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UK corporate contributions

GlaxoSmithKline makes charitable donations in the United Kingdom through its Corporate Contributions Committee. Its principal areas of focus are: healthcare, science education and medical research, the arts and the environment.

Healthcare

The annual GSK IMPACT awards - Rewarding excellence in Community Healthcare
The IMPACT awards are an annual funding scheme, supported by GlaxoSmithKline as part of the company’s commitment to promote community health and well-being. The awards are organised and managed in partnership with the King’s Fund, a leading independent health charity working to improve health and social care. The IMPACT awards are designed to recognise and reward excellence amongst small-to-medium sized voluntary organisations whose work has made a significant impact on the health of their target communities.

Find out more about the IMPACT awards and this year’s winners.

British Red Cross – Gateway options for independence
GSK has supported The British Red Cross since 2001 to devise and trial a model of service, to help young adults with physical disabilities to transition from adolescence to independent living as an adult.

Over the last three years, the Gateway Centre in Irvine, Scotland has made significant and permanent changes to the quality of young people’s lives, developing individually tailored life plans to increase their self-confidence and independence. In addition to the residential aspect of the project, the Centre is also used as a day service by more than 150 young people each year, who benefit from the support of care professionals.

These young people are gradually building the confidence and the skills to integrate successfully into the community and build new lives for themselves. Over the next three years, GSK is supporting The British Red Cross to expand the existing Gateway service beyond the base in Irvine and ultimately produce a model to introduce at a national level.

Science education and medical research
A strong science base, high quality science education and medical research are crucial to the pharmaceutical and life science sector. Working closely with the education, academic and research communities GlaxoSmithKline aims to support the advancement of knowledge and the education of the next generation of scientists.

Current programmes include an annual scheme that has seen £6 million awarded to over 65 medical research projects in the last 13 years. Under the scheme, a small number of charities are invited to apply each year. In 2005 funding was awarded to the Alzheimer’s Research Trust, British Liver Trust, Samantha Dickson Research Trust and Spencer Dayman Meningitis UK. The awards make a significant difference to the on-going work of vital projects and facilitate new medical advances into life threatening diseases.

As part of its drive to equip and motivate young people to take up careers in science GSK has donated £1 million to a government, industry and higher education partnership. The four-year scheme is known as INSPIRE (INnovative Scheme for Post-docs in Research and Education) programme. Under the programme post-doctoral science researchers (post-docs) from Imperial College who have recently completed their PhDs spend around half their time in selected specialist science schools while at the same time studying towards a post-graduate teaching qualification.

Through INSPIRE pupils and teachers have access to active, leading-edge scientists. Their involvement not only enriches the science curriculum but will also lead to improved achievement in science and an increase in the number of science teachers.

GSK is also investing £780,000 over six years in support of Science Across The World, an international educational programme designed to promote discussion and awareness of scientific issues that affect people's lives around the world, and stimulate students' interest and confidence in science. Over 3,400 teachers and 100,000 students from 100 countries take part in the programme.

Encouraging awareness and interest in science by a wider audience has seen GSK donate £1million in support of Phase 2 of the Natural History Museum's Darwin Centre. The Darwin Centre is the most significant development that the Natural History Museum has undertaken since it moved to its present site in South Kensington in 1881. It is a new and unique Life Sciences complex providing world-class storage facilities for precious collections. Phase Two will house the Museum's botanical and entomological collections, laboratories and other working space for 125 scientists. Scheduled to open in 2007, it will be accessible to visitors in both a physical and virtual form, and will become an integral part of the visitor experience at the Museum.

The arts
Gardens of Glass: Chihuly at Kew
As part of our UK community investment programme, we sponsored ‘Gardens of Glass: Chihuly at Kew’, an innovative exhibition at the Royal Botanic Gardens of the work of Dale Chihuly, the internationally celebrated glass artist. The event ran from May 2005 until January 2006.

Dale Chihuly was born in 1941 in Tacoma, Washington, USA, and introduced to glass as an art medium whilst studying interior design at the University of Washington. Widely regarded as the foremost artist working in glass today, his work is included in more than 200 museums and galleries worldwide.

‘Gardens of Glass: Chihuly at Kew’ presented the first opportunity in Europe to see in an outdoor setting the work of one of the world’s renowned artists working in glass.

More than 20 tons of exhibition materials, including tens of thousands of pieces of hand-blown glass, were shipped from Seattle to London in spring 2005. The exhibition comprised more than 25 major works of hand-blown glass, some extremely large and comprising thousands of pieces, which were installed in Kew's glasshouses as well as in the 325 acres of gardens.

We intended that ‘Gardens of Glass’ would be a comprehensive and stunning introduction to Chihuly's work, and that new visitors would be attracted to Kew, drawn by the opportunity to see such an unusual exhibition. In fact almost 900,000 visitors saw the exhibit, representing a 26% increase in visitors to Kew.

Themes of discovery and innovation are fundamental to a research-based company such as GlaxoSmithKline, so in supporting ‘Gardens of Glass’, we wanted visitors to discover for themselves the links between science, art and nature, and leave Kew with a greater understanding of the place of art in an environmental setting.

Images can be viewed at www.chihuly.com/installations/kew/

Our global headquarters are in Brentford, close to the Royal Botanic Gardens, so we have worked in partnership with Kew, a UNSECO World Heritage Site on a number of projects.

The environment
GSK has made a donation of £148,000 to fund a three-year programme aimed at increasing volunteering opportunities for participation in projects concerned with the conservation of the UK's natural resources. This donation will enable Earthwatch to increase the number of volunteer places for its 'Dyscovery Projects' from 150 to 500 and increase public understanding of science-based conservation.

Employee involvement
The Company also supports employees in the UK who are 'Making a Difference' in their own communities. Through the scheme staff are able to apply for funding for charity or community organisations that they are directly involved with. GSK also runs Give As You Earn, a tax-free contribution scheme enabling employees to give to their favourite charity each month through the payroll.

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