LONDON - The Wellcome Trust, the world's richest biomedical charity, will boost spending on research to #600 million (US$862 million) per annum over the next five years, almost double what it has spent in the past five.

Most of this will be spent in the UK, where more than 85 percent of the trust's research funding currently is based.

The funding details were disclosed in the first corporate plan the trust published since its foundation in 1936. The plan marks a coming of age for the trust, which, despite its dominant role in the funding of research in the UK, has never made a formal public statement of its aims and objectives.

In the past 10 years the Wellcome Trust's asset base has grown dramatically - from #3 billion in 1990 to #15 billion in 2000. It currently is spending #1.5 million a day, up from #1 million per week in 1990.

Director Mike Dexter said the trust had gone through a period of unprecedented growth. "Today our expenditure is projected to rise at a more predictable rate, heralding a period of managed growth and development."

As a result, the trust has spent the past year assessing its activities to define spending priorities. "This has led us to take a long hard look at what we are doing, what we are aiming to achieve, and how best to get there," Dexter said.

Four main aims are set out in the corporate plan: funding clinical, patient-oriented research; increasing public understanding of the importance of biomedical research; translating basic research findings into commercial applications that lead to health benefits; and supporting the development of physical infrastructure and training researchers.

Dexter said the trust needs to modernize its governance and operations, and provide direction and leadership to meet the challenges of the 21st century in biomedical science. "This plan is a vital map guiding us toward that destination."

Of the #3 billion it intends to spend over the next five years, #1.2 billion will go to baseline research, #300 million on the Wellcome Trust Genome Campus, #270 million to respond to emerging research opportunities, and #570 million will be spent on building projects, including the construction of a new synchrotron.