Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 4 September 2025 to Question 73278 on Dementia: Research, what proportion of NHS funding was spent on (a) dementia, (b) cancer, (c) stroke and (d) coronary heart disease research in each year between 2019 and 2024.

The Department funds and delivers health research via the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). Funding allocated to the NIHR is separate from National Health Service funding and is not calculated as a proportion of NHS spend.

NIHR invests directly in research projects and programmes and also provides investment for research delivery within the NHS and wider health and care system, including research facilities and workforce, known as NIHR infrastructure.

The following table shows a breakdown of total NIHR spend in millions of pounds for dementia, cancer, stroke, and cardiovascular research between 2019/20 and 2023/24, across research projects, programmes and infrastructure:

Source: NIHR

Notes:

1. The data presented is based on 11 September 2025 point-in-time analysis. Our data is not static and is subject to change due to contract variations, updated information regarding financial reconciliations and support activity.
2. Funding figures for cardiovascular research have been calculated based on the Health Research Classification System code ‘cardiovascular’, which includes research into topics such as general circulation research, coronary heart disease, and vasculitis.

NIHR infrastructure investment funds staff and facilities which deliver research across disciplines and disease areas simultaneously and represents approximately 40% of total NIHR funding. This component is therefore calculated as a proportionate approximation of spend based on number of studies/projects in these conditions supported by infrastructure against total infrastructure spend and therefore is an estimate only.