing 1 or investments in infectious disease research for addressing global health burden, by countries, or by funding entities. To date, few studies have analysed research and development (R&D) investments.[2–3] Annual global research and development (R&D) funding for neglected diseases,[4] and funding by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) of the United States (US) Department of Health and Human Services have been estimated for selected years.[5–6] A recent systematic analysis of infectious disease research invest- ments in the United Kingdom (UK) from 1997 to 2010 and burden of disease in 2004 and 2008 revealed mismatches between the amounts of funds invested and the burden of disease caused by the conditions, raising concerns about the efficiency of allocation of the investments in infectious disease R&D.[2,7] The World Health Organization (WHO) Consultative Expert Working Group on Research and Development: Financing and Coordination is currently reviewing the feasibility of establishing a global observatory to monitor R&D investments.[8–11] The initiative was endorsed by member states at the sixty-sixth World Health Assembly this year. We present the first systematic and comprehensive analysis of investments in infectious disease R&D over the 14-year period from 1997 to 2010. Specifically, the analysis focuses on investment patterns by global health institutions funding infectious disease research. Methods We obtained data from several sources for infectious disease research studies where funding was awarded between 1997 and 2010 (full list and further resources on methodology are openly available from http://researchinvestments.org/data). Figure 1 shows the sources of data and the numbers of studies explored PLOS ONE | www.plosone.org 1 August 2014 | Volume 9 | Issue 8 | e105722