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Finance

How we are funded

The IFS is non-profit and non-political and receives funding from arrange of sources, including the Economic and Social Research Council, UK Government departments, foundations, the European Research Council, international organisations, companies and other non-profit organisations. Funding is received either for specific research projects or via our two ESRC research centres, the Centre for the Microeconomic Analysis of Public Policy and the Centre for Microdata Methods and Practice. We would never accept funding for a research project - or indeed funding of any kind - that relies on a specific result being found or that compromises our independence and neutrality.

 
 

In 2017 IFS received the highest ratings for transparency in information made public about funding, from Who Funds You? (rated A) and Transparify (rated 5 stars). More details about these ratings can be found on the Who Funds You? website.

The majority of IFS income goes directly to specific research projects. Below is a list showing income from individual funders for projects current in 2015. The first column shows income specifically for 2015; the second shows all income raised for current projects, many of which span several years.
Download a list of detailing all current projects and associated income.

Project and Centre funding

Funder 2015 grants (£)
3ie 23,470
Adam Smith International 14,392
AFD-Hewlett-IRD 4,996
AXA 34,097
Bernard Van Leer Foundation 10,300
British Academy 13,502
Children's Investment Fund Foundation 76,173
Department for International Development (via OPM) 88,276
Department for Work and Pensions 101,845
Economic and Social Research Institute 198,185
Education Endowment Foundation 166,710
European Commission 58,616
European Research Council 132,899
Evidence Action 6,398
Financial Conduct Authority 5,922
Grand Challenges Canada (via University of the West Indies) 7,352
Growth and Labour Markets in Low Income Countries Programme 61,993
Health Foundation 67,675
Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales 36,479
Joseph Rowntree Foundation 109,352
London School of Economics and Political Science 14,760
Medical Research Council (via Bangor University) 3,521
Michigan Retirement Research Center 21,282
National Insistutes of Health (via Pennsylvania State University) 5,489
National Institute on Ageing (via UCL) 39,968
Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission 2,235
Nuffield Foundation 178,759
Office of the First Minister and Deputy First Minister 54,819
Private Enterprise Development in Low-Income Count 57,189
Public Economics UK 3,000
Research Council of Norway 19,522
Research Councils UK 27,048
Retirement Savings Consortium (2015-2017) 20,166
Royal Economic Society 4,000
Save the Children Fund 8,382
Trust for London 66,345
Universities UK 75,738
WASTE 12,217
WaterAid 209,864
Welsh Government 16,337
World Bank-SIEF 21,092

 

The Institute also generates a small contribution to its overall costs from its members (1.4%) including corporate members (1%), publication of the Institute’s quarterly journal, Fiscal Studies (0.6%), and its events programme (1.3%).

Corporate members

We are grateful to all of our members for helping to support the work that we do. Please note that none of our publications necessarily reflect the views of any of the below members.

£1,000 - £10,000

Bank of England
BP International Ltd
Chartered Institute of Public Finance & Accountancy, CIPFA
Chartered Institute of Taxation (CIOT)
Confederation of British Industry
Deloitte LLP
Elliot Advisors (UK) Ltd
Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP
Frontier Economics
GE International Inc
Gibson, Dunn and Crutcher
Grant Thornton
HM Revenue and Customs
HM Treasury
HSBC Holdings Plc
KPMG
Lane Clark & Peacock
Lloyds Bank
Mercer
Pension and lifetime Savings Association
Pricewaterhouse Coopers
RELX Group
Shell
Standard Life
The Russell Group
Universities UK
Wellington Management International Ltd
Zurich Financial Services

>£100 - £1,000

Age UK
Treasury Comittee
House of Commons Library
John Swire & Sons Ltd
Investment Management Association
Office for National Statistics
Rexam Plc
Tax Incentivised Savings Association (TISA)
The Tax Faculty, ICAEW
Travers Smith LLP

Annual reports and accounts