£260.3 Millon Of TAX Payers Money Granted To Research Involving Animals

£260.3 MILLION OF TAX PAYERS MONEY GRANTED TO RESEARCH INVOLVING ANIMALS IN 2025.

UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) is a publicly funded organisation comprising nine councils and bodies that can grant funding for research.

Our Freedom of Information (FOI) requests have revealed the staggering sums awarded to research involving animals.

Our FOI also revealed that the MRc also grants funds to its own institutes, units and centres. The amounts are staggering: £95 million spent in 2023/24, £99.1 million in 2024/25 and another £95 million in 2025/26. That’s £289.1 million over just three financial years.

For 2025 when added to the headline £260.3 million figure taxpayers money is funding in total a staggering £355.3 million to research involving animals. Is this how you want your money to be spent?

These figures only form part of the picture as they cover UKRI alone. Other public bodies may also fund research involving animals.

Getting this information was a battle. UKRI initially withheld dog specific information under the health and safety exemption. Following a victory at the First-tier Tribunal, we continued pressing for answers until we obtained full disclosure.

FOLLOW THE MONEY.

While hundreds of millions are awarded to research involving animals, the National Centre for the 3Rs (NC3Rs) receives on average just £9.5 million annually to support Replacement, Reduction and Refinement. Only part of that funding, likely about one third, goes towards actual replacement of animals in research and that includes replacing one species with another.

The Government has pledged to phase out animal testing, yet the funding tells a very different story. £260.3M awarded to research involving animals by just ONE public body in 2025, compared with the £60M allocated to the phase out strategy. The imbalance is shocking and deeply disappointing.

How can the Government expect its strategy to become reality when the funding committed to phasing out cruel and outdated animal testing is a mere fraction of the sums awarded to research that continues to use animals?

Without a fundamental shift in funding priorities, the government strategy appears to be nothing more than a public relations exercise rather than a credible plan for change.

READ OUR FULL INVESTIGATION, including previous years’ figures, on https://thecampbeagle.substack.com/

TOMORROW we will be publishing a breakdown of the specific amounts granted for research involving dogs and monkeys.