THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF BIOLOGY
Registered charity 277981 · accounts filings on the Charity Commission register · also known as INSTITUTE OF BIOLOGY, THE INSTITUTE OF BIOLOGY, THE SOCIETY OF BIOLOGY
The Royal Society of Biology is a single unified voice for biology: advising Government and influencing policy; advancing education and professional development; supporting our members, and engaging and encouraging public interest in the life sciences.
Causes: Education/training · Arts/culture/heritage/science · Environment/conservation/heritage · website · Get email alerts
Financial health, per its FY2025 accounts
The accounts state that the charity ended the financial year with a total deficit of £409k, driven by a planned operational deficit of £342k and an unrealised investment loss of £67k. Despite this, unrestricted reserves stood at £1,621k, which the trustees confirm exceeds their stated policy target of three months' operating costs (£500k). The charity reports strong cash flow and no material uncertainties regarding its ability to continue as a going concern.
Automated summary of the FY2025 accounts; the evidenced findings below carry the verbatim passages.
What the accounts disclose
Trading subsidiary: Biology Ltd
“The Society is exempt from preparing group accounts, as the subsidiary Biology Ltd has remained dormant throughout the year.”
Per its FY2025 accounts as filed with the Charity Commission.
Accounts audited by HaysMac LLP. Discloses 3 of 6 completeness components.
Leadership, per the charity’s website
- Dr Doug Brown — Chief Executive (source)
- Paul Trimmer — Director (source)
- Dr Arianne Matlin — Director (source)
- Mark Leach — Director (source)
Listed on the charity’s own website when we last crawled it; roles may have changed. Pay-band disclosures above are anonymous statutory disclosures and are not attributed to any named individual.
Public-sector contracts awarded
From the official Contracts Finder and Find a Tender notices (supplier matched by exact registered name). Contract income is distinct from grants.
Public profiles (found on the charity’s own website): facebook · instagram · linkedin
Structured financials (annual return, FY ending 30/09/2025)
Cost of raising funds
£54k
Reported reserves equal ~5.5 months of spending — above the median for charities its size (median 4.8 months; benchmarks).
Per its annual return, largest income source: Charitable activities (89% of income) — components as reported reconcile to the return’s total income; not from the accounts narrative.
Per its annual return, cost of raising funds: 1.7% of total income — below the median for charities its size (5.2%) (benchmarks).
Register events
- Received assets from another charity (26/06/2012) — per the register’s event history; asset transfers typically record mergers or reorganisations.
- Professor Dame Melanie Welhamchair · trustee of 1 other charity
- Alastair Land · trustee of 1 other charity
- Dr Helen Watson
- Dr Jacqui Piner
- Dr Louise Leong
- Lucy Hudson
- Neil Burton
- Paul Gemmill
- Professor Claire Pike
- Professor Jeremy Pritchard
- Professor Kalai Mathee
- Professor Sara Louise Cosby
- Professor Stefan Przyborski FRSB
- Professor Tim Coulson · trustee of 1 other charity
Trustee list from the Charity Commission register (current, not historical).
Operates in: Northern Ireland · Scotland · Throughout England And Wales
Income and spending
Common questions
Is THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF BIOLOGY financially healthy?
Per its FY2025 accounts: The accounts state that the charity ended the financial year with a total deficit of £409k, driven by a planned operational deficit of £342k and an unrealised investment loss of £67k. Despite this, unrestricted reserves stood at £1,621k, which the trustees confirm exceeds their stated policy target of three months' operating costs (£500k). The charity reports strong cash flow and no material uncertainties regarding its ability to continue as a going concern. Its FY2025 accounts were audited by HaysMac LLP.
Who funds THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF BIOLOGY?
Funders whose own accounts filings name THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF BIOLOGY as a grant recipient include THE BIOCHEMICAL SOCIETY, THE HORNERS CHARITY FUND.
Known funders
Grants to this charity found in funders’ own accounts filings.
Government & lottery funding
Grants to this charity published as open data by government and lottery funders (360Giving).
Funders of similar charities
Funders whose accounts show grants to charities similar to this one (and no recorded grant to this charity) — a starting list for fundraisers.
Charities like this
Semantically similar by activities and financial character, from our analysed corpus. Compare with THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF LONDON FOR IMPROVING NATURAL KNOWLEDGE (COMMONLY KNOWN AS THE ROYAL SOCIETY).
Side by side with its peers
Each row is that charity’s latest analysed filing; every value is quote-backed on its own page.