Contract opportunities
Find out about contract opportunities to support Wellcome's mission to improve human health – including an overview of each project, who can apply and how.
At Wellcome, we invite organisations to apply for contract opportunities that support our mission to fund discovery research and find solutions to three worldwide health challenges: mental health, infectious disease and climate.
Climate and Health RFPs
There are currently no RFPs for Climate and Health
Discovery Research RFPs
We want to better understand how Wellcome can ensure that human genomic datasets are more representative of the global population and where any future funding or partnership efforts should be directed. In order to help do that, we plan to commission an external supplier(s) to explore the current global landscape of data diversity in genomics. This refers to the inclusion of genomic data from participants that span multiple axes of diversity, including ancestral genetic variation, geographical and environmental variation, and socio-economic status.
Wellcome is a global funder, which necessitates a global perspective, as different regions will encounter different challenges and present different opportunities.
Eligibility: Open to all
Expression of interest deadline: 10 February 2023
Full application: 10 March 2023
Infectious Disease RFPs
There are currently no RFPs for Infectious Disease.
Mental Health RFPs
Transdiagnostic targets are impairing experiences that occur across multiple different mental health diagnoses. We are looking to commission up to 10 suppliers to define and investigate knowledge around their chosen transdiagnostic target that must:
- occur in at least two of depression, anxiety and psychosis
- be measurable and modifiable
- be prioritised by people with lived experience.
Suppliers are welcome to apply focusing on one of our 10 prioritised targets or to suggest their own if they can show us how it meets our inclusion criteria.
Prioritised targets are:
- Cognition
- suicidal ideation or attempts
- mood/emotion regulation
- derealisation/depersonalisation
- self-harm
- worry/rumination
- voices/perceptual experience
- depressed mood
- disrupted sense of self
- interoception
Contracts will be six months in length and we anticipate them starting in April 2023.
Intention to submit form: 8 December 2022
Full application: 23 January 2023
Eligibility: Open to all, including individuals or teams.
Other RFPs
Strategy:
Wellcome’s Global Government Relations team is looking to find a consultant to help develop our political advocacy and government relations in South Africa.
We are looking to extend our relationship with South Africa beyond funding research programmes and are seeking to explore relationships with policymakers and deepen partnerships that will improve health outcomes. We are particularly interested in working with South Africa due to the country’s world-class health and science research, unique health challenges and wide political influence across the continent.
Eligibility: Open to all
Initial response deadline: 6 February 2023
Submission deadline: 17 February 2023
Corporate Affairs:
Wellcome would like to engage a supplier to conduct a series of pilot campaign activities to surface, test and generate learnings around diverse approaches that Wellcome can take to campaign on climate and health.
The supplier will work with us to create a robust testing approach and to deliver campaign activities in one or more geographies that focus on putting health at the heart of climate action.
The objectives:
- To deliver campaign activities that can contribute to increasing the propensity of audiences to engage in climate action when framed through a health lens.
- To surface, test and generate learnings around diverse approaches that we can take to campaign on climate and health.
Expression of interest and question submissions: 31 January 2023
Full application: 16 February 2023
Eligibility: Open to all, including individuals or teams.
Culture, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (CEDI):
Wellcome’s Culture, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (CEDI) team have redesigned their advisory function and are now recruiting CEDI Associates for different work streams (Inclusive Employer, Inclusive Funder and cross-cutting work such as Anti-racism, Anti-ableism and Insights and Learning).
Eligibility: Individual applicants with practical experience in informing and especially driving EDI work within organisations, working in a range of sectors (for example, research, academia, funding, philanthropy, government and community engagement) at any scale (local, regional or national).
Applicants can be freelancers, sole contractors or working as part of organisations, provided they can commit to the minimum term engagement requirements outlined in the open call.
Applicants must be based in the UK and/or understand the employment and funding landscape in the UK.
Submission deadline: 12:00 GMT on 15 February 2023
We aim to make our contract opportunities open to all organisations, however there will be instances where we provide eligibility criteria based on the specific nature of what we are looking to procure. Please see each opportunity for specific eligibility criteria.
Diversity and inclusion are central to our strategy. We want to make sure everything we do – and everyone who works with us – upholds these principles. Our intention is to work with kindness and consideration and to value the wellbeing of everyone involved in the collaboration. If you require any reasonable adjustments during the application process, please let us know.
Please send in your proposals electronically and refer to the individual RFP documents above for specific timelines and response requirements.
Grants: When funding someone to do something where Wellcome expects to receive nothing in return (except acknowledgement and progress reports), this will normally be through a grant.
Contracts: When funding someone to do something where Wellcome expects to receive something in return (such as goods, services, rights or other benefits), this will normally be through a contract.
| Grant | Contract | |
|---|---|---|
| Our rights | When we award a grant, we have no right to receive anything back – except acknowledgment of our funding and reports as detailed in the grant conditions. We can require that the grant is spent on the agreed activities, but we can’t direct how those activities are carried out. We can demand repayment if grant money is spent on something else, but not if we simply don’t like the outputs. We can terminate a grant, cancelling any future payments, at any time and for any reason in line with the grant conditions. |
When we award a contract, we have the right to receive what we are paying for as specified in the legally binding agreement. Depending on the exact terms, we will be able to require a certain level of quality and punctuality. If the supplier falls short, we may be able to make them do the work again or refund the money; we might also be able to sue for compensation. A contract can be terminated only in accordance with its provisions, which may require us to give a specific notice period or make payments even after termination. |
| Tax |
We generally won’t need to pay VAT on a grant. |
VAT is added to all UK invoices. Overseas taxes are charged as applicable. |
| Process |
Grants are usually awarded as a result of an application process, with appropriate types of review and approval. Most of our grants are awarded under our funding schemes. |
Contracts are usually awarded as a result of a procurement exercise. |
We don’t want your proposal to be limited in scope and ambition. However, there may be cases where a set budget is necessary and if so, we do expect you to submit a proposal that is within that.
This is a contract and not a grant. It should be costed as part of the supplier's budget in order to complete the activity on time and in full.
We can pay in various currencies please ensure this is clear on your proposal.
The main VAT requirement is to account for reverse charge VAT at 20% on any B2B (business to business) services received from overseas. This is to provide a level playing field for all businesses, that is UK VAT is payable on services regardless of where the supplier is based. In the case of a UK supplier, the supplier will charge UK VAT at 20% on its services. Where the supplier is based abroad, no VAT is charged by the supplier but the responsibility to account for VAT is shifted to the recipient, who then accounts for the VAT as if the supply was made in the UK.
We always endeavour to provide feedback to suppliers who make it through to the interview stage. Some panels may also provide feedback at earlier stages, but this is at their discretion.
Unless specified on the RFP all contract opportunities are open to all organisations including individuals.
If the lead organisation is working with a sub-processor (collaborator), that sub-processor does not have to complete the Third-Party Risk Assessment form.
The lead organisation must however tell Wellcome who is their sub-processor and send us their independent security certificate and/or security audit report for review as required in the Third-Party Risk Assessment form.
We cannot contract to any countries on the UK government financial sanctions list.
If you would like to stay up to date with contract opportunities, then please register your details here.
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The Procurement team supports Wellcome on all matters relating to procurement. We operate as business partners who provide guidance and run procurement exercises with our stakeholders.
Please do not use this address to submit expressions of interest or proposals. Please refer to the email address provided in the relevant contract opportunity document as to where these should be sent.
Here, you can find some of our previous RFPs that have now expired, including an overview of each project, to enable suppliers to understand the format and structure.
The Strategic Partnerships team is seeking an individual consultant to provide dedicated expertise on Climate and Health partnerships work as well as support Wellcome’s wider Strategic Partnerships function.
Eligibility: Individual consultant with partnerships expertise and strong understanding of the climate and health research ecosystem
Initial response deadline: 7 July 2022
Wellcome would like to partner with BIOVAC to commission a report, based on a literature review/landscape analysis, on how to build an enabling environment for the African continent to increase its end-to-end manufacture of vaccines. We are interested in understanding what the barriers to vaccine development and manufacturing on the African continent are and what strategies and actions can be taken to increase the manufacture of vaccines.
Eligibility: Open to all countries
Initial Response Deadline: 27 June 2022
Wellcome’s Discovery Research team aims to design new funding activities to reduce barriers that are slowing down and/or blocking progress in the field of Bioimaging. Wellcome has a history of supporting innovation in bioimaging and our current portfolio of investments has supported work that ranges from new tools and technologies to infrastructure and data repositories. We want to progress our work even further and identify new key areas where Wellcome investments in bioimaging methodologies, equipment, tools and technology development (across the scales of life, from atoms to humans) will afford field-opening, filed-shaping and field-advancing opportunities.
The purpose of the RFP is to commission a delivery partner to provide critical insights on the following fundamental questions:
- What are the nascent technologies/methodologies in the field of bioimaging that will enable researchers to formulate new hypotheses and address new fundamental questions for life, health, and wellbeing?
- What are specific barriers (in terms of technology, methodology, hardware, software, and access) that are limiting progress in the field of bioimaging in both High-Income Countries (HICs) and Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs)?
- Who are the key leaders on an international level that are driving development in the field of bioimaging?
Wellcome is intending for this piece of work to equally cover both, the UK/HIC and LMIC landscape, addressing the different needs in both settings.
Eligibility: Open to all countries
Response deadlines:
Expressions of Interest – 20 May 2022
Full proposals – 6 June 2022
We’re looking to appoint a bold and creative agency/consultant to determine how we can best use photography to advance our brand and strategy. As well as reviewing the effectiveness of Wellcome Photography Prize as a vehicle for our brand, we need to better understand how our audiences respond to photography and how to ensure the imagery we use reflects our commitment to diversity and inclusion.
Eligibility: Open to all countries
Initial response deadline: Closed
We’re looking to commission a team to identify and evaluate the properties, strengths, and weaknesses of selected measures for depression, anxiety and psychosis and to produce a toolkit for their use by researchers, funders and journals. The team will also produce an implementation plan to encourage the uptake of common metrics by key stakeholder groups.
Eligibility: Open to all countries
Initial response deadline: 5 May 2022
Download the full RFP [PDF 573KB]
Watch a recording of our webinar from 11 April 2022 to find out more.