The UK has a vibrant charity sector which includes many organisations whose primary interest is medical research and many others which may primarily act as support or service providers but which also have an interest in medical and/or healthcare research. Much of the money they disburse as grants is raised by public donation.

According to the Association of Medical Research Charities, these organisations have contributed over £3.25 billion to research in the UK over the last 5 years. There are some very significant charitable funders - notably the Wellcome Trust which gives away about £450 million a year to fund research - and a very large number of smaller, often disease-specific charities with more modest budgets.

As well as making grants, some of the larger charities also run thier own Research Institutes and employ their own scientific research staff. For example Cancer Research UK have four Research Institutes in London, Cambridge, Glasgow and Manchester.

Over a hundred medical research charities, both large and small, are represented by the umbrella body, the Association of Medical Research Charities. Their website provides links to the websites of each individual charity as well as an online funding guide on what their members fund.