The Foundation for Anti-Aging Research and The Foundation For Reversal of Solid State Hypothermia v Charities Registration Board
This page introduces you to the High Court judgment on the substantive appeals of the Foundation for Anti-Aging Research and the Foundation for Reversal of Solid State Hypothermia. This judgment can be accessed through the link below. On 30 September 2016 the High Court released this decision and ordered for the Foundations to be registered as charities under the Charities Act 2005 from that date.
The judgment overturns the decision of the Charities Registration Board (‘the Board’) dated 18 July 2013 that declined applications from the Foundation for Anti-Aging Research and the Foundation for Reversal of Solid State Hypothermia for registration as charities under the Charities Act 2005.
The Board’s decisions are available here:
The two Foundations jointly appealed the decisions of the Board.
The High Court considered the Foundation’s purpose of funding cryonics research fell under the advancement of education head of charity. The High Court noted that although a key element of assessing the charitable purpose of educational research is the usefulness of the research, only nonsensical areas of research will not be useful in a charitable sense.
In reaching this decision the High Court noted that even if the goals of scientific research may only be achieved in the relatively distant future, the pursuit of such goals is likely to yield much useful knowledge along the way, regardless of whether the endpoint is ever achieved. If the scientific research undertaken to work towards such a goal is likely to advance the sum of human knowledge then the research is ‘useful’ in a charitable sense.
Prior to the decision, procedural matters relating to the appeal were decided in the High Court and the Court of Appeal (both of these decisions are also attached below).