funding

The Science Media Centre’s funding model is designed to reflect its position as an independent press office that is not linked to any specific institution or institutional agenda.  As such the Centre seeks donations from a wide variety of organisations with an interest in the accurate reporting of science and engineering in the media. We have over 100 funders including scientific bodies, science-based companies, science publishers, universities, patient research charities, media organisations, research funders and government. See below for the list.

The Centre is independent from its funders who do not gain influence over the SMC’s work in return for their financial support. To protect the Centre from any undue influence the SMC caps contributions from any one institution at 5% of prior year income. The SMC’s Trustees and Advisory Group have agreed on two exceptions to the 5% upper limit: the Wellcome Trust and UK Research and Innovation (UKRI). UKRI’s contribution is over the 5% cap as this represents the consolidated amounts from several Research Councils which is now paid via the umbrella organisation set up in 2019.

A central principle of the SMC’s funding model is the clear separation between funding and editorial decisions on our content. All decisions about which media stories the Centre responds to, which new scientific findings we seek third party comments on, and which press briefings we run, are made entirely in line with our charitable objectives around improving the public understanding of science and engineering by making it easier for the news media to access the best expertise. Our decisions on strategy and focus are made by the senior management team with regular oversight from our Board of Trustees and our Advisory Group. It is made clear to every organisation funding the Centre that they get no influence over our editorial decisions in return for a donation.

A copy of our annual report and accounts (2023-24) can be found here.

The total income for the Science Media Centre for 2023-24 was £784,201. The upper limit for donations for 2024-25 is £40,000.

Current Funders

We are extremely grateful to all our generous funders – thank you for supporting our work.

List last updated: Aug 2026

You can find a full list of our previous funders here