London Economics were commissioned to assess the economic impact of the Cancer Research UK Scotland Institute (formerly Beatson Institute) and the University of Glasgow’s School of Cancer Sciences (SCS) in the United Kingdom. Working in close collaboration, the CRUK Scotland Institute and the School of Cancer Sciences constitute the core cancer research institutions in the West of Scotland, providing world-leading academic and clinical expertise that is deeply rooted within the region and responds to the specific health needs and challenges of its population. To capture the economic impact associated with the institutions’ activities (focusing on the 2021-22 financial year1), we estimate the economic contribution associated with the SCS’s and the CRUK Scotland Institute’s wide-ranging cancer research activities, their operating and capital expenditures, and their teaching and learning activities.
The report outlines some of the regional factors that have influenced the two institutions’ approaches to cancer research. Key among these are the size and composition of the patient base in the West of Scotland. As well as accounting for around half of Scotland’s patient base, the region has some of the most deprived communities in the country according to the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation and has been marked historically by the existence of stark inequalities, particularly in relation to health outcomes. These disparities are also evident in cancer incidence and outcome statistics: a person living in the most deprived areas of Scotland is 30% more likely to develop cancer than someone living in the least deprived areas, and 74% more likely to die from cancer compared with the least deprived2. Cancer is the most common cause of death, and of premature death, in Scotland, with four sites, lung, breast, prostate, and colorectal, accounting for approximately half of all cases and deaths. Scotland experiences higher rates of cancer incidence and mortality than the rest of the UK, with the burden particularly high in the West of Scotland3. In response to these regional drivers, Glasgow has established itself as a key location for the operation of clinical trials, the translation of research for patient benefit and the testing of cancer prevention strategies, particularly for cancer types that are at a high incidence among the Scottish population. These factors have also strongly influenced the development of cancer research within the West of Scotland, which is characterised by a patient-centred approach to science developed in partnership with stakeholders such as the NHS, that reflects the region’s unique health challenges and patient base.
Excellence is a further feature of cancer research within the region. One of the report’s key headlines is the extent to which the two institutions’ research is responsible for the economic impact that they generate collectively, underpinned by the high-quality research environment in which they operate. The Beatson Institute built a reputation for the strength of its basic cancer research and the University of Glasgow was assessed as being one of the top institutions in the UK for Clinical Medicine in the most recent Research Excellence Framework (REF) results. The University’s College of Medical, Veterinary and Life Sciences – home of the School of Cancer Sciences – is investing significantly in its existing strengths as well as in relatively new areas, such as spatial biology, which will ensure that it continues to be at forefront of life sciences research internationally.
The University of Glasgow also has one of the broadest research bases of any university in the UK, marked by its excellence across a range of disciplines and its role as one of only two Russell Group universities in Scotland. This depth and breadth of expertise enables it to take a whole-systems approach to addressing socioeconomic inequalities and poor health outcomes within the Glasgow City Region, Scotland and beyond. Such an approach reflects the University’s civic mission, which aims to ensure that the institution’s research strengths deliver benefits for the region’s patients, communities and the wider economy.
The strength of this commitment is evidenced by the significant investments that the University has made in its research infrastructure and environment. Two recent major investments that highlight this are the Mazumdar-Shaw Advanced Research Centre (ARC) and the Clarice Pears Building:
- The £116.5 million ARC opened in 2022 and brings together researchers and ideas from a variety of disciplines and sectors. Initially, this is focused on five thematic areas: Creative Economies and Cultural Transformation; Digital Chemistry; Global Sustainable Development; Quantum and Nanotechnology; and Technology Touching Life. Through this cross-disciplinary approach, the University is enabling transformational programmes of innovative research, which have the potential to deliver a high level of societal and global impact. In the life sciences, researchers from the University’s School of Cancer Sciences are collaborating with world-leading academics within the Digital Chemistry team in the ARC to co-develop new approaches to drug development for complex diseases like cancer.
- The Clarice Pears Building, opened in 2023, brings together researchers from the University’s School of Health & Wellbeing with social scientists, economists and experts from across the University to better understand health outcomes and inequalities. The building has also been designed to facilitate community engagement and partnership working, which will support the translation of health-focused research into policy and practice. The work being done within the ClaricePears Building forms part of the University’s wider cross-institutional focus on addressing the most pressing health inequalities across the globe. The report also showcases the region’s capacity for innovation and the impact this could have onGlasgow City Region’s economy. This innovative capability was most effectively demonstrated during the COVID-19 pandemic through the rapid establishment of theGlasgow Lighthouse Lab in April 2020, Scotland’s only mass-scale testing lab. The report provides examples of how this legacy is being built upon, through projects such as INCISE which is part of the £100 million UK Innovation Accelerator Programme announced in the Levelling Up White Paper, and the McNab Centre for Cancer Innovation.
Finally, the importance of partnership and collaboration features strongly in the report. This is most clearly symbolised by the close and effective working relationship between the University of Glasgow’s School of Cancer Sciences and the CRUK Scotland Institute, but the report also highlights the extent to which the region’s academics, clinicians and industry partners collaborate to drive improvements in prevention, diagnosis and treatment options for the benefit of cancer patients in Glasgow and beyond. Furthermore, the report highlights examples of collaboration between these two institutions with academic partners and supporters across the UK and internationally, via for example the Cancer Research UK Scotland Centre, which is co-creating innovative new approaches to cancer research and catalysing opportunities for knowledge exchange between world-class scientists.
References
- The CRUK Scotland Institute’s financial year 2021-22 ran from April 2021 to March 2022. The School of Cancer Sciences’ financial year matches the University of Glasgow’s academic year (August to July), but data for the School of Cancer Sciences was apportioned across the 2020-21 and 2021-22 academic years for consistency, to match the CRUK Scotland Institute’s financial year.
- Scottish Government Cancer strategy 2023 to 2033
- Glover, M., Buxton, M., Guthrie, S., Hanney, S., Pollitt, A., & Grant, J. (2014).
The aggregate economic impact of the CRUK Scotland Institute and the School of Cancer Sciences
The total economic impact on the UK economy associated with the CRUK Scotland Institute’s and the School of Cancer Sciences’ activities in 2021-22 was estimated at approximately £503 million (see Table 1). Of this total, the impact generated by the operating and capital spending of the CRUK Scotland Institute and the School of Cancer Sciences stood at £77 million (15%); the impact of the institutions’ research activities stood at £407 million (81%); and the economic contribution of the institutions’ teaching and learning activities stood at £19 million (4%).
TABLE 1 Total economic impact of the CRUK Scotland Institute’s and the School of Cancer Sciences’ activities in the UK in 2021-22 (£m and % of total)
| Type of impact | £m | % |
| Impact of expenditure | £77m | 15% |
| Direct impact | £50m | 10% |
| Indirect and induced impacts | £27m | 5% |
| Impact of research | £407m | 81% |
| Net direct research impact | £35m | 7% |
| Net QALY4 impact | £273m | 54% |
| Crowding-in impact | £99m | 20% |
| Impact of teaching and learning | £19m | 4% |
| Students | £9m | 2% |
| Exchequer | £10m | 2% |
| Total economic impact | £503m | 100% |
Note: All estimates are presented in 2021-22 prices and rounded to the nearest £1m. Totals may not add up precisely due to rounding. Source: London Economics’ analysis
Compared to the CRUK Scotland Institute’s and School of Cancer Sciences’ total operational costs of approximately £51 million in 2021-225, the total impact of the institutions’ activities on the UK economy was estimated at £503 million, which corresponds to a benefit to cost ratio of 9.8:1.
References
- Quality-adjusted life years
- This relates to the operating expenditures of the CRUK Scotland Institute and School of Cancer Sciences, including depreciation costs and movements in pension provisions.
The impact of the institutions’ expenditure
The institutions’ physical footprint supports jobs and promotes economic growth throughout the UK economy. This is captured by the direct, indirect, and induced impact associated with the CRUK Scotland Institute’s and the SCS’s expenditures.
The direct impact of the institutions’ physical footprint was based on their operating and capital expenditures. In 2021-22 the CRUK Scotland Institute and School of Cancer Sciences incurred a total of £50 million of expenditure6. The direct increase in economic activity resulting from these expenditures generates additional rounds of spending throughout the economy (through the institutions’ supply chains, and the spending of their staff). Applying relevant economic multipliers, the total direct, indirect, and induced impact associated with the expenditures of the CRUK Scotland Institute and School of Cancer Sciences in 2021-22 was estimated at £77 million. The majority of this impact (£56 million, 73%) was accrued in Scotland, with £21 million (27%) occurring in other regions across the UK.
Figure 1 Impact associated with the CRUK Scotland Institute’s and the School of Cancer Sciences’ expenditure in 2021-22, £m
| Direct impact | Indirect and induced impact | Total |
|---|---|---|
| £50m | £27m | £77m |
Note: All estimates are presented in 2021-22 prices and rounded to the nearest £1m. Totals may not add up precisely due to rounding. Source: London Economics’ analysis.
References
- The total operational expenditure (excluding capital expenditure) of the CRUK Scotland Institute and the School of Cancer Sciences in 2021-22 stood at £51 million. From this, for the purpose of the analysis, we excluded £0.4 million in depreciation costs (from non-staff expenditure) and £1.6 million in movements in pension provisions (from staff expenditure), as it is assumed that these are not relevant from a procurement perspective (i.e., these costs are not accounted for as income by other organisations).
The impact of the institutions’ research
To estimate the (net) direct impact of the institutions’ research activities on the UK economy, we used the total research-related income accrued by the institutions in 2021-22 (£40 million), and deducted the costs to the public purse of funding their research activities (£5 million). This resulted in a net direct research impact of £35 million.
The existing academic literature indicates that investments in cancer research lead to improved patient outcomes through both improved treatment and prevention. These benefits can be quantified by estimating the impact on quality-adjusted life years (QALYs), which measure the additional life years gained from cancer research, adjusted for health-related quality of life. Applying estimates from the core existing literature7, our analysis implies a QALY multiplier of 8.78, which indicates that every £1 million of UK publicly funded or charity funded cancer research results in £8.78 million of future QALY benefits across the UK (net of the NHS treatment costs of delivering the improved health outcomes). Applying this multiplier to the CRUK Scotland Institute’s and the School of Cancer Sciences’ research income, we estimate that the future net QALY benefits of this research throughout the UK stand at approximately £273 million.
Another strand of academic literature suggests that publicly funded and charity funded expenditure in research and development ‘crowds in’ additional private sector research funding. Using estimates derived from the key existing literature8, we estimate a monetary multiplier of 1.52, indicating that every £1 million of UK publicly funded or charity funded
cancer research results in an additional £1.52 million of privately funded cancer research. This multiplier was applied to the SCS’s and the CRUK Scotland Institute’s relevant research income, to estimate the privately funded cancer research that is ‘crowded in’ as a result of the institutions’ primary research. As with the institutions’ own expenditures, the additional crowded-in research activity is expected to generate additional indirect and induced economic impacts throughout the UK economy. Based on this approach, the total direct, indirect, and induced economic impact associated with this crowded-in R&D stands at £99 million.
Combining these effects, the total impact of the research conducted by the SCS and the CRUK Scotland Institute in 2021-22 was estimated at £407 million. Compared to the total research income received by the institutions in 2021-22 (£40 million), this suggests that for every £1 million of research income received, the institutions’ research activities generate a total of £10.2 million in economic impact across the UK.
Impact of the CRUK Scotland Institute’s and the School of Cancer Sciences’ research activities in 2021-22, £m
| Net direct research impact | £35m |
| Net QALY impact | £273m |
| Crowding-in impact | £99m |
| Total | 407m |
Note: All values are presented in 2021-22 prices, rounded to the nearest £1 million, and may not add up precisely to the total indicated. Source: London Economics’ analysis
References
- See Glover et al. (2014).
- See Sussex et al. (2016).
The impact of the institutions’ teaching and learning activities
The impact of the CRUK Scotland Institute’s and the School of Cancer Sciences’ teaching and learning activities estimates the enhanced employment and earnings benefits to graduates, and the additional taxation receipts to the Exchequer associated with the attainment of postgraduate research qualifications (i.e. Doctorate degrees) at the institutions.
Incorporating both the expected costs associated with qualification attainment and the labour market benefits expected to be accrued by students/graduates over their working lives, the analysis estimates that the net graduate premium achieved by a representative Scottish domiciled student in the 2021-22 cohort completing a full-time Doctorate degree at the SCS or the CRUK Scotland Institute (with a first degree as their highest level of prior attainment) stands at approximately £293,000 in today’s (i.e., 2021-22) money terms. Taking account of the benefits and costs to the public purse, the corresponding net Exchequer benefit was estimated at £344,000.
The net graduate premiums and net Exchequer benefits were combined with information on the number of students starting Doctorate degrees at the SCS and the Institute in 2021-22 and expected completion rates. The aggregate economic impact of the teaching and learning activities at the SCS and the CRUK Scotland Institute associated with the 2021-22 cohort of UK-domiciled student starters stands at approximately £19 million. Of this total, £9 million (46%) is accrued by students in the cohort, while the remaining £10 million (54%) is accrued by the Exchequer.
Table 2 Impact of the CRUK Scotland Institute’s and the School of Cancer Sciences’ teaching and learning activities associated with the 2021-22 cohort, £m
| Beneficiary | Full-time students | Part-time students | Total |
| Students | £8.7m | £0.3m | £8.9m |
| Exchequer | £10.1m | £0.3m | £10.4m |
| Total | £18.7m | £0.5m | £19.3m |
Note: All estimates are presented in 2021-22 prices, discounted to reflect net present values, rounded to the nearest £0.1m, and may not add up precisely to the totals indicated. Source: London Economics’ analysis