Epilepsy Research UK is a member of the Association of Medical Research Charities (AMRC), which brings together the leading medical and health research charities in the UK.

The AMRC has recently analysed the research supported by 29 of their medium and smaller sized members during the financial year 2004/2005. They looked at which medical conditions the funds were used to support, and also what sort of research (e.g. understanding a disease, developing a treatment, analysing health costs) was funded.

All Epilepsy Research UK's funds that year (amounting to £179,000) were spent within the category of neurological research, which accounted for 13.4% of the total funding in the report. The most funded condition was cancer, to which a quarter of all funds was allocated.

See how neurological research compared to cancer, stroke and other conditions

In 2004/2005, Epilepsy Research UK allocated nearly three quarters of its funding to research into the causes of epilepsy. Twenty-one percent of our funding was invested in researching better detection and diagnosis of epilepsy, with the remaining 7% spent on developing treatments.

See how Epilepsy Research UK divided its research spend for the year

The wider picture from all funders in the report is quite different, as it includes research into health services, prevention of disease, and evaluating treatments.

See how all participating charities divided their research spends for the year

These differences are due in part to the differences between medical conditions themselves. In epilepsy, for example, we have much to learn about the basic workings of the brain and what can go wrong and cause seizures, so much of Epilepsy Research UK's funding is spent here. In other conditions, this may be less of a priority. The differences are also due to the fact that some types of research are more expensive than others (for example, evaluating treatments) so Epilepsy Research UK has been unable to support much research of this type. Bigger charities than us can do this.

The full report is available from the AMRC's website here. It
was produced in collaboration with the UK Clinical Research Collaboration.

This analysis uses exactly the same criteria as a major review of funding by the 11 largest charity and government funders of medical research in the UK, published in May 2006.