Written question asked by Alex Mayer (Labour) on Friday, 28 August 2026, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Wednesday, 2 September 2026. It was answered by Chris McDonald (Labour) on Monday, 7 September 2026 on behalf of the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade.

Research: Finance

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade, what estimate his Department has made of the total amount of public funding allocated to the development, validation and uptake of human-specific research methods each year between 2020-2025.

Answer: UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) invests in a range of human-specific research that does not rely on animal studies. Many studies developing and using human-specific and alternative methods are classified as basic research, so any funding values given would be an underestimate. Examples include the Medical Research Council’s Experimental Medicine programme, a £15 million UKRI, NC3Rs and Wellcome funding call for novel human in vitro models of complex disease, and an £18 million Experimental Medicine funding call on neurodegeneration. Between 2020 and 2025, UKRI also invested approximately £10 million annually in the National Centre for the Replacement, Refinement and Reduction of Animals in Research.

Secondary information

Type: Written question
Reference: 23680
Session: 2026-27
Related items: Animal Experiments
Thursday, 17 September 2026
Written questions
House of Commons
Subjects: Finance Research
Contains statistics: Yes
Link: View this Written question on www.parliament.uk