Sick leave

Salary and studentship stipend costs

Wellcome will normally abide by the terms and conditions of your employing organisation for sick leave and pay. If you receive a Wellcome studentship stipend, we expect your organisation to provide you with the same sick leave and pay entitlements as an employee.

We will supplement your grant by the actual costs your employing organisation incurs paying your salary while you’re on sick leave, less any recoverable statutory sick pay.

We’ll cover these costs if you’re a:

• grantholder and Wellcome funds your salary
• member of staff on a Wellcome grant that funds your salary
• student in receipt of a Wellcome studentship stipend.

The costs can include:

• your basic salary
• employer’s contributions (for example, National Insurance contributions if you’re based in the UK) and pension scheme costs
• any incremental progression up the salary scale
• any paid leave accrued during your time off.

They must not include:

• any recoverable statutory sick pay
• research costs (we automatically provide these).

Research costs

We’ll supplement your grant to contribute towards your direct research costs.

We’ll cover these costs if you:

• take leave for a month or more
• you’re a grantholder and the sole lead of the research, even if Wellcome doesn’t fund your salary.

You don’t have to ask us for these costs. We'll automatically give them to you when you return to work and we know how long you've been on leave.

We will pay 50% of your research costs, pro-rata, for the period you are on leave.

The amount is based on the costs in your original award letter. It doesn’t include:

• your salary (see ‘Salary and studentship stipend costs’ above)
• fellowship supplements and Royal Society contributions (if applicable)
• overseas allowances
• Flexible Funding Allowance
• inflation
• any costs we’ve given you for public engagement
• any supplement we’ve awarded you since your grant started.

For example, if we awarded you £240,000 for your research costs and your grant is for 60 months, the supplement would be £12,000 if you took six months’ leave.

Just before you return to work, your research office must complete and submit a Returning from sick leave form. If your grant/post is funded through our Institutional Strategic Support Fund, contact us first. Do not complete the form.

When we receive the form, we’ll supplement your grant and write to let you know the amount and confirm any change to your grant end date. You don’t have to ask us for the research costs – we'll automatically supplement your grant when we have this information.

You must tell us as soon as possible if you, or your member of staff, decide not to return to work.

You can extend the end date of your grant to match the amount of sick leave taken. If a member of staff on your grant has taken sick leave, you'll need to justify why you need to extend the grant.

If you decide to return to work part-time your employing organisation must agree to it.

If you’re the grantholder you must tell us about this change. We may extend the end date of your grant further. Contact us to discuss this.