Oral Presentation Australian and New Zealand Stroke Organisation Conference 2025

Stroke research funding versus burden of disease (World Stroke Organisation funded STARBUD Project) (123083)

Rita Krishnamurthi 1 , Shabnam Jalili-Moghaddam 1 , Juan P Saa Arancibia 2 , Valery L Feigin 1 , Catarina Fonseca 3 , Peter Rothwell 4 , Sarah Pendlebury 5 6 , Julie Bernhardt 7 8
  1. National Institute for Stroke and Applied Neurosciences, AUT University, Auckland, New Zealand
  2. Florey Institute of Neuroscience (Austin Site), La Trobe University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
  3. Department of Neurology, Hospital de Santa Maria, Faculty of Medicine, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal
  4. Wolfson  Centre for Prevention of Stroke and Dementia, Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom
  5. Wolfson  Centre for Prevention of Stroke and Dementia, Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom
  6. Departments of Medicine and Gerontology, Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and NIHR Oxford Biomedical Research Centre, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom
  7. Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
  8. On behalf of the Research Team, STARBUD, World Stroke Organisation

Background. Spending on research can shape new discoveries and care but is rarely allocated based on agreed priorities and needs. We aimed to compare recent estimates of the funding allocated to stroke, heart disease and cancer, and to examine research spending relative to burden of disease.

Methods. International collaborators from each region of the world were approached to identify research funding data in their country for stroke, heart disease and cancer in the 2018-2019 (pre-pandemic) period. We obtained the number of grants and total funding in each disease category. The overall results were divided into fellowship or project funding allocated. Disease burden data was extracted from GBD-2019.  

Results. Funding information was received from >100 agencies, representing 25 countries.  Limited data were available from low-income countries. Total funding was 13.47 (59%) billion USD for cancer, 7.08 (31%) for heart disease, and 2.29 (10%) for stroke. Project funding was 64%, 27%, and 9% for heart disease, cancer and stroke, respectively. Of 63,428 projects funded, only 6,261 were for stroke. USA received the highest amount of funding, and the largest number of projects. Limited information available from six countries showed stroke received 10.6% of the total USD 251 million fellowship funding, and 118 (8.9%) fellowships.  GBD 2019 data showed that stroke represented 22% of the burden of the three diseases combined. 

Conclusion. Our findings show that stroke research remains considerably underfunded despite its high burden.  The study provides updated evidence for policy-makers to better fund stroke research to ultimately reduce stroke burden.