The numbers behind the science: how biomedical research varies across the globe (Infographic)

The importance of global collaboration is the highlight of this issue, and for good reason. Research is driven by collaboration. Some of the world’s most pressing health issues are not limited to one geographical location, and so a global understanding of these issues is essential. One of the greatest public health successes ever achieved was the global eradication of smallpox in 1980. This incredible feat would not have been possible without the collaborative research effort conducted across the globe to develop safe and effective vaccines against the highly contagious disease.

Despite vast increases in the time and money that are spent on health research, solutions to some of the world’s greatest health problems are still lacking. The driving factor behind this discrepancy is a disparity in the global allocation of health research funding. Focusing specifically on biomedical research, funding varies drastically from continent to continent. Additionally, not all research topics are investigated to the same extent in all regions. Generally, in higher income regions, such as the Americas (North and South America) and Europe, funding is devoted to research on chronic illness and noncommunicable diseases. These are diseases that do not spread through infection and are not considered contagious. Meanwhile, lower income countries focus their research funding on communicable diseases, such as malaria, tuberculosis, and cholera. Without a common research focus across the globe, and discrepancies in research funding, how can we foster collaboration to look for answers to some of our most pressing issues? These are some of the global trends across the globe.

Disclaimer: The data presented here is based on biomedical research funding awarded in the form of grants, since grants are a major way that many research organizations obtain the funding necessary for their work, and most of this information is publicly reported. Evidently, this does not encapsulate all research being conducted, but serves to represent the majority of publicly funded research. For more information and additional measures of health research trends across the globe, check out the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Global Observatory on Health R&D. All data is presented in US Dollars

Quick facts:

In 2020, the total investment on grants for biomedical research worldwide amounted to just over $37 billion.
Low-income countries only received around 0.2% of all grants (equating to around $85 million)
- The majority of these low-income recipient countries were located in the World Health Organization’s Africa region ($83 million)
High income countries received over 98% of the funding, equating to approximately $36 billion.
- Of these high-income countries, North and South America received over $32 billion of grant funding (89% of all grant funding)
The top 3 grant recipient countries were the United States of America, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and Canada.
Overall, approximately 86% of all grants awarded for biomedical research were allocated to recipient organizations in the United States of America. Only 2.9% of the total amount was awarded to Canadian recipients.

Total amount spent in each region in 2020:

Total grant amount received = $37 billion
Americas = $32.995 billion
Africa = $298 million
Eastern Mediterranean = $20.3 million
Europe = $3.487 billion
South-East Asia = $80.1 million
Western Pacific = $118.9 million

Trends by research topic:

Looking at grant amounts by health category allows us to see what areas of biomedical research are most commonly being investigated across continents.

Globally, the greatest amount of grant funding is awarded to noncommunicable diseases, with over 68% of all funding being awarded to this area of research. This equates to roughly $21 billion of the total $37 billion awarded in 2020.

68.3% awarded to noncommunicable diseases (~$21.35 billion)
26.30% to communicable, maternal, perinatal, and nutritional conditions (~$8.223 billion)
4.31% to injuries (~$1.348 billion)
1.09% to other (~$339.6 million)

The most studied conditions were neuropsychiatric conditions, such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and other dementias.

The top 3 most awarded research topics globally were:

Neuropsychiatric conditions
Various cancers
Infectious and parasitic diseases

However, funding into different topics does vary from continent to continent:

Americas: the top 3 most awarded research topics are the same as the global trends. This is unsurprising, as the largest amount of grant funding is awarded to research conducted in the Americas.
- By disease/condition: Cancers, HIV/AIDS, Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias
Europe: Research funding trends shift in Europe. Again, the most awarded category was noncommunicable diseases overall, but the top 3 awarded categories were 1) infectious and parasitic diseases, 2) respiratory infections, and 3) neuropsychiatric conditions.
- By disease/condition: COVID-19, cancerous tumours, malaria
In South-East Asia (India, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Thailand, etc), there is a big shift in the type of research receiving funding. Overall, around 89% of all funding is awarded to communicable, maternal, perinatal and nutritional conditions, and only 11% went towards noncommunicable diseases.
- Top 3: 1) infectious and parasitic diseases, 2) respiratory infections, 3) nutritional deficiency
- By disease/condition: Diarrheal diseases (ex. cholera), COVID-19, HIV/AIDs
Africa: 88% of research funding goes towards communicable, maternal, perinatal, and nutritional conditions.
- By disease/condition: HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, COVID-19
Eastern Mediterranean: (Pakistan, Lebanon, Iran, Tunisia, Morrocco, etc.) 91% of funding is allocated to communicable, maternal, perinatal, and nutritional conditions – primarily, nutritional deficiency, respiratory infections, and infectious and parasitic diseases.
- By disease/condition: Nutritional disorders, COVID-19, Leishmaniasis
Western Pacific: (Australia, New Zealand, China, Korea, Japan, Singapore, etc.) 69.82% of funding is allocated to communicable, maternal, perinatal and nutritional conditions.
- By disease/condition: COVID-19, dengue, malaria

Trends by research personnel: where are the majority of biomedical researchers located?

Scientific capacity of a particular region can be broadly represented by the number of health researchers located in that region. Using this measure, the scientific capacity varies significantly between countries. Notably, the WHO European region has over 12 times more full-time health researchers per million inhabitants (244) compared to the WHO African region (20).

Percentage of female health researchers in different regions: