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A UK charity backing under-served health research

Duet Health Foundation
Health information

Research · 4 minute read

How health research gets funded — and what falls through the gap

Where research money comes from, why some good ideas never get supported, and the space Duet was created to fill.

Most health research in the UK is paid for by government research councils, the NHS, large medical charities or commercial companies. Each has its own priorities, and each has more applications than money.

Commercial funding follows a commercial return. If a condition affects very few people, or if the question is about making an existing medicine safer rather than selling a new one, the business case is weak even when the human case is strong.

Public funders tend to favour larger studies with established teams. Small, practical projects — a pilot test, a better patient leaflet, a training programme — often score badly even when they would help people quickly.

That gap is where Duet works. We look for projects that are useful, deliverable and unlikely to be funded elsewhere, and we back them with money and with hands-on experience.

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Duet is funded by our founders and by people who believe useful research should not stall for want of a modest amount of money. Every gift goes into projects.