This call will provide funding for validation activities for novel targets with a clear therapeutic concept and strong biological rationale related to early intervention in anxiety, depression and/or psychosis.
This call will provide funding for validation activities for novel targets with a clear therapeutic concept and strong biological rationale related to early intervention in anxiety, depression and/or psychosis. Funded proposals will generate data supporting the target’s therapeutic potential in the development of new and improved pharmacological treatments.
This call has been designed in collaboration with the Psychiatry Consortium to help enable early and robust target validation research.
You can apply to this call if you are a team of researchers:
- from disciplines relevant to drug discovery and mental health science, including but not limited to genomics, neuroscience, computational psychiatry, molecular biology in psychiatry, medicinal chemistry, neuropharmacology, in-vitro/vivo/silico pharmacology and drug discovery
- from an eligible organisation
- based anywhere in the world (apart from mainland China)
We encourage applications from teams that:
- are diverse and interdisciplinary, within one or across multiple institutions and with collaborations covering multiple areas of expertise
- include researchers at any stage of their career
The team must:
- Include the necessary expertise, technical skills and organisational support to deliver the proposed research, including any consultants or service providers. The team must include at least one person with knowledge on the biological mechanisms of the relevant mental health condition(s).
- Consider consulting people with lived experience of mental health problems as appropriate in the development and sharing of the project. Refer to our guidance for further information on what we mean by ‘people with lived experience’.
- Be of an appropriate size for the proposed research. Teams must consist of at least two applicants and not exceed five applicants (team size requirement includes the lead applicant and coapplicants but excludes collaborators and consultants).
- Include either a lead applicant or coapplicant(s) based in each country where the research will take place.
- Actively foster a diverse, inclusive and supportive research environment.
- Where applicable, consider how they will ensure ethical and equal partnerships, including any partnerships between low- or middle-income country and high-income country researchers.
The lead applicant must:
- Have relevant experience in one or more areas of expertise that is required to deliver the proposal.
- Have the experience needed to drive and lead a collaborative research project and the necessary support structures in place to enable this.
- Have a permanent, open-ended or long-term rolling contract or the guarantee of one for the duration of the award. The contract cannot be conditional on receiving this award.
- Be able to contribute at least 20% of their research time to this project.
Coapplicants can be based at the same or different organisations as other applicants, including in different countries. They can be at any career stage from any relevant discipline.
Each coapplicant must:
- be essential for the delivery of the project and make a significant contribution, for example, in designing the proposed research and leading a specific component of the project
- have a guarantee of space from their administering organisation for the duration of their commitment to the project, but do not need to have a permanent, open-ended or long-term rolling contract
- be able to contribute at least 20% of their research time to this project
Consultants are service providers who are distinct from coapplicants. Consultants can provide a paid service to support the delivery of a project. Consultants can involve an individual or a team from another research group, a commercial organisation or a sole trader.
Consultants are also distinct from collaborators. Consultants can receive payments for their services including time, VAT and costs for delivering the service. Consultants are assessed for their suitability to support the delivery of the assigned work and are required to show an appropriate resource commitment to deliver.
Collaborators are distinct from coapplicants. Collaborators will support the delivery of a project but will not lead on a specific component of the research. For example, a collaborator could be an employee from another research group, a commercial organisation, or a sole trader, providing unpaid technical or subject-matter expertise on experiments required.
Collaborators are distinct from consultants. Collaborators are not assessed for eligibility and are not required to give a minimum research time commitment to the award. Collaborators are not paid for their input, but you can request costs for their expenses.
Time spent away from research and part-time working
You can apply for this award if you have spent time away from research (for example, for a career break, parental leave or long-term sick leave). We will take this into consideration during the review of your application.
Retirement
If you have retired, you must contact us before applying. You must have a guarantee of space from your administering organisation for the duration of the award.
Working part-time
Lead and coapplicants can be part-time, but part-time applicants should still be able to contribute at least 20% of their research time to the project. Their part-time work should be compatible with delivering the project successfully.
Who can't apply
You should not apply for this call if:
- You intend to carry out activities which involve the transfer of funds into mainland China.
- You cannot demonstrate that you can dedicate enough time and resources to the project, if funded.
- You are already an applicant on two applications for this funding call:
- you can only be a lead applicant on one application and a coapplicant on one other application
- you can be a coapplicant on two applications
- You must demonstrate that you have sufficient capacity for both projects if funded. The applications should be for different projects with no overlap of activities.
- You already have applied for, or hold, the maximum number of Wellcome awards for your career stage. Find out how many Wellcome awards you can apply for, or hold, at one time depending on your career stage.
- Your project is not within the remit of this call. Check what kinds of research projects are not in scope for this funding call.
The administering organisation is where the lead applicant is based. It is responsible for submitting your final application to Wellcome and managing the finances of the grant if it is awarded.
The administering organisation can be based anywhere in the world apart from mainland China. It must be able to sign up to Wellcome’s grant conditions.
Your organisation can be a:
- higher education institution
- research institute
- non-academic healthcare organisation
- not-for-profit or non-governmental research organisation
Commercial organisations are not eligible to apply as administering organisations or coapplicants for this call. However, commercial organisations can be added as consultants (service providers) or collaborators.
What is expected of lead applicant and coapplicant organisations
Any eligible organisation must sign up to Wellcome’s grant conditions and grant funding policies. 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, as a minimum, to follow the principles of the Concordat.
We also expect organisations to:
- Guarantee that the space and resources you need have been agreed and will be made available to you from the start date through to the end date of the award.
- Explain how your research fits with the strategic aims of the organisation.
- Give you, and any staff employed on the grant, 10 days a year (pro rata if part-time) to undertake training and continuous professional development (CPD) in line with the Concordat. This should include the responsible conduct of research, research leadership, people management, diversity and inclusion, and promotion of a health research culture.
- Provide a system of onboarding, embedding and planning for you when you join the organisation and/or start the award.
Collaboration agreements
If your application involves a collaboration or partnership between multiple organisations, the partners must enter into a suitable collaboration agreement, including provisions that cover:
- confidentiality
- publication rights
If there is potential for foreground intellectual property, the collaboration agreement must include provisions on:
- access to background intellectual property
- ownership of foreground intellectual property
- arrangements for the protection, management and exploitation of foreground intellectual property
The lead applicant’s administering organisation is required under our grant conditions to own all the foreground intellectual property arising from the project and to take the lead in any commercialisation activity. For guidance, applicants are advised to read Wellcome's intellectual property policy.
Your research environment
Wellcome believes that excellent research happens in environments where people from all backgrounds are treated with respect, supported and enabled to thrive. It requires attention to ethical, social and cultural considerations, and engagement with the needs and perspectives of relevant communities. We believe that creative and high-quality ideas must be open and accessible to everyone to drive innovation and achieve the most significant impact.
Our definition of a research environment is not restricted to the quality of the infrastructure but also considers the culture, practices, behaviours and ecosystems that foster excellent research to produce better evidence and meaningful impacts. This includes research that is inclusive in design and practice, attentive to relevant ethical considerations, engaged with relevant stakeholders, as well as open and transparent.
Read more about how to address research environment and culture in your application.
This call aims to support research activities to validate novel targets that have a clear therapeutic concept, a strong biological rationale and relevance to early intervention in anxiety, depression and/or psychosis. Successful projects will generate data demonstrating that modulation of the target has potential to lead to a clinical benefit, including toxicity considerations, and will develop the potential for a drug discovery campaign. Early elimination of non-viable targets is also important to better inform future research hypotheses and experimental designs.
We define a 'target' as a biochemical entity in the body that a drug can bind to, including but not limited to:
- receptors
- proteins
- enzymes
- biomolecules (for example, DNA, RNA, peptides)
- gut microbiome
Target validation activities must demonstrate that a target is directly involved in a pathophysiological process that leads to the emergence of symptoms and that the modulation of the target can produce a change in the biological pathway and possible clinical efficacy.
Mental health conditions in-scope for this funding call
This funding call is focused on proposals that target anxiety, depression and psychosis or associated symptoms. This includes:
- all types of anxiety and depressive disorders (including obsessive-compulsive disorder, postpartum depression and post-traumatic stress disorder)
- all forms of psychotic disorders (including schizophrenia, postpartum psychosis and bipolar disorder)
While we do not specify any particular diagnostic or classification system, we expect applicants to use a framework and measurement approach that fits their research aim and to provide a clear rationale for doing so.
What your proposal must include
Please also refer to the assessment criteria to inform what your proposal must include.
- Novelty: A clear explanation as to the target’s novelty with supporting evidence.
- By ‘novel targets’ we mean those that are not currently the subject of ongoing drug discovery and development programmes for any of the in-scope conditions, based on currently available public information. For instance, if there is an existing phase I drug candidate for target A in depression, proposals on target A would not be considered novel in this funding call.
- Alternatively, we will consider target novelty in other ways. For example, a novel binding site on a non-novel target; a new approach to a target that has been investigated previously but where resulting drug development has been unsuccessful; or other innovative target approaches.
- Proposals adopting a precision-psychiatry approach alone would not be considered novel. Instead, this should be considered on top of target novelty.
- Rationale and evidence: A clear rationale supporting the target including the therapeutic concept (for example, detailing the mechanism of how target modulation would lead to clinical efficacy). The applicant should consider the latest converging lines of evidence and the latest relevant knowledge on the target.
- Patient impact: A clear description of the potential patient population with appropriate justifications as to why the symptom(s) are a priority focus for people with lived experience. There must also be a description of how the proposal has the potential to create a step-change in early intervention.
- Proposal plan: A feasible plan to generate a robust validation data package supporting the target’s therapeutic potential.
- The plan should include experiments to demonstrate:
- the target’s potential for modulation by a drug,
- target modulation leading to clinical efficacy,
- and target-based safety
- We encourage applicants to consider how their data package would encourage the inclusion of under-researched populations in future drug development programmes. The plan should have appropriately justified go/no-go milestones and cover the development of/access to necessary tools.
- The plan should include experiments to demonstrate:
- Expertise and skills: Clear evidence to show that the team and any consultants is comprised of necessary expertise. The team must include at least one person with knowledge relating to the biological mechanisms of the relevant mental health condition(s). Proposals should clearly describe and justify the role of each team member and any consultants.
Relevant research activities include, but are not limited to, the use of:
- in-vitro models/assays including cells, iPSCs and organoids
- in-vivo mechanistic animal models/studies including knockouts
- in-silico target modelling and structural biology
- ex-vivo animal models, such as animal brain culture slices
- computational neuroscience, including neural circuit and network analysis
- electrophysiology
- imaging
- bio- and chemo- informatics and structural biology
- genomics, including CRISPR technology
- proteomics and transcriptomics including mRNA interference, if focused on validating a specific target
- optogenetics and chemogenetics
- in-vivo human studies if focused on novel target validation
- development and/or use of molecular tools for the purposes of target validation
- drug repurposing with a novel target and a focus on target validation
If you are conducting studies with human participants or animals, refer to our relevant policies:
Research that is not right for this call includes:
- Validating targets for mental health problems outside of the in-scope conditions. For example, eating disorders, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder or substance use disorders.
- Research on non-pharmacological interventions.
- Research on target identification (genetics/genomics data) or research that is focused on generating hypotheses for target validation. Target identification research should be completed prior to this award.
- Research exploring or developing new animal or cellular models with no validation of novel targets.
- Hit screening campaigns or similar drug discovery projects.
- Drug repurposing without a novel target.
- Research using holistic animal disease models that have limited/no mechanistic understanding.
Lead applicant
You must contribute at least 20% of your research time to this award.
If you are based in the UK or Republic of Ireland at a higher education institute (HEI), research institute or non-academic healthcare organisation, you cannot ask for your salary.
If you are based at a charity, non-governmental organisation (NGO) or social enterprise, you can ask for a contribution to your salary, equal to the time you will spend on the award.
If you are based in a low- or middle-income country, you can ask for a contribution to your salary if you hold a permanent, open-ended or long-term rolling contract and have to get your salary from external grant funding.
The amount we pay will be proportionate to the time you contribute to the award, for example if you contribute 30% of your time to the award we will fund 30% of your salary.
If you are requesting contribution to your salary, your administering organisation must:
- confirm that you have to get your salary from external grant funding to participate in the research
- guarantee to provide salary support, including any salary costs not covered by Wellcome, if you cannot get it from other sources for the period of time you are working on the grant.
Coapplicants
If any coapplicant employed on your grant holds a permanent, open-ended or long-term rolling contract and has to get their salary from external grant funding, you can ask us for a contribution to their salary in your application.
The amount we pay will be proportionate to the time they contribute to the award, for example if they contribute 30% of their time to the award we will fund 30% of their salary.
The coapplicant's organisation must:
- confirm that the coapplicant has to get their salary from external grant funding to participate in the research
- guarantee to provide salary support, including any salary costs not covered by Wellcome, for the period of time that the person will be working on the grant.
Coapplicants without a permanent, open ended or long-term rolling contract can request salary depending on the amount of their time they will spend on the grant.
- Less than 80% of coapplicant's time on the grant: they can request salary proportionate to the time they will spend on the grant. Their organisation must guarantee space and salary support if they cannot get it from other sources for the period of time they are working on the grant. Their post cannot be dependent on the application being successful.
- 80% of coapplicant's time on the grant: they can request their full salary. Their organisation does not have to guarantee salary support if salary cannot be obtained from other sources for the period of time they are working on the grant. The post can be dependent on the application being successful.
- If the coapplicants are employed on the award as postgraduate research assistants and they are to spend 100% of their time on the award, their post does not need to be underwritten by the administering organisation and can be dependent on the application being successful.
Coapplicants can also ask for salary where they are employed by a charity, social enterprise or commercial organisation. The amount they request must be proportionate to the time they will spend on the grant.
Alternatively, coapplicants may get their salary through employment on another grant.
Staff working on your programme
We will cover the salary costs of all staff, full or part-time, who will work on your grant.
Staff members may include:
- research assistants or technicians employed on your grant
- specialist service staff and technical experts, for example environmental sustainability, data analysis, fieldwork and clinical studies
- project manager, if you have multiple applicants on your programme
- support if you or a member of staff employed on your grant is disabled or has a long-term health condition – see 'Disability-related adjustment support'.
Teaching buyout
If you’re a humanities and social sciences researcher, you can ask for funds for teaching replacement to cover the cost of a temporary replacement lecturer. You must retain at least a 10% commitment to teaching.
Costs:
- can cover up to 33% FTE of your contracted time
- are usually for a person at a more junior level than the postholder
- can be spread across the full period of the grant.
If you already get buyout costs from another grant (funded by Wellcome or elsewhere), you can ask us for this cost, but only for the period of time on your Discovery Award when you won't receive buyout costs from another grant.
You must provide a letter from your employing organisation, confirming that your contract includes a teaching commitment. You should include this in your grant application.
PhD/Research Masters fees
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. If the pay award is not yet known, applicants should use the International Monetary Fund inflation rate, selecting the ‘inflation, average consumer price’ option as an indicator.
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, and essential English language tests
- 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.
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
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:
- maintenance and service contracts
- staff time costs for dedicated technical staff employed to operate the equipment or facility.
We don’t cover the costs of:
- estates and utilities
- depreciation or insurance
- other staff, for example, contributions towards departmental technical, administrative and management staff time
We do cover these costs if related to animal housing facilities.
If the facilities or equipment were paid for by a Wellcome grant, you can only ask for access charges if:
- the grant has ended
- any support for running costs and maintenance contracts has ended
Equipment purchase
You can ask for 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% of the total costs, including maintenance, 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
- cost effective and environmentally sustainable 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 funds to buy animals if they are essential to your project. We will also fund the charge-out rates for animal house facilities if your organisation uses full economic costing methodology. These costs include:
- running costs (including animal maintenance, any experimental procedures, licences and relevant staff training)
- appropriate estates costs
- cage and equipment depreciation costs, but not building depreciation costs
We may not pay the full charge-out rate for an animal house facility if we've provided significant funding towards the infrastructure and/or core support of the facility.
If your organisation does not use full economic costing methodology to establish charge-out rates for animal house facilities, you can ask for funds to cover:
- the cost of buying animals
- running costs (including animal maintenance, any experimental procedures, licences and relevant staff training)
- staff costs, for example, contributions towards the salaries of animal house technicians
We will not provide estates or depreciation costs.
We will provide funds if you need to outsource project work to:
- contract research organisations
- other fee-for-service providers.
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.
We cover fieldwork costs if they’re essential and you can justify them. Costs can include:
- 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
- the purchase, hire and running costs of vehicles dedicated to your project
- expenses for subjects and volunteers, including the recruitment of participants, their participatory fees and travel costs
- statistical analysis.
You can ask for other fieldwork costs that aren’t listed here, but you’ll need to justify them.
You can ask for these costs if you are applying from a higher education institution, a research institute, a non-academic healthcare organisation, a not-for-profit or non-governmental research organisation.
Research should be designed to minimise travel. You can ask for the cost of essential travel. The mode of transport should be low carbon, even if it is more expensive (for example travelling by train instead of flying).
We will not pay for business class flights.
Conference attendance
You can ask for a contribution towards the costs of attending scientific and academic meetings and conferences, including registration fees. The limits are:
- Lead applicant – £2,000 a year
- Coapplicants – £2,000 a year
- Research and technical staff 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. You’ll need to justify each visit and its duration.
Carbon offset costs
This applies to all types of travel costs Wellcome provides.
You can ask for:
- The cost of a low carbon mode of transport, even if it 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 environmental sustainability policy for what you and your organisation can 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 organisation, we'll help with the additional costs of working on the project overseas. Please see the 'Overseas allowances' section for details.
You can ask for these costs if you are applying from a higher education institution, a research institute, a non-academic healthcare organisation, a not-for-profit or non-governmental research organisation.
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.
Overseas allowances are not counted against your £400,000 limit for research expenses.
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, even if it’s more expensive (for example travelling by train instead of flying). We will not pay for business class flights.
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 environmental sustainability policy 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 environmental sustainability 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 570 hours a year 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 environmental sustainability 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.
You can ask for costs that are essential to the project. These can include:
- materials, including printing and publishing
- other costs relating to engagement activities that are essential to carry out your research, such as collaborating with people with lived experience, patient involvement (including under-served groups) and community engagement
- dissemination of research results and findings arising from Wellcome funded research and workshops.
For more information, please refer to our guidance on using an engaged research approach.
If you are involving people with lived experience at the application design stage, you cannot include a consultation charge for this work. Wellcome will not be held responsible for any costs associated with the production of a response to this funding call. We expect people with lived experience involved in approved applications to be appropriately compensated or paid for their time. The budget that must be requested during the application process should include appropriate remuneration for lived experience experts and costs for involvement. We cannot advise on ways to appropriately compensate or pay people with lived experience, as approaches differ between organisations and contexts. However, when thinking about appropriate compensation or payment, we would encourage you to think about the experience, knowledge, and skills that someone will be bringing to the project, as well as their responsibility within the process. Make sure that you have appropriately budgeted for the costs needed to support meaningful involvement, as set out in your proposal. For example, this could include (but not be limited to):
- consultant fees for lived experience experts on the project
- travel costs
- salary costs for lived experience researchers embedded in a team
- expenses to support meetings or workshops.
It is not possible for us to advise on social security, in terms of people with lived experience being paid for their involvement, as the arrangements will be different in different countries. It is the responsibility of the research team to ensure that they are abiding by any relevant regulations in their context, and we would encourage you to seek advice from relevant local organisations if needed.
You can ask for overheads if your grant will be based at a:
- university outside the UK
- research organisation that does not receive core funding for overheads
- charitable or not-for-profit 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 reporting for the charity support element of UK government block funding, for example the Charity Research Support Fund for universities in England.
Overheads can include:
- estates, for example building and premises
- non-project dedicated administrative and support staff
- administration, for example finance, library and room hire
The total cost for overheads should not be more than 20% of the direct research costs.
These costs must directly support the activity funded by the grant.
How to apply for these costs
In your grant application you must:
- give a full breakdown of costs (you can't ask for a percentage of the research costs)
- explain why these costs are necessary for your research
- 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
You can ask for these costs if you are applying from a higher education institution, a research institute, a non-academic healthcare organisation, a not-for-profit or non-governmental research organisation.
You can ask for costs to cover the following types of training:
- 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.
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.
How we calculate your inflation allowance
We will add an inflation allowance to your award. Your inflation allowance is based on your total eligible costs and the duration of the award.
We will use an inflation allowance that reflects the inflation rate of the country where the host organisation is based using data from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). You'll receive the following allowance if the costs in your application are in pounds sterling.
| Award duration (in months) | Inflation allowance |
|---|---|
| 0-12 | 0.0% |
| 13-24 | 1.00% |
| 25-36 | 2.01% |
| 37-48 | 3.04% |
| 49-60 | 4.08% |
| 61-72 | 5.14% |
| 73-84 | 6.20% |
| 85-96 | 7.29% |
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 the IMF rate for the currency your award will be made in.
Allowed costs
You may ask for the following costs (you will have to justify them in your application):
- specialist publications that are relevant to the research and not available in institutional libraries
- consultancy fees, including for lived experience experts
- expenses for subjects and volunteers – includes recruitment of participants, their participatory fees and travel, as well as interviewee expenses
- reasonable research-associated costs related to the feedback of health-related findings but not any healthcare-associated costs
- costs associated with developing an outputs management plan
- questionnaires, recruitment material, newsletters etc for clinical, epidemiological and qualitative research studies
- public engagement materials where dissemination (including printing and publishing) is a key activity of the project
- recruitment, advertising and interviewee travel costs for staff to be employed on the grant
- purchase, hire and running costs of project-dedicated vehicles
- project-specific personal protective equipment (PPE) that is above the standard expected for the setting
- costs to host/a contribution towards hosting:
- a conference
- a session within a conference
- a symposium
- a seminar series
- advisory board meetings, if appropriate.
- The meeting should either be:
- for research purposes, for example data gathering
- to disseminate your research findings, for example to policy makers.
- Costs can include:
- travel and accommodation for keynote speakers
- external room hire and catering
- event publicity and conference materials
- childcare and other caring responsibility costs for delegates
- any costs related to accessibility and inclusion.
Disallowed costs
We will not pay for:
- estates costs – such as building and premises costs, basic services and utilities*
- phone, postage, photocopying and stationery, unless you can justify these within a clinical or epidemiological study
- page charges and the cost of colour prints
- research, technical and administrative staff whose time is shared across several projects and isn’t supported by an audit record*
- PhD stipends
- cleaning, waste and other disposal costs*
- indirect costs – this includes general administration costs such as personnel, finance, library, room hire and some departmental services
- office furniture, such as chairs, desks and filing cabinets
- clothing such as lab coats and shoes
- non-research related activities such as catering, room and venue hire for staff parties, team-building events and social activities
- indemnity insurance (insurance cover against claims made by subjects or patients associated with a research programme)
- ethics reviews, unless you are in a low- or middle-income country
- radiation protection costs
- contingency funds
- organisation insurance
- clinical examination or course fees
- working capital costs of commercial organisations.
*We will fund these costs in the case of animal-related research.
1. Before you apply
- Make sure you read everything on this page.
- You do not need to contact us before your write and submit your application.
- We held a webinar on 25 February 2025 about this award. Watch a recording of this webinar. You can view the questions submitted on Slido using #TargetValidation.
2. Prepare and submit your preliminary application
- View the preliminary application form.
- Applications must be submitted in English.
- Complete your preliminary application on the Wellcome Funding Platform.
- As a resource for developing your validation plans, we recommend you review the report ‘Guiding Principles for Robust Target Validation in Psychiatry’ created by the Psychiatry Consortium in partnership with the British Neuroscience Association.
- Complete the ‘Lead applicant’ and the ‘Other participants’ section to describe the team and any consultants. There should be at least one person with knowledge relating to the biological mechanisms of the relevant mental health condition(s). Additional information demonstrating the necessary expertise of the team and any consultants should come under the ‘Additional Information’ section.
- In the ‘Proposal summary’ section, highlight key information on the target novelty, rationale, evidence and potential patient population (including the potential impact in early intervention).
- In the ‘Details of the Proposal’ section, outline your project in further detail using the following headings. Refer to the preliminary assessment criteria to inform your application content.
- Novelty
- Rationale and evidence
- Patient impact
- In the ‘Additional Information’ section, you should cover the following in under 1000 words:
- overarching plan and timeline
- additional information to demonstrate the necessary expertise of the wider team (including any consultants)
- Your preliminary application must be submitted by 17:00 BST on the deadline day, 15 April 2025.
3. Shortlisting
- When we receive your preliminary application, we will check your eligibility and that your proposal is within the scope of this call.
- Preliminary applications will be reviewed by Wellcome staff, Wellcome’s lived experience advisors and industry experts.
- You will be informed of the decision on your preliminary application approximately one month after the preliminary application deadline.
- We are unable to provide feedback on applications that are not invited to submit a full application.
4. Invitations to full application
- If shortlisted, you will be invited to submit a full application. You will complete your full application on the Wellcome Funding platform. Once notified, shortlisted applicants will have approximately two months to prepare and submit their full applications.
5. Prepare your full application
- If invited to submit a full application, you will be matched with an industry expert who can offer advice on your proposal.
- Wellcome will cover the consultation costs with your assigned industry expert.
- There is no obligation for you to take up this consultation offer and it is at your discretion to accept or incorporate your industry expert’s input.
- Advice from industry experts are independent from Wellcome and the industry experts are not accountable for any assessment outcomes.
6. Submit your full application to your administering organisation for approval
- Complete your application form on Wellcome Funding platform.
- Submit it to the 'authorised approver' at your administering organisation for approval. Make sure you leave enough time for the approver at your organisation to review and submit your application before the deadline, as the approver may ask you to make changes to your application.
- If this is your organsation’s first time applying for Wellcome Funding, they will need to contact us to request an organisation account. Email fundingsupport@wellcome.org with your Organisation’s:
- Name
- Address
- Country
- Team email address for the people who will approve and submit your application (this is usually a research management team)
- We will create the organisation account and provide access to the approvers. Review our guidance for research offices.
7. Administering organisation approves and submits it to Wellcome
- Your application must be submitted by your administering organisation by 17:00 (BST) on the deadline day, 31 July 2025.
8. Committee review
- A committee will review proposals and make funding recommendations to Wellcome.
- Committee members will be chosen based on their expertise within the relevant research field. Committee membership will be comprised of a diverse range of international members and will take into account Wellcome’s diversity and inclusion priorities.
- Industry experts involved in the shortlisting of preliminary applications or full application support will not be a part of the committee.
- Once the committee has been appointed, we will update this page to include its details.
9. Funding decision
- Final funding decisions will be made by Wellcome.
- You will receive an email notification of the funding decision soon after the decision has been made in September 2025.
- The reasons for a decision will be provided to unsuccessful applicants in writing.
Timing considerations for your application
You should leave enough time to read everything on this page before applying.
If invited to submit a full application, you should:
- Ensure that you and your coapplicant(s) have time to complete the application.
- Consider the time required for consultations with your industry expert if you take up the opportunity, leaving sufficient time for discussions and to consider the feedback.
- Leave enough time for your administering organisation to review, offer feedback and for you to apply any suggested amendments.
- Ensure that your authorised organisational approver at your administering organisation has time to approve and submit your application to Wellcome by 17:00 BST on 31 July 2025.
Getting support with your application
We offer disability-related support for applicants. Read the disability-related support guidance if you:
- are disaled or have a long-term health condition and you need help applying for funding
- need help completing your project, for example, asking for costs for assistive technology
If you need further support with completing your application or need to request an extension to the deadline, please contact us.
The application process consists of two stages:
- a preliminary application stage, where proposals will be shortlisted
- a full application stage, where shortlisted applicants are invited to submit full applications for review by a committee of experts
Preliminary applications
All preliminary applications will be assessed on:
- Novelty: The target novelty and whether the proposed research is in scope of this funding call.
- Rationale and evidence: The clarity and strength of the rationale for the target, including the therapeutic concept (for instance, mechanism of how modulating the target would lead to clinical efficacy). The rationale should be supported by the latest converging lines of evidence and consider the latest relevant knowledge on the target. There should be insufficient evidence to rule out the target from further development.
- Patient impact: Whether the proposal has identified a potential patient population, with appropriate justifications as to why the symptom(s) are a priority focus for people with lived experience. The proposal should describe its potential for impact in early intervention.
- Overarching plan: Whether the overarching plan is appropriate within the proposed timeline and costs.
- The team: Whether the wider team (including consultants) has the necessary expertise and technical skills for the proposed research, including at least one person with knowledge relating to the biological mechanisms of the relevant mental health condition(s).
In making shortlisting decisions, we will consider the diversity of targets and mental health conditions to achieve a breadth across our funding portfolio.
Full applications
All full applications will be evaluated using the same weighted assessment criteria. There are four weighted assessment criteria for full applications:
1. Potential for impact in psychiatric drug discovery (30%)
- The target is novel with a clear summary to show that there are no currently ongoing drug discovery and development programmes on the target for any in-scope conditions. Alternatively, if the proposal claims target novelty in other ways (read is your research right for this call?), it provides a clear explanation and strong evidence to support it.
- The proposal identifies a potential patient population with appropriate justifications as to why the symptom(s) are a priority focus for people with lived experience.
- The proposal has the potential to create a step change in early intervention for anxiety, depression and psychosis, supported by evidence from the literature or consultations with people with lived experience.
2. Rationale, evidence and proposal plan (30%)
- The proposal has a clear rationale underpinning the therapeutic concept (for instance, how modulation of the target would lead to clinical efficacy).
- The proposal is supported by the latest converging lines of evidence on the target, such as mechanistic, genetic and back-translation research in humans. Any evidence from animal models is supported by up-stream evidence demonstrating that the pathway/circuit in the animal model is translatable to humans.
- The proposal clearly explains the latest relevant knowledge on the target structure, distribution, potential for modulation by a drug, and target-based safety, showing that there is insufficient evidence to rule out the target from further development.
- The proposal plan and methodology have sufficient scope so that, if successful, the project will generate a robust validation data package (for example, showing that the target modulation has the potential to lead to clinical efficacy, the target’s potential for modulation by a drug and target-based safety) sufficient to justify the initiation of a drug discovery programme with future funding. The proposal includes additional considerations to make the data package more inclusive of under-researched populations.
- The plan has a feasible and efficient approach to develop and/or access tools required, considering both in-house and external collaboration options with clear justifications.
- Timelines and budget are feasible.
- The plan has included appropriately justified go/no-go milestone(s) that will support assessment of the target’s therapeutic value during the project.
3. Expertise and suitability of the team (20%)
- The wider team (including any consultants) have the necessary expertise and technical skills to deliver the proposed research, and there is at least one person with knowledge relating to the biological mechanisms of the relevant mental health condition(s).
- The lead applicant has experience of people and research management and training, as appropriate for their career stage.
- Each team member (lead applicant and coapplicants) has research experience relevant to the proposal, evidenced through research outputs and/or preliminary data (as appropriate for their career stage).
- The role of each of the lead applicant, coapplicants (and consultants if involved) is clearly described with clear justifications as to why each role is necessary.
- Teams must consist of at least two applicants and not exceed five applicants (team size requirement includes the lead applicant and coapplicants but excludes collaborators and consultants).
- Consultants, if involved, have relevant expertise to deliver the assigned work, evidenced through past outputs. The proposal must also show commitment of appropriate resources from consultants to deliver the work, evidenced through letter(s) of support.
4. Suitability of research environment, culture and sharing of outputs (20%)
Research location:
- The administering organisation is supportive of the proposal, evidenced through letter(s) of support signed by an individual with appropriate organisational seniority. For example, it aligns with the organisation’s strategy, and it provides in-kind or financial support including but not limited to administrative or technical support and training opportunities.
- The wider team (including any consultants) have access to the necessary research infrastructure.
Research environment:
- The proposal includes a detailed description of how the team will foster a positive and inclusive research culture. This could include, but is not limited to, information about career development, research practices, leadership, team composition and partnerships, appropriate safeguarding measures for team members, consultants, collaborators and people with lived experience.
- The proposal demonstrates a commitment to equity, diversity and inclusion. For example, the team’s approach to recruiting a diverse team and how they will promote inclusion of members in the research and outputs produced, representativeness of the data used to identify targets, or how the focus of the proposal addresses existing mental health disparities with regard to unmet treatment needs. The proposal has made an additional effort to acknowledge representation or bias issues within the data that was used to identify the target.
- The proposal includes a description of any relevant ethical questions and complexities pertaining to the methods, study populations, samples and data, with appropriate reference to ethics frameworks, guidance, and approaches to tend to relevant issues.
- The proposal includes plans to engage with lived experience experts and relevant stakeholders for the dissemination of research findings to the community. This could include:
- contributing to or co-authoring publications (for example, checking the sensitivity and appropriateness of language)
- co-developing outputs such as papers, presentations and blogs
- identifying dissemination routes and methods
In making final decisions, we will consider the diversity of targets and mental health conditions to achieve a breadth across our funding portfolio.
If you have a question about eligibility, what we offer or completing the application form, contact our funding information advisers:
This call has been designed in collaboration with the Psychiatry Consortium.
Up to £700,000 per project
Up to 2 years