Aim 6: Developing our organisation

To use our resources efficiently and effectively

Progress 2007/2008

During the third year of the Plan we:

appointed Baroness Eliza Manningham-Buller to the Trust's Board of Governors; four other new members also joined the Board who were appointed during 2006/2007 (Kay Davies, Chris Fairburn, Rod Kent and Peter Rigby)
embedded a new organisational structure in order to maximise the effectiveness of our grant-making and grant-management activities
developed and refined our investments strategies in order to maximise the funding we have been able to provide to biomedical research
launched the new-look Wellcome Trust corporate website in order to serve our key audiences more effectively
developed new work to evaluate the impact of our funding, including commissioning a study to measure the economic returns from research in partnership with the Medical Research Council and the Academy of Medical Sciences
secured extensive positive coverage in the media for the work of the Wellcome Trust and Wellcome Collection.

During 2008/2009 we intend to:

continue to actively develop our investments strategies in order to maximise returns in the face of turbulent global market conditions
develop our staff in light of our activities and priorities - including our growing international focus - continually ensuring that we have the skill sets we need to deliver our charitable mission
develop our information technology strategies in order to enhance our internal efficiency and service provision
maximise the use of new web and other communication technologies in order to engage audiences in the work of the Trust and with biomedicine more broadly
strengthen and expand the assessment and evaluation of our funded research, including through new approaches to examining different areas of our scientific portfolio
expand our work with local communities in the Camden area
review formally our progress in implementing our current Strategic Plan, and begin work on a new five-year Plan for the period from 2010 to 2015.

The Wellcome Trust's ‘Annual Report and Financial Statements 2008’ provides details of our investments and expenditure for the 2007/2008 financial year:
* the value of the Wellcome Trust's net investment base was £13.1 billion on 30 September 2008 (falling from £15.1 billion on 30 September 2007)
* our charitable expenditure for 2007/2008 was £702 million (compared with an expenditure of £520 million in 2006/2007)
* our support and governance expenditure for 2007/2008 was £44 million (compared to £47 million in 2006/2007).