Investigative Report on Research Charities
Krzysztof Potempa
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Last update: 15 April 2024
This report investigates the world's second largest charity the Wellcome Trust by considering: Who is the Wellcome Trust? How big is the Wellcome investment portfolio? How does the Wellcome ReImagine Research Culture, the work week and climate change? How much does the Wellcome Trust invest into science? How does the Wellcome Trust grow its portfolio? How many of Wellcome Trust's biggest public equity holdings are in health? Is the Wellcome keeping to it's stewardship code? How much do Wellcome's Governors earn for board meeting attendance(s)? Is there a gender pay gap at the Wellcome Trust? Does the Wellcome Trust ask for charitable donations?
Who is the Wellcome Trust?
Wellcome is?a politically and financially independent foundation. The charity founder, Sir Henry Wellcome, was a medical entrepreneur, collector and philanthropist. who had a breadth of interests and a conviction that health can be improved when research generates, tests and investigates new ideas. Today, Wellcome's governance?is based on an updated version of Henry’s will (1) See History of Wellcome | Who we are | Wellcome
How big is Wellcome Investment portfolio?
As of March 2024, the Wellcome has ￡36.8 billion investment portfolio which funds all the work they do. Over the next 10 years, they plan to spend around ￡16 billion helping people across the world explore great ideas (1)
Who was Wellcome's most recent Director/CEO?
British head of science-funding body Wellcome Trust is accused of a 'chilling' bid to stifle debate | Daily Mail Online and Jeremy Farrar: ‘I was too slow to tackle Wellcome research culture issues’ - Research Professional News
How does the Wellcome ReImagine Research Culture?
The Wellcome's positive approach to driving research culture change (see exhibit 1 and 2), seems to have devolved into a top-down attitude of willful blindness to workplace bullying, harassment, retaliation, and victimisation at institutions/universities they fund (see exhibit 3, 4, 5 and 6). For example, Welcome reported having received 39 allegations of bullying/harassment relating to organizations it had funded from May 2018 to September 2021 and that it had applied sanctions in only 7 (18%) of those cases (see Bullied abroad: how foreign researchers can fight back (nature.com))
Exhibit 1: In August 2018, Wellcome pulled a 3.5 million grant from Nazneen Rahman. Read The ICR Scandals | LinkedIn and Top cancer scientist loses ￡3.5m of funding after bullying claims | Cancer research | The Guardian
Exhibit 2: In December 2021, Robin Bisson reported on the Fiona Watt whistleblowing case outcome - Bullying probe sees MRC chief blocked from Wellcome grants - Research Professional News
Exhibit 3: In November 2018, Wellcome Sanger Institute whistleblowers disputed findings that cleared management of bullying. Their calls for an independent investigation have been ignored. The Sanger Scandal | LinkedIn tells the story of 12 brave whistleblowers who challenged the management team at the Wellcome Sanger Institute, an ‘ideas factory’, driven by a collective of imaginative scientists with a shared commitment and who work alongside each other, with a particular scientific culture.
Exhibit 4: In January 2020, the Wellcome became aware of a high-profile bullying, harassment and victimization case. On 5 March 2020, Wellcome's Director of Research Funding Alyson Fox stated "We have now had the opportunity to review the actions taken by the Crick regarding your complaints, and the reports of the two investigations undertaken. We are assured that the Crick has acted in accordance with the expectations of institutions in our Bullying and Harassment policy, and consider that the recommended actions from these investigations appear reasonable and proportionate.? We therefore do not propose to take further action against the Crick or Dr Kassiotis." In December 2021, the The Francis Crick Institute paid a six-digit settlement to the woman whistleblower after an over three year long legal battle of attrition. Read Whistleblowing at the Francis Crick Institute | LinkedIn for a full account.
Exhibit 5: Wellcome refused to share how many high-profile bullying cases they have been informed of and how they dealt with them in the past 5 years. In their response to me, Wellcome's Chief Legal Officer, Chris Bird, stated on 22 April 2021 that "Wellcome?is not a public authority and therefore?does not fall within the remit of the Freedom of Information Act. ... In responding to you I note that?your?own?deliberate?and continued?targeting of our staff?and Board members?through their personal social media accounts?itself?meets any reasonable definition of bullying and?harassment" So be careful when you address toxic research environments with Wellcome staff in public or via Twitter/LinkedIn.
Of note, the annual release of such information is one of the seven principles to accelerate research culture change advanced by Jackie Hunter et al in August 2020 Seven principles to change the UK’s research culture | Times Higher Education (THE)
Exhibit 6: In October 2021, Nature's Linda Nordling reported that Stephen Gordon, Head of Wellcome-funded Malawi health project investigated for bullying (nature.com). The programme’s director has resumed his post after being investigated — but some staff are not happy with the way the case was handled
The actions of the Wellcome Trust are concerning, considering that over 4,000 researchers who responded to Wellcome's 2020 Research Culture survey say that funding bodies have the highest responsibility to drive research culture change after the failing research institutions (e.g., universities) that regularly act to cover up things that may bring reputational risk to them (e.g., mishandling of investigations into complaints of bullying, harassment and victimization). The Wellcome's failure to stop thousands of cover ups at UK universities loses millions of research funding dollars and drives 36% of researchers into mental health issues. See The Past, Present and Future of Research Culture | LinkedIn
How does the Wellcome ReImagine the Work Week?
Wellcome Trust drops plans to trial four-day working week | UK news | The Guardian-“After extensive internal consultation on whether we should trial the four-day week, we have concluded that it is too operationally complex to implement. We have learned a lot through our consultation process and, although we will not be trialling a four-day week, we remain committed to maximising the impact Wellcome can make in the world through supporting the wellbeing and productivity of our staff” said Ed Whiting, the director of policy and chief of staff.
How does Wellcome ReImagine Climate Change?
Since 2014, thousands of people have petitioned the Wellcome Trust to Divest from fossil fuels. The foundation has defied more than 236,000 campaigners to increase fossil fuel investment, and analysis suggest the the Wellcome would have been ￡238 million better off had it divested from fossil fuels in 2012. However, the foundation's position remains unchanged in 2020. Read Climate Action | LinkedIn and How Wellcome’s opaque fossil fuel investments harm its global health mission | The BMJ
How much does the Wellcome Trust invest into science?
The Wellcome only invested 3.3% of their billions into science in the fiscal year of 2018-2019. The remainder of 96.7% of Wellcome Trust's investments were outside of science. This casts a doubt on whether it is really a research charity as even most pharmaceutical companies invest between 10 - 20 % of their investment assets into research and development. In contrast the Gates Foundation, which is the Wellcome Trust's only competitor in terms of size for a Research Foundation invests 10% of global health, nearly triple that of what the Wellcome invested into science in the same period. Finally, 5% of the Wellcome's meager science funding went to International Universities.
How does the Wellcome Trust grow it's portfolio?
The Wellcome Trust grew its ￡26.8bn (€31.5bn) assets portfolio in 2018 by investing into public equities (55.5%), private equity (27.7%), health (11%) hedge funds (9.5%), and property (8.1%) that includes a student accommodation business (2). See Private research funders court controversy with billions in secretive investments | Science | AAAS and Covid-19, trust, and Wellcome: how charity’s pharma investments overlap with its research efforts | The BMJ
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How many of Wellcome Trust's biggest public equity holdings are in health?
As at 30 September 2019, only 4 of the Wellcome Trust's 34 biggest public equity holdings are in health. As at 30 September 2020, Wellcome's major public equity holdings included companies with a shameful history of illegal activities and or human rights abuses such as: Rio Tinto: A Shameful History of Human and Labour Rights Abuses And Environmental Degradation Around the Globe - London Mining Network or JPMorgan Chase to pay nearly $1 billion in illegal trading settlement - The Washington Post. See Directly held public equity holdings (wellcome.org) for most recent major equity holdings and
Is the Wellcome keeping to its stewardship code?
The currency betting and investment in JP Morgan does not suggest transparent and consistent stewardship by the Wellcome as illustrated by it's investment in JPMorgan that is accused of ignoring human rights, engaging in offshore investment and supporting lender sharks. For example, the Wellcome has defended investing into the lender shark Wonga. See MP forces Wellcome Trust to justify Wonga investment (civilsociety.co.uk) and Wonga poached Wellcome Trust manager after ￡73m investment | Wonga | The Guardian
How much do Wellcome's Governors earn for board meeting attendance(s)?
The Wellcome Trust Charity Governors cost nearly 1 million each year with most earning 5 to 6 digit figures for their services to the Wellcome Trust. For example, in 2017, the Wellcome Trust Chair and Deputy Chair earned ￡142k and ￡107k respectively, with other governors paid between ￡35,527 and ￡70,839 a year. See Eighteen top 100 charities pay trustees, finds research (civilsociety.co.uk) and HEPI asks: is it time for university governors to be paid? - HEPI
Is there a gender pay gap at the Wellcome Trust?
In 2018, The Guardian reported that Women working for Wellcome Trust ‘earn 21% less than men’ on average | Equal pay | The Guardian
On 5 April 2023, Wellcome had a gender gap in median pay of 16.2%. This is wider than the UK average, reported as 14.3% in 2023 by the Office for National Statistics (ONS). Wellcome gender gap in mean pay was 21.4% Wellcome gender and ethnicity pay gaps | Reports | Wellcome
Racism at the Wellcome Trust
Does the Wellcome Trust ask for charitable donations?
Yes. COVID-Zero
How is Wellcome tackling inequities in funding?
By 2031?Wellcome will be an inclusive employer, an inclusive funder, and our work and all the activities we fund will be inclusive in design and practice. How we’re putting culture, diversity and inclusion at the heart of our strategy | Wellcome. In 2022, We created a library to help address inequities in funding | News | Wellcome. In 2023, Jimmy Volmink | Who we are | Wellcome joined Wellcome as Chief Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Officer and leads their work to become an inclusive funder. He works in partnership with the whole executive leadership team to support Wellcome in becoming an inclusive employer. In 2024, We’re launching targeted funding for researchers of Black, Bangladeshi and Pakistani heritage in the UK | News | Wellcome and Wellcome launches ￡20 million in funding for Black, Bangladeshi and Pakistani researchers in the UK?| News | Wellcome. See also Diversity and inclusion | Wellcome
What is Wellcome's approach to IP and translation?
In most cases, Wellcome apply a simple flat rate of 25% revenue and equity share for commercialisation of outputs resulting from standard grants. Under new arrangements, any university that generates revenue from translation can apply to keep Wellcome's share to support new translational activities in their organisation, or to improve equitable access. See Intellectual property and translation - our approach - Grant Funding | Wellcome
Wellcome 2024 Annual Presentation
Highlights:
1) ESG Responsibility at Wellcome. In 2024, we will begin a three-year action plan to progress toward becoming anti-ableist
2) Allocation of 2022/23 charitable spending of ￡1.7 billion from lowest to highest (Mental Health, Wellcome Leap, Climate and Health, Cross-mission activity, Infectious Disease, Discovery Research)
References
Relevant readings