This scheme provides funding for software developers from any career stage and discipline to develop digital tools that will improve climate sensitive infectious disease modelling. By the end of the award, successful applicants will have delivered a piece of open-source digital technology that will increase the impact of research in addressing this threat to health.
This one-off call provides funding for software developers from any career stage and discipline to develop digital tools that will improve climate-sensitive infectious disease modelling. By the end of the award, successful applicants will have delivered a piece of open-source digital technology that will increase the impact of research in addressing this threat to health.
About you
You can apply as an individual or as a team.
You or your team must have:
- a background or experience of working in any field of science and health relevant to infectious diseases and/or the impacts of climate change on human health
and
- an idea for a novel piece of digital technology to improve modelling at the intersection of these two fields.
You do not need to be from an information technology (IT) background to apply. Where the term 'software developer' is used, we include any individual who has experience of creating software-based tools and technologies.
You will be expected to demonstrate knowledge and experience of open-source software development (see assessment criteria below for more details).
During the award we expect you to:
- design and deliver an open-source digital tool for climate-sensitive infectious disease modelling. We recognise that the tool or resource might require foundational methodological work to be carried out prior to being built and we will consider applications that have a substantial methodological development component. There are no restrictions on which programming languages must be used.
- build a collaborative community of practice around your outputs, and/or integrate the outputs into a pre-existing community of practice
- evaluate the impact of your contribution, for example using the CHAOSS metrics (or any other suitable set of metrics)
- be an ambassador for open computational science and promote a positive and inclusive culture.
Career stage and experience
At the point you submit your application, you must have:
- evidence of research training, and
- experience in open-source software development.
If you are applying as part of a team, you must demonstrate that both of these attributes are represented in your group.
You can apply at any career stage. The lead applicant must be able to dedicate at least 10% of their time annually to the project.
You can apply if you've spent time away from formal employment (for example a career break, maternity leave, or long-term sick leave). We'll take this into consideration when we review your application.
Your experience and that of your co-applicants and named contributors will be assessed in the context of the proposed work.
You should be able to demonstrate:
- a good understanding of research methodology and the role of software tools in it
- evidence of software development project delivery
- knowledge and experience in managing an open-source project and associated community of practice.
In your application, you should provide details of your contributions both within the formal academic landscape (for example papers, citable codebases), and outside of it (for example, professional experience of software development, deployment, and maintenance).
By the end of the award, you should have developed a piece of sustainable, open-source, digital technology that advances the field of climate-sensitive infectious disease modelling.
Host organisation
You must be based at an eligible host organisation anywhere in the world (apart from mainland China).
It can be a:
- higher education institution
- research institute
- non-academic healthcare organisation
- not-for-profit organisation.
You should choose an environment that provides you with the appropriate training, resources and experience to deliver your project and develop your own skills and identity.
About your proposal
We will review your research proposal, skills and experience, strategic alignment and fit to scope, along with commitment to equity and sustainability.
Your research proposal must be:
- Bold. It aims to deliver a significant advance over existing methodologies, conceptual frameworks, tools or techniques. It has the potential to stimulate new and innovative research.
- Impact-driven. Your proposal is informed by a robust understanding of the community it addresses, and clearly articulates their needs. The proposal must include a clear plan for evaluating the impact of the project’s outputs.
- High quality. Your proposed approach shows a commitment to best practice in open-source software development and is supported by evidence that the proposed outputs are feasible and sustainable.
Strategic alignment and fit to scope
We will review the strategic alignment with Wellcome’s ambitions in climate and health and infectious diseases. You must engage with each of the following key points from the strategies when writing your application:
- These health challenges are global, but they do not pose an equal threat to everyone. The communities most affected by these challenges must be involved in building any potential solutions.
- Infectious disease: You should focus on ‘escalating threats’ such as emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases, drug-resistant infections and future epidemics. Escalating has different connotations in different settings. We will look for evidence of engagement with this idea, for example through the creation of a multi-hazard relevant technology, a deep understanding of a local context, or any other relevant approach.
- Climate and health: You should focus on the urgency of the challenge posed by climate change and our call for immediate action. Proposals that clearly describe or include case studies that illustrate a short path to improved, climate-relevant research and better-informed actions because of the proposed technology will be prioritised.
We will also assess your proposal's relevance to the scope of the call. Data collection justified as necessary for development or validation of a piece of technology will be considered but should represent less than 30% of the total grant value.
For example, hypothesis-driven data collection without accompanying software development would be out of scope, but a tool to improve data collection necessary for improving modelling with a small feasibility testing component would be within scope. Similarly, implementation of an early warning system (EWS) would be out of scope, but a generic suite of visualisations for EWS developers, that has been co-developed with policymakers to ensure outputs are easily understandable and provide actionable intelligence, would be within scope.
We'll look for evidence that you are prepared to address any challenges around combining infectious diseases data with climate data, such as data quality, spatial and temporal scales, and lack of representation.
Your skills and experience
We will review:
- evidence of commitment to robust open-source development and adequate software development resourcing
- candidate eligibility, for example, adequate evidence of an employment contract for the full duration of the grant
- subject matter expertise: this will be assessed based on your previous outputs and contributions (as well as those of any co-applicants) to the relevant landscape, including but not limited to infectious disease modelling and/or climate and health modelling
- digital technology development expertise: this will be assessed based on any previous software development you and any co-applicants have carried out. We will look for evidence of successfully delivered open-source projects and knowledge of open-source community management best practices.
Evidence of these areas of expertise is not limited to publications. You should be creative in what you choose to reference to support your application.
Equity and sustainability
We will review:
- how you identify and address potential issues of digital equity in your programme of work
- how you will embed sustainability into your proposed digital technology, including the profile for the maintenance-type support requested in the later years of the award. For example, you might transition to a smaller number of salaried contributors or decreased contribution from specific team members.
- which parts of code you will make available and how, to maximise the chances of re-use.
If you are awarded this grant
You will also be expected to agree to our open-sourcegrant conditions [PDF 94KB].
Who can't apply
- You can be an applicant on a maximum of two applications to this funding call. This limit is reduced to one if:
- you are the lead applicant on one of those applications, or
- you currently hold an active Wellcome grant.
- You cannot apply if you intend to carry out activities that involve the transfer of grant funds into mainland China.
What's expected of your host organisation
You must be based at an eligible organisation that can sign up to our grant conditions.
We expect organisations based in the UK to meet the responsibilities required by the Concordat to Support the Career Development of Researchers for institutions, managers and researchers.
Any organisation with Wellcome funding that is based outside the UK is expected, at a minimum, to follow the principles of the Concordat.
We also expect your host organisation to:
- give you, and any staff employed on the grant, 10 days a year (pro rata if part-time) to undertake training and continuing professional development (CPD) in line with the Concordat. This should include the responsible conduct of research, research leadership, people management, diversity and inclusion, and the promotion of a healthy research culture.
- provide a system of onboarding, embedding and planning for you when you start the award
- provide you with the status and benefits of other staff of similar seniority.
If your host organisation is a core-funded research organisation, this Award should not replace or lead to a reduction in existing or planned core support.
A Wellcome Digital Technology Development Award provides up to a maximum of £500,000 to cover research expenses, including salaries where required.
The award usually lasts for 5 years but may be shorter at the applicant’s discretion. Our goal is to support the initial maintenance years of tools that are created through the award.
You should ask for a level and duration of funding that’s justifiable for your proposed research. You must justify all costs within the costs section of your application.
The award includes:
Lead applicants and co-applicants can request salary if:
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you do not have a post, or
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you have a temporary or fixed-term post
If you have a permanent post, you can only ask for your salary if you hold a permanent, open-ended or long-term rolling contract that states that you have to get your salary from external grant funding.
Your host organisation must confirm:
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that your employment contract states you must get salary recovery from external grant funding
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that they will underwrite the salary and post for the period of time that you will be working on the grant.
The amount we pay will be proportionate to the time you contribute to the award, for example if you contribute 20% of your time to the award we will fund 20% of your salary. If you do not currently hold a post and will be spending 100% of your time on the award you can request the total cost of your salary.
Each applicant can only receive one salary.
Your salary should be based on the pay scales of the host organisation that will be employing you. It should include:
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your basic salary
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employer’s contributions, including any statutory obligations (for example, National Insurance contributions if you’re based in the UK) and pension scheme costs
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any incremental progression up the salary scale
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locally recognised allowances such as London allowance.
You should not include:
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any potential promotion costs
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any Wellcome fellowship supplement that was part of a previous grant.
If your host organisation is in a low- or middle-income country and you will be working in a high-income country for four weeks or more, you should be paid at an appropriate rate for that country, according to your age and experience.
You should only allow for salary pay awards during Year 1. These should be based on pay awards already agreed: if you don’t know what the pay award is yet then use our inflation rate of 2.0%.
From Year 2 onwards, we will automatically increase any salary requested, based on our current inflation allowance rates.
For clinical academics, your salary should be appropriate to your clinical status and within the salary scale for academic and senior clinical lecturers.
If you're paid on a non-clinical salary scale, your basic salary should be in line with academics of a similar seniority.
Read about the responsibilities of grantholders and host organisations for people working on a Wellcome grant.
If you have to move to take up the post at your host organisation, you can ask for up to £1,000. This is to cover personal removal costs only.
You will have to explain in your application why you need this.
We will provide the salary costs for staff, full or part-time, who work on your project.
We do not provide studentships on this award.
Staff salaries should be appropriate to skills, responsibilities and expertise. You should ask your host organisation to use their salary scales to calculate these costs, which should include:
- basic salary
- employer’s contributions, including any statutory obligations (for example, National Insurance contributions if you’re based in the UK) and pension scheme costs
- Apprentice Levy charges for UK-based salaries
- any incremental progression up the salary scale
- locally recognised allowances such as London allowance.
You should allow for salary pay awards during Year 1. These should be based on pay awards already agreed: if you don’t know what the pay award is yet then use our inflation rate.
From Year 2 onwards, you should use your organisation’s current pay rates. We’ll provide a separate inflation allowance for salary inflation costs.
Read about the responsibilities of grantholders and host organisations for people working on a Wellcome grant.
If you have named people on your grant whose salaries will be funded by Wellcome, you can ask for visa or work permit costs to help them take up their posts at the host organisation. You can also ask for:
- visa costs for the person's partner and dependent children
- essential associated costs, such as travel to attend appointments at a visa application centre or embassy if you can justify these
- Immigration Health Surcharge costs for the person, their partner and dependent children if they will be in the UK for six months or more.
If you or a member of staff working on your grant is disabled or has a long-term health condition, you can ask for adjustment support to help you carry out your project.
Costs can include, but are not limited to:
- additional costs for staff to help with day-to-day activities related to your project
- assistive technology to help use computers, research equipment or materials – for example, text to audio software
- care costs for assistance animals if you need to travel.
We will not pay for capital or building costs, such as access ramps.
You can ask for these costs if your government and/or employer:
- does not cover any of the costs
- only covers some of the costs (if they do, we will only meet the shortfall).
The costs we provide must not replace the support you may get from the government or your organisation, who are responsible for providing these costs.
If you don't know what these costs are now, you can ask for them after we've awarded your grant.
You can ask for costs to cover the following types of training.
Continuing professional development and professional skills training
You can ask for a contribution towards these costs.
Types of training can include:
- research leadership, professional and people management skills
- career development support
- responsible conduct of research
- diversity and inclusion
- promotion of a healthy research culture
- understanding and reducing the environmental impact of research.
We expect your host organisation to provide and fund this training. However, if these types of training are not available, or the quality is inadequate, you can ask for up to £500 a year for you and each member of staff employed on your grant who will be:
- in a post of 12 months duration or more only and
- working on Wellcome funded awards for at least 50% full time equivalent.
You will need to justify these costs in your application.
Research skills training
You can ask for costs to cover training for the technical and research skills you need to deliver your proposed research.
You can ask for whatever research skills training you need for you, and each member of staff employed on your grant, who will be:
- in a post of 12 months duration or more only and
- working on Wellcome funded awards for at least 50% full time equivalent.
You will need to justify these costs in your application.
We will pay for the materials and consumables you need to carry out your project, including:
- laboratory chemicals and materials (for example reagents, isotopes, peptides, enzymes, antibodies, gases, proteins, cell/tissue/bacterial culture, plasticware and glassware)
- project-specific personal protective equipment (PPE) that is above the standard expected for the setting
- printing associated with fieldwork and empirical research
- associated charges for shipping, delivery and freight.
Equipment purchase
Your chosen research environment should have the necessary equipment for you to complete your work. You can ask for additional basic items of equipment that are essential to your research project.
Costs may include purchase, delivery, installation, maintenance and training, where necessary.
We will cover VAT and import duties if:
- the usual UK exemptions on equipment used for medical research don’t apply
- you’re applying from a non-UK organisation, and you can show these costs can’t be recovered.
You can also ask for specialised equipment if:
- it is essential to the success of the proposed research project
- it is not available at your host organisation or through collaboration, and
- you’ll be the main user and have priority access to the equipment.
If a complete piece of specialised equipment costs £100,000 or more, we expect a contribution of at least 25 per cent from the host organisation or another source. In some cases, we may expect a larger contribution. We’ll discuss this with you after we’ve assessed your application. Contributions can include benefits in kind, such as refurbishment or the underwriting of a key support post.
Multi-component items must not be broken down into component parts to avoid this contribution.
Equipment maintenance
We will cover maintenance costs for equipment if:
- you are requesting it in your application
- it is existing equipment that is:
- funded by us or another source
- essential to the proposed research project
- more than five years old
- cost effective to keep maintaining it.
We won’t cover maintenance costs for equipment if there is a mechanism in place to recoup these costs through access charges.
Computer equipment
We will cover the cost of one personal computer or laptop per person up to £1,500.
We won't pay for:
- more expensive items, unless you can justify them
- installation or training costs.
You can ask for the cost of access to shared equipment, facilities or services if they’re essential to your project.
These may include materials and consumables, plus a proportion of:
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maintenance and service contracts
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staff time costs for dedicated technical staff employed to operate the equipment or facility.
We don’t cover the costs of:
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estates and utilities
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depreciation or insurance
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other staff, for example, contributions towards departmental technical, administrative and management staff time.
If the facilities or equipment were paid for by a Wellcome grant, you can only ask for access charges if:
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the grant has ended
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any support for running costs and maintenance contracts has ended.
You can ask for overheads if your grant will be based at a:
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university outside the UK or Republic of Ireland
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research organisation that does not receive core funding for overheads
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charitable or not-for-profit organisation
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small or medium-sized commercial organisation.
You can also ask for overheads on any part of your grant that is sub-contracted to any of the organisations listed above.
If you’re based at a UK university you can’t ask for overheads for sub-contracted activity if your university will include the sub-contracted funding in its annual report to the UK Charity Research Support Fund.
Overheads can include:
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estates, for example building and premises
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non-project dedicated administrative and support staff
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administration, for example finance, library, and room hire.
The total cost for overheads should not be more than:
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20% of the direct research costs if you’re based in a low- or middle-income country
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15% of the direct research costs if you’re based anywhere else.
These costs must directly support the activity funded by the grant.
How to apply for these costs
In your grant application you must:
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give a full breakdown of costs (you can't ask for a percentage of the research costs)
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explain why these costs are necessary for your research
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include a letter from the finance director of your host organisation, or the sub-contracted organisation, confirming that the breakdown is a true representation of the costs incurred.
Conference attendance
You can ask for a contribution towards the costs of attending scientific and academic meetings and conferences, including registration fees and the costs to offset the carbon emissions of your travel. The limits are:
- Grantholder – £2,000 a year
- Staff employed on your grant – £1,000 each a year
We provide costs to cover caring responsibilities if you or any staff employed on your grant attend a conference. This includes childcare and any other caring responsibility you have. We will pay these if:
- Wellcome is providing the salary
- the conference is directly related to the research
- the caring costs are over and above what they'd normally pay for care
- the conference organiser and their employing organisation are unable to cover the costs.
You can ask for up to £1,000 per person for each conference.
Collaborative travel
You can ask for travel and subsistence costs for collaborative visits for you and any staff employed on your grant. You’ll need to justify each visit and its duration.
Other travel
We will pay for other essential visits, for example to facilities, for sample collection and for fieldwork. You can include subsistence costs.
Carbon offset costs
This applies to all types of travel costs Wellcome provides.
You can ask for:
- essential travel costs, even if the low carbon option is more expensive (for example travelling by train instead of flying)
- project-related resources or activities that provide an alternative to travel, such as video conferencing, communication and file-sharing software
- costs to offset the carbon emissions generated by the essential travel. If carbon offsetting for travel is not part of your organisational sustainability strategy, you can ask us for a similar level of support for other sustainability initiatives. Your organisation must get our approval before submitting an application.
We won't pay for the core infrastructure that your host organisation should provide, unless you're eligible to ask for these costs under our overheads policy. Examples of these costs include:
- organisation-wide video conferencing packages
- high-speed broadband
- HD screens.
See our carbon offset policy for travel for information on what you and your organisation need to do.
Subsistence costs
If you’re away for up to one month you can ask for subsistence costs. These include accommodation, meals and incidentals (for example, refreshments or newspapers).
If your administering organisation has a subsistence policy, use their rates.
If your administering organisation doesn’t have a subsistence policy, please use the HMRC rates.
If you’re away for more than one month and up to 12 months, we will pay reasonable rental costs only, including aparthotels. You should discuss appropriate rates with your administering and host organisations, or Wellcome, as appropriate. We expect you to choose the most economical options, booked in advance where possible.
If you’re from a low- or middle- income country and will be working in a high-income country for more than one month and up to 12 months, you can also ask for up to £10 a day to cover extra costs, such as transport and incidentals.
If you’re away for more than 12 months, we will pay the costs of your housing. You should discuss your needs with your administering and host organisations.
The allowance we provide will be based on family and business need. We will set the maximum allowance we pay for each location. This will be based on current market data or, where data is unavailable, in consultation with your administering organisation, using equivalent market rates. Please contact us if you need help calculating the costs.
We will cover the direct expenses you have to pay to find and rent a home. We will not cover the cost of utilities or any refurbishment.
Overseas research
If you or any research staff employed on your grant will be doing research away from your home laboratory, we'll help with the additional costs of working on the project overseas. Please see the 'Overseas allowances' section for details.
If you or any staff employed on your grant will be spending time in another country, we’ll help you with the additional costs of working on the project overseas.
Our overseas allowances are:
- a contribution towards the personal cost of carrying out research overseas, to ensure that you are not disadvantaged
- provided on the assumption that you’ll be paying income tax, either in your home country, or the country you will be working in (your personal tax is your responsibility).
- provided on the understanding that you or your partner will not receive equivalent allowances from elsewhere
- determined by the amount of time you will spend away from your home country.
Carbon offset costs
We expect the people we fund to choose travel that has a lower carbon impact, where practical, even if it’s more expensive (for example travelling by train instead of flying).
You can ask for costs to offset the carbon generated by the travel, as part of your overseas allowances. If carbon offsetting for travel is not part of your organisational sustainability strategy, you can ask us for a similar level of support for other sustainability initiatives. Your organisation must get our approval for other sustainability initiatives to be included in applications.
See our carbon offset policy for travel for information on what you and your organisation need to do.
If you will be away more than 12 months, we will provide overseas allowances for your partner and any dependants if they are travelling with you.
If you will be away for 12 months or less and can justify why your partner and dependants must travel with you, we may provide overseas allowances for them.
We define your partner as the person:
- you’re married to
- you’re not married to but with whom you’ve been in a relationship for at least a year
and
- you live with at the same permanent address and share some form of joint financial commitment with, such as a mortgage.
See a list of low- and middle-income countries, as defined by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
You can ask for the following allowances. You need to provide estimated costs as accurately as possible.
We will pay your travel costs at the beginning and end of your overseas work. Costs can be for air, ferry, train or coach fares.
All fares should be:
- in line with our carbon offset policy
- booked in advance where possible.
If you are away for up to 12 months, you can ask for up to 80kg of additional baggage or unaccompanied airline freight for your outward and return journeys.
If you are away for more than 12 months, you can ask for the costs of shipping your personal items at the beginning and end of your overseas work.
We will pay the full cost of transporting:
- half a standard shipping container if you’re travelling alone
- a whole standard shipping container (20ft) if you’re travelling with a partner and/or dependants.
We will pay the cost of your medical insurance and travel insurance.
If you will be working in a low- or middle-income country we will also cover the cost of emergency evacuation cover.
We won’t pay for medical insurance if you will be based in the UK or Republic of Ireland.
We will pay the costs of visas, vaccinations and anti-malaria treatment.
You can ask for this if you’ll be based in a low- or middle-income country and it is necessary.
Costs can include guards, panic buttons and alarms. You should ask your employing organisation for advice on the level of security you need.
If you’re away for up to one month you can ask for subsistence costs. These include accommodation, meals and incidentals (for example, refreshments or newspapers).
If your administering organisation has a subsistence policy, use their rates.
If your administering organisation doesn’t have a subsistence policy, please use the HMRC rates.
If you’re away for more than one month and up to 12 months, we will pay reasonable rental costs only, including aparthotels. You should discuss appropriate rates with your administering and host organisations, or Wellcome, as appropriate. We expect you to choose the most economical options, booked in advance where possible.
If you’re from a low- or middle- income country and will be working in a high-income country for more than one month and up to 12 months, you can also ask for up to £10 a day to cover extra costs, such as transport and incidentals.
If you’re away for more than 12 months, we will pay the costs of your housing. You should discuss your needs with your administering and host organisations.
The allowance we provide will be based on family and business need. We will set the maximum allowance we pay for each location. This will be based on current market data or, where data is unavailable, in consultation with your administering organisation, using equivalent market rates. If you need help calculating the costs please contact us.
We will cover the direct expenses you have to pay to find and rent a home. We will not cover the cost of utilities or any refurbishment.
If you’re away for more than 12 months we will pay:
Local nursery or school fees
You can ask for these costs if you are in a location where there isn’t free local education of the same standard as in your home country.
Costs include:
- local nursery school fees up to a maximum of 30 hours a week for 3 to 4 year olds
- local junior or secondary school fees, up to the end of secondary school education.
Local international school fees
You can ask for these costs if local schools do not provide the same standard of education as in your home country. We will only pay the published termly school fees.
We will not cover the costs of:
- extracurricular activities, including field trips
- other extras including, but not limited to, uniforms, sports kit and equipment, transport, meals, books and electronic equipment.
Boarding school fees
We will consider paying the cost of boarding school fees in your home country if:
- a local international school is not available
- both parents, guardians or the sole care giver live outside the home country.
The allowance covers:
- up to a maximum of £30,000 a year for each child for the published termly fees only
- the cost of return airfares at the start and end of each school term, in line with our carbon offset policy for travel.
We will not cover the costs of:
- additional annual leave airfares
- extracurricular activities, including field trips
- other extras including, but not limited to, uniforms, sports kit and equipment, transport, meals, books and electronic equipment.
We will cover the cost of providing special needs education as far as possible. Please contact us to discuss your needs.
We would not usually expect to provide an education allowance if you will be working in a high-income country.
If you will be away for more than 12 months, we’ll pay for you to travel back to your home country for annual leave. This is in addition to your outward and return travel costs and depends on how long you will be away:
- 12-24 months – 1 annual leave trip
- 25-36 months – 2 annual leave trips
- 37-48 months – 3 annual leave trips
- 49-60 months – 4 annual leave trips
- 61-72 months – 5 annual leave trips
- 73-84 months – 6 annual leave trips
- 85-96 months – 7 annual leave trips.
All fares should be:
- in line with our carbon offset policy
- booked in advance where possible.
If you will be away for more than 12 months, you can ask for up to 100 hours of lessons in the local language for you and/or your partner during the first 12 months of your visit.
We will cover 100% of the costs for local language school classes or up to 50% of the costs of individual tuition.
We will not cover the cost of examinations or personal learning materials such as DVDs and books.
We cover fieldwork costs if they’re essential and you can justify them. Costs can include:
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survey and data collection, including communication and data collection services and any associated costs such as essential field materials, travel costs and language translation services
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the purchase, hire and running costs of vehicles dedicated to your project
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expenses for subjects and volunteers, including the recruitment of participants, their participatory fees and travel costs
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statistical analysis.
You can ask for other fieldwork costs that aren’t listed here, but you’ll need to justify them.
How we calculate your inflation allowance
Your inflation allowance is based on your total eligible costs and the duration of the award. You'll receive the following allowance if the costs in your application are in pounds sterling, euros or US dollars.
| AWARD DURATION (IN MONTHS) | INFLATION ALLOWANCE |
|---|---|
| 0-12 | 0.0% |
| 13-24 | 1.0% |
| 25-36 | 2.0% |
| 37-48 | 3.0% |
| 49-60 | 4.1% |
These rates are calculated using compound inflation at 2.0% a year from Year 2 onwards.
If your costs are in any other currency, we will use an inflation allowance that reflects the inflation rate of the country where the host organisation is based.
What to include in your application
The costs in your application must be based on current known costs, excluding inflation.
You should allow for salary pay awards during Year 1. These should be based on pay awards already agreed; if you don’t know what the pay award is yet then use our inflation rate.
If your organisation receives open access block grant funding, you can ask them to cover your open access article processing charges.
If you're at an organisation that does not receive block grant funding, we’ll supplement your grant when your paper has been accepted for publication.
You cannot ask for these charges in your grant application.
If you need to carry out clinical research using NHS patients or facilities, we will cover some of the research costs.
Annex A of the guidelines for attributing the costs of health and social care research and development (AcoRD) sets out the costs we cover, and which costs should be funded through the Department of Health and Social Care in England, or its equivalent in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. If you're based in the Republic of Ireland, we would expect you to adhere to the spirit of these principles.
Read more information on our clinical trials policy.
If your proposal involves clinical research using NHS resources, check if you need to upload a SoECAT form with your full application.
You can ask for costs that are essential to the project. These can include:
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materials, including printing and publishing
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other costs relating to engagement activities that are essential to carry out your research, such as patient involvement (including under-served groups) and community engagement
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dissemination of research results and findings arising from Wellcome funded research and workshops.
We will provide funds if you need to outsource project work to:
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contract research organisations
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other fee-for-service providers.
Allowed costs
You may ask for the following costs (you will have to justify them in your application):
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specialist publications that are relevant to the research and not available in institutional libraries
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consultancy fees
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expenses for subjects and volunteers – includes recruitment of participants, their participatory fees and travel, as well as interviewee expenses
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reasonable research-associated costs related to the feedback of health-related findings but not any healthcare-associated costs
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costs associated with developing an outputs management plan
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questionnaires, recruitment material, newsletters etc for clinical, epidemiological and qualitative research studies
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recruitment, advertising and interviewee travel costs for staff to be employed on the grant
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purchase, hire and running costs of project-dedicated vehicles
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project-specific personal protective equipment (PPE) that is above the standard expected for the setting
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computing, including recurrent costs dedicated to the project (for example, software licences).
Disallowed costs
We will not pay for:
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estates costs – such as building and premises costs, basic services and utilities. This also includes phone, postage, photocopying and stationery, unless you can justify these within a clinical or epidemiological study.
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page charges and the cost of colour prints
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research, technical and administrative staff whose time is shared across several projects and isn’t supported by an audit record
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PhD stipends
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charge-out costs for major facilities – departmental technical and administrative services, and use of existing equipment
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cleaning, waste and other disposal costs
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indirect costs – this includes general administration costs such as personnel, finance, library, room hire and some departmental services
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office furniture, such as chairs, desks and filing cabinets
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clothing, such as lab coats and shoes
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non-research related activities such as catering, room and venue hire for staff parties, team-building events and social activities
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indemnity insurance (insurance cover against claims made by subjects or patients associated with a research programme)
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ethics reviews, unless you are in a low- or middle-income country
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radiation protection costs
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contingency funds
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organisation insurance
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clinical examination or course fees
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working capital costs of commercial organisations.
If your host organisation is in the UK and you have team members who will spend at least 50% of their working time contributing to the award, they may be eligible to apply for a Global Talent visa through the endorsed funder route.
What we don't offer
See 'Other costs' for the costs we will and will not provide.
1. Before you apply
Make sure you read everything on this page and this article.
You should read our report: Landscape mapping of software tools for climate-sensitive infectious disease modelling.
Get some tips to help you write your grant application.
You do not need to contact us before you write and submit your application.
2. Submit your application to the host organisation
Complete your application form on Grant Tracker.
View the sample application form [PDF 228KB].
Submit it to the authorised organisational approver at your host organisation for approval. Make sure you leave enough time for the approver to review and submit your application before the deadline. The approver may ask you to make changes to your application.
Get some guidance on using Grant Tracker.
3. Host organisation reviews your application and submits to Wellcome
Your application must be submitted by 31 March 2022, 17:00 (BST).
4. Shortlisting
Wellcome staff will review your application for eligibility, strategic alignment to Wellcome's ambitions and relevance to the scope of the call. If shortlisted, your application will be sent for expert review.
No feedback will be offered if your application is not shortlisted due to the quantity of applications that we expect to receive.
4. Written expert review
We'll seek external written expert review on shortlisted applications. Expert reviewers will assess the competitiveness of the proposal, applicant and/or team, and equity and sustainability.
Reviewers will be chosen based on their expertise within the relevant research field and not on their level of seniority.
Unattributed comments will be sent to you after the final funding decisions are made.
5. Panel
A panel will assess the proposals and expert review comments and make funding recommendations to Wellcome.
We will publish membership details in spring.
6. Funding decision
You will receive an email notification of the funding decision soon after the decision has been made.
7. Feedback
We will provide written feedback to all applicants who are shortlisted but are unsuccessful at the final decision stage.
Disabled applicants
If you are disabled or have a long-term health condition, we can support you with the application process.
You must submit your application by 17:00 (BST) on the deadline day. We don’t accept late applications.
This will be the only funding round.
If you have a question about how to complete the application form using Wellcome Trust Grant Tracker, please contact our Grant Information Advisers:
If you have a question about eligibility, what we offer or our funding remit, contact us at:
We do not answer questions about the scope or competitiveness of proposals.
Up to £500,000 for research expenses, including salaries
Up to 5 years. We expect development of the tool to take place in the early part of the award. Later years will be used for maintenance of the software.