## **Trustees' Annual Report for the period**
Period start date Period end date **01 10 2024 30 09 2025 From To**
## Section A Reference and administration details
**Charity name**
**INVEST in ME RESEARCH**
> **Other names charity is known by IiMER InMER IiME RESIME Invest in ME**
**Registered charity number (if any) 11153730**
**Charity's principal address**
PO Box 561 Eastleigh Hampshire **Postcode SO50 0GQ**
## **Names of the charity trustees who manage the charity**
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20|**Trustee name**|**Office (if any)**|**Dates acted if not for whole**
**year **|**Name of person (or body) entitled**
**to appoint trustee (ifany)**|
|---|---|---|---|---|
||Kathleen McCall|Chairman|||
||Richard Simpson|Trustee|||
||Joyce Wood|Trustee|||
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**Names of the trustees for the charity, if any, (for example, any custodian trustees)**
**Name Dates acted if not for whole year**
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|**Names and addresses of advisers (Optional information)**
**Type of adviser**
**Name**
**Address**|**Names and addresses of advisers (Optional information)**
**Type of adviser**
**Name**
**Address**|**Names and addresses of advisers (Optional information)**
**Type of adviser**
**Name**
**Address**|
|---|---|---|
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## **Name of chief executive or names of senior staff members (Optional information)**
## **Section B Structure, governance and management**
## **Description of the charity’s trusts**
Type of governing document
CIO Foundation Model
(eg. trust deed, constitution) CHARITABLE INCORPORATED ORGANISATION How the charity is constituted
- (eg. trust, association, company)
Appointed by Existing Trustees Trustee selection methods
- (eg. appointed by, elected by)
## **Additional governance issues (Optional information)**
You **may choose** to include additional information, where relevant, about:
- policies and procedures adopted for the induction and training of trustees;
- the charity’s organisational structure and any wider network with which the charity works;
- relationship with any related parties;
- trustees’ consideration of major risks and the system and procedures to manage them.
Invest in ME Research (IiMER) works to build relationships nationally and internationally with other organisations who promote similar aims.
The charity is a founding member and chair for sixteen years of the European ME Alliance, a collaboration of national patient organisations and charities across Europe.
The charity also has cultivated links to many organisations, researchers, clinicians and healthcare staff and initiated, and continues to support European groups of researchers, clinicians and young researchers who will work together.
- Our objectives are to facilitate high-quality biomedical research into ME with international collaboration and development of a centre of excellence for ME that will serve UK and Europe.
## **Section C Objectives and activities**
**Summary of the objects of the charity set out in its governing document**
To promote and protect the well-being of sufferers of ME. To advance the education of the public in relation to ME. To promote research into causes and treatment of ME.
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|**Summary of the main**
**activities undertaken for the**
**public benefit in relation to**
**these objects (include within**
**this section the statutory**
**declaration that trustees have**
**had regard to the guidance**
**issued by the Charity**
**Commission on public**
**benefit)**|The main activities are–
Organisation of annual public International ME Conference weeks that
attract doctors, scientists, researchers, patients and carers from around
the world to collaborate and share knowledge about ME.
Organisation of international research colloquia to encourage new
collaborative and cooperative possibilities for research into ME.
Creation and development of network of young researchers for ME.
Foundation and support of a collaborative European ME Research Group
network for researchers to come together.
Foundation and support of a collaborative European ME Clinicians
Council network for European clinicians to come together to build
knowledge and expertise around ME.
Production of educational material (videos, booklets, journals and
guidelines) related to ME.
Finding, facilitating and funding of biomedical research into ME.
Continuing development of the Centre of Excellence for ME model that
the charity has proposed and championed since 2011.
Initiation of awareness and fund-raising activities regarding ME.
Maintenance of web sites for the charity, and European ME organisations
containing educational information regarding ME and our initiatives and
conferences
Creation and administering of webinars to enhance education of the
public and to disseminate information around Europe regarding ME.
Advocacy work to help patients in need. Participation in DHSC working
group to develop policies for ME.
Distribution of regular newsletters to patient groups, patients, healthcare
staff, media, politicians and general public regarding ME.
Board member of the European ME Alliance and participating in
European collaborative projects regarding awareness of ME.|
|---|---|
## **Additional details of objectives and activities (Optional information)**
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The trustees and volunteers perform all of the charity’s work for free.
The charity does not have any salaried staff.
The charity endeavours to provide services, products and information for free or as near to cost price as possible, to avoid ME patients having to bear additional burdens around costs.
You **may choose** to include further statements, where relevant, about:
- policy on grantmaking;
- policy programme related investment;
- contribution made by volunteers.
The charity has a Biomedical Research Fund that allows grants for research projects to be made in an attempt to initiate more biomedical research into Myalgic Encephalomyelitis.
The charity has a peer review process for examining applications for grants.
The charity attempts to initiate more biomedical research into Myalgic Encephalomyelitis with an emphasis on international collaboration.
The charity has published our policy on grant making on our web site.
We are continuing to support our proposal to develop a UK/European Centre of Excellence for ME that will include examinations and research facility into ME and would perform biomedical research into the disease and allow proper examinations and diagnosis for ME patients.
We have initiated several major research studies for ME that take place at major UK institutes.
## Section D Achievements and performance
March **2012**
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Section D Achievements and performance Invest in ME Research **Summary of the main achievements of the charity** Period: October 2024 - September 2025 **during the year** Invest in ME Research (IiMER) is a small charity with a clear strategy of research, education and advocacy, always aiming to look at the bigger picture and facilitate meaningful change through innovation, ideas and determination. The charity remains dedicated to improving the lives of people with myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME), as well as their families and carers. No salaries have ever been paid by IiMER; all work is performed by volunteers. There is no intention to employ a CEO or support staff. This ensures that the maximum possible funding is directed toward our essential aims: biomedical research into ME and events that facilitate education and collaboration. The scale of activity set out below was delivered entirely by volunteer effort. 1. Building the case for European Horizon funding — DISCOVER-ME The charity's most substantial undertaking of the year was the work behind what would become the DISCOVER-ME consortium application to the EU Horizon Europe programme. This was not a single event but a sustained campaign of coordination stretching across the year. IiMER took the lead in identifying and pulling together the European ME Research Group (EMERG) members needed to form a credible consortium, and arranged dedicated in-person meetings during ME Conference Week specifically to progress the proposal. Throughout the year the charity continued to campaign among EMERG members to build and sustain the commitment needed to keep a multi-country consortium of independent researchers aligned behind a single application. The charity also identified and recommended the specialist grant-writing consultancy engaged to prepare the submission, and funded the consultancy's fees itself. None of this work is visible in a funding outcome, since it precedes any decision, but without the consortiumbuilding, the sustained campaigning, and the sourcing and funding of professional application support, the application would not have been made at all. The application was submitted within this reporting period. 2. Research The charity has continued to promote the development of a Centre of Excellence for ME at the Norwich Research Park. In January 2025 the charity published an article, "A Decade Developing the CofEforME", marking ten years of this work and setting out the case for continued investment. The charity's fellowships at the Quadram Institute Bioscience continued throughout the year: the Ian Gibson Fellowship for ME, held by Dr Katharine Seton, and the LunaNova-funded fellowship, held by Dr Krishani Perera. Research emerging from this fellowship programme continued to be published and reported, including a paper from IiMERfunded research reported in February 2025. These fellowships represent a direct, ongoing return on the charity's decade of investment in building research capacity at Norwich. Rik Haagmans, one of the charity's funded PhD studentships at the
March **2012**
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Section D Achievements and performance
Quadram Institute, completed his doctoral research during this period. Building directly on this work, Rik and the Quadram Institute successfully applied to the Dutch ZonMW research agency, and he has since established an ongoing collaboration with the Dutch ME/CFS Cohort and Biobank (NMCB) programme, extending the charity's funded research into an active international partnership between Norwich and the Netherlands. 3. Education — ME Conference Week 2025 The charity organised and delivered ME Conference Week 2025 (April 2025) — the only international conference week of its kind dedicated to ME, spanning five days and comprising the Young EMERG Workshop, the 14th Biomedical Research into ME Colloquium (BRMEC14), and the 17th Invest in ME International Conference (IIMEC17).
BRMEC14 was the largest and most productive colloquium in the series to date. Presenters and programme were announced in February 2025, following the considerable, and far from trivial, work of identifying and securing researchers willing to present. The colloquium was awarded CPD accreditation in April 2025. IIMEC17: registration opened in February 2025, speakers were announced in May 2025 (again the product of sustained outreach to secure a credible international speaker programme), and the conference was awarded full CPD accreditation in May 2025. Recordings of the conference were produced and made freely available, with videos published in July 2025. This is a deliberate choice by the charity: making the full research programme available at no cost means patients, carers and others who cannot travel or afford registration are able to see the same research presentations as delegates, extending the conference's educational reach well beyond those in the room. Young EMERG Workshop: held in May 2025 as part of Conference Week, with reflections on the workshop published in September 2025. The charity also began organising and supporting a further Young EMERG workshop, held in Vienna, continuing its role in building a European network of early-career ME researchers beyond the UK conference itself. Summer bursaries for students were announced in February 2025, continuing the charity's support for early-career researchers. International ME Awareness Month/Day was marked in May 2025, and reflections on the conference week were published in June 2025. 4. Advocacy Following the conclusion of the DHSC Interim Delivery Plan Research Working Group in April 2024 (reported in last year's Trustees' Annual Report), the charity offered to host a meeting bringing together NIHR, MRC and researchers, to keep momentum behind a coordinated national research strategy for ME. No reply was received from MRC, and the charity has had no further involvement in this area since. No DHSC or
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Section D Achievements and performance
MRC-related activity therefore falls within the October 2024 to September 2025 reporting period.
## 5. Communications
The charity maintained its public communications throughout the year via its website, newsletters and social media, including establishing a presence on Bluesky (November 2024).
Conclusion
This report covers a single year in the life of a charity of volunteers with a clear strategy. In that year, without a single paid member of staff, volunteers coordinated a multi-country European research consortium and secured its Horizon Europe funding application; sustained two ongoing research fellowships at a UK institute, producing published science; saw one of its own funded PhD studentships completed, going on to establish a new international research collaboration with the Netherlands; identified, negotiated with and funded the specialist support needed to make a serious EU application possible; and planned, organised and delivered the only five-day international conference and colloquium week dedicated to ME anywhere in the world, complete with independent CPD accreditation. The resulting research was then recorded and released free of charge, so that patients and carers too unwell to travel, and researchers and clinicians without a conference budget, could see the same work as those in the auditorium.
This represents considerable voluntary effort, applied consistently to a clear strategy. That strategy is working. It happened because a small charity with wonderful supporters gave the organisational, diplomatic and administrative skill this cause demanded, year after year. The Trustees consider this an exceptional return, for patients and for research into ME, on a charity that carries no unnecessary overhead and is focused on results
March **2012**
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## **Section E Financial review**
**Brief statement of the charity’s policy on reserves**
Our reserves are held to meet expected and unexpected bills and to cover running costs and printing/stationery costs. Our objective is to use as much of our resources for the facilitation and implementation of biomedical research into ME and to raise awareness of the disease.
**Details of any funds materially in deficit**
## **Further financial review details (Optional information)**
The Trustees feel that it is important to try to make all of the educational material and information that we create or facilitate (whether by way of conferences, webinars or other educational material) accessible to patients and their families for free or as cheaply as possible, without compromising professionalism or standards. Many patients and carers are unable to work due to the effects of this devastating neurological disease and the lack of a proper research strategy to create treatments.
You **may choose** to include additional information, where relevant about:
- the charity’s principal sources of funds (including any fundraising);
- how expenditure has supported the key objectives of the charity;
- The research colloquiums are also made available to invited researchers
- supported the key objectives for free or heavily subsidised in order to encourage research and
- of the charity; international collaboration. During the year, the charity covered the costs
- • investment policy and of the Young EMERG workshop and supported EMERG members by objectives including any covering their participation costs at the research colloquium and ethical investment policy international conference. adopted.
The charity continues to feel that better education of healthcare staff via a strategy of biomedical research into ME is the key to improving conditions for people with ME and their families.
IiMER aims to provide all our work for free or at cost price. We are an independent charity whose focus is on better education, better awareness, and a strategy of high-quality biomedical research into myalgic encephalomyelitis.
We hope to continue to find, fund and facilitate research and provide a means to raise more awareness of this disease – ME – and so enable a rapid resolution to be created by provision of treatments and cures from high-quality science. This benefits not only people with ME, their carers and families, but also society in general.
The Trustees also note that administrative costs are kept to an absolute minimum. No salaries are paid, and all work is carried out by volunteers, ensuring donations are used efficiently to support research, education, and advocacy. The Trustees are mindful of the need to maintain sufficient reserves to meet ongoing research commitments and to provide stability for future projects. The charity remains independent and does not accept funding that would compromise its aims or values. All income is used to further the charity’s objectives and to benefit people with ME, their carers, and families.
March **2012**
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## **Section F Other optional information**
## **Section G Declaration**
**The trustees declare that they have approved the trustees’ report above.**
**Signed on behalf of the charity’s trustees**
|**Signature(s)**
**Full name(s)**
**Position (eg Secretary, Chair,**
**etc)**
**Date**|||
|---|---|---|
||Kathleen McCall|Richard Simpson|
||
Chair|Trustee|
||7thJuly 2026
6thJuly 2026||
||7thJuly 2026||
March **2012**
**TAR**
9
||**Charity Name**|**No (if any)**|
|---|---|---|
||**INVEST in ME RESEARCH**|**1153730**|
## **Receipts and payments accounts**
**CC16a**
|**For the period**
**from**|Period start date
1-Oct-24|**To**|Period end date
30-Sep-25|
|---|---|---|---|
## **Section A Receipts and payments**
**Unrestricted Restricted Endowment Total funds Last year funds funds funds to the nearest £ to the nearest £ to the nearest £ to the nearest £ to the nearest £**
## **A1 Receipts**
|**A1 Receipts**||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|General Donation,Legacies and Grants|**95,935**||**-**||**-**||**95,935**||**94,944**|
|Conferences and meetings|**23,546**||**-**||**-**||**23,546**||**16,915**|
|Brochure(CG & QQ & Journal etc)|**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**||**67**|
|Tax refund / Gift Aid|**1,638**||**-**||**-**||**1,638**||**1,019**|
||**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**|
||**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**|
||**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**|
||**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**|
|**_Sub total_**_(Gross income for AR)_|**121,119**
||**-**||**-**||**121,119**||**112,945**|
|**A2 Asset and investment sales,**||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|**(see table).**||||||||||||
|||**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**||||
|||**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**||
|**_Sub total_**||**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**||
|||||||||||||
|**_Total receipts_ **||**121,119**||**-**||**-**||**121,119**||**112,945**||
## **A3 Payments**
|Meetings and conferences
Postage, Packaging, Stationery
Printing of Brochures, Books &
Guidelines
Governance, Web Services,
Advertising|**97,805**||**-**||**-**||**97,805**||**85,477**|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
||**715**||**-**||**-**||**715**||**777**|
||**474**||**-**||**-**||**474**||**417**|
||**2,919**||**-**||**-**||**2,919**||**3,940**|
|Fundraising Products/Equipment|**277**||**-**||**-**||**277**||**216**|
|Biomedical Research|**149,353**||**-**||**-**||**149,353**||**40,710**|
|Bank Charges|**346**||**-**||**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**|**346**||**158**|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
||**-**||**-**|||**-**||**-**|
||**-**||**-**|||**-**||**-**|
|**_Sub total_**|**251,889**||**-**|||**251,889**||**131,695**|
|**A4 Asset and investment**||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|**purchases, (see table)**||||||||||||
|||**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**||||
|||**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**||||
|**_Sub total_**||||||||||||
|||**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**||
|||||||||||||
|**_Total payments_ **||**251,889**||**-**||**-**||**251,889**||**131,695**||
|||||||||||||
|**_Net of receipts/(payments)_**||||||||||||
|||**- 130,770**||**-**||**-**||**- 130,770**||**- 18,750**||
|**A5 Transfers between funds**||||||||||||
|||**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**||
|**A6 Cash funds last year end**||||||||||||
|||**419,377**||**-**||**-**||**419,377**||**-**||
|**_Cash funds this year end_**||||||||||||
|||**288,607**||**-**||**-**||**288,607**||**- 18,750**||
## **Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period**
|**Categories**
**B1 Cash funds**
**B2 Other monetary assets**
**B3 Investment assets**
**B4 Assets retained for the**
**charity’s own use**|**Details**
Lloyds
**Details**
**Details**
**Details**
**_Total cash funds_**
(agree balances with receipts and payments
account(s))|**to nearest £**
**288,607**
**-**
**-**
**288,607**
OK
**to nearest £**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**Unrestricted**
**funds**
**Unrestricted**
**funds**
**Fund to which**
**asset belongs**
**Fund to which**
**asset belongs**|**to nearest £**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
OK
**to nearest £**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**Cost (optional)**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**Cost (optional)**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**Restricted**
**funds**
**Restricted**
**funds**|**to nearest £**
**Endowment**
**funds**|
|---|---|---|---|---|
|||||**-**|
|||||**-**|
|||||**-**|
|||||**-**|
|||||OK|
|||||**to nearest £**
**Endowment**
**funds**|
|||||**-**|
|||||**-**|
|||||**-**|
|||||**-**|
|||||**-**|
|||||**-**|
|||||**Current value**
**(optional)**|
|||||**-**|
|||||**-**|
|||||**-**|
|||||**-**|
|||||**-**|
|||||**Current value**
**(optional)**|
||||**-**|**-**|
||||**-**|**-**|
||||**-**|**-**|
||||**-**|**-**|
||||**-**|**-**|
||||**-**|**-**|
||||**-**|**-**|
||||**-**|**-**|
||||**-**|**-**|
## **B5 Liabilities**
Signed by one or two trustees on behalf of all the trustees
|**Details**|**Fund to which**
**liability relates**|**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**Amount due**
**(optional)**|**When due**
**(optional)**|
|---|---|---|---|
|||**-**||
|||**-**||
|||**-**||
|||**-**||
|||**-**||
|Signature
**_K.McCall_**
**_Richard_**|Print Name
Kathleen McCall
Richard Simpson|Date of
approval|
|---|---|---|
||Kathleen McCall|7/5/2026|
||Richard Simpson|7/5/2026|
## **Independent examiner's report on the accounts**
**Section A Independent Examiner’s Report**
**Report to the trustees/** Charity Name INVEST in ME RESEARCH **members of On accounts for the year** 30th September 2025 **Charity no** 1153730 **ended (if any) Set out on pages** 1 and 2 (remember to include the page numbers of additional sheets)
- I report to the trustees on my examination of the accounts of the above charity (“the Trust”) for the year ended **DD / MM / YYYY** .
- **Responsibilities and** As the charity trustees of the Trust, you are responsible for the preparation **basis of report** of the accounts in accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011 (“the Act”).
I report in respect of my examination of the Trust’s accounts carried out under section 145 of the 2011 Act and in carrying out my examination, I have followed the applicable Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 145(5)(b) of the Act.
## **Independent examiner's statement**
I have completed my examination. I confirm that no material matters have come to my attention (other than that disclosed below *) in connection with the examination which gives me cause to believe that in, any material respect:
- accounting records were not kept in accordance with section 130 of the Act or
- the accounts do not accord with the accounting records
I have no concerns and have come across no other matters in connection with the examination to which attention should be drawn in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached.
* _Please delete the words in the brackets if they do not apply._
**Signed: Date:** 11/07/2026 **Name:** PAUL BOOTH **Relevant professional** Recruitment Consultant **qualification(s) or body (if any): Address:** 30 Provene Gardens Waltham Chase SO32 2LE
1
**October 2018**
**IER**
**Section B Disclosure**
Only complete if the examiner needs to highlight matters of concern (see CC32, Independent examination of charity accounts: directions and guidance for examiners).
**Give here brief details of any items that the examiner wishes to disclose** .
2
**October 2018**
**IER**