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
We aim to undertake a consultation among communities in Africa experiencing the health impacts of climate change on how we can invest in Communities of Practice to strengthen the capacity for transdisciplinary research and action in climate and health. Communities of Practice (COP) are groups of stakeholders from different disciplines or sectors interested in a common goal. Communities of Practice (COP) are groups of stakeholders from different disciplines or sectors who are interested in a common goal. The objectives of the award are:
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To understand how relevant stakeholders across research, policy, implementation, affected communities and supporting organisations in Africa can be better supported to shape, undertake and use transdisciplinary research, and advance action in climate and health (i.e., barriers and opportunities).
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Identify whether a Community of Practice is the most appropriate method for building connections and strengthening capacity for transdisciplinary research and action in climate and health and what a COP should focus on in Africa.
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Consult stakeholders on what mechanisms and activities work, and don’t work, to deliver a successful COP.
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Consult the communities on existing networks that might be relevant, and the ideal approach to strengthening, supporting and/or developing a Community of Practice for climate and health in Africa.
Eligibility: Suppliers must be based in Africa and should be led by or include people from across the region. Please download the RFP for full eligibility requirements.
Expression of interest and question submissions: 24 April 2023
Full proposal deadline: 19 May 2023
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 proposal deadline: 10 March 2023
Infectious Disease RFPs
There are currently no RFPs for Infectious Disease
Mental Health RFPs
Wellcome supports science to solve urgent health challenges facing everyone. Within this broad mission, Wellcome is pursuing an ambitious agenda in mental health to drive a step change in early intervention in anxiety, depression, and psychosis.
We want to leverage neuroscience that can have a greater impact on basic and translational research in relation to anxiety, depression, and psychosis.
Within this strategic objective, we are looking to commission a supplier to help us deliver a capacity-building activity to support neuroscience research for mental health funding in low- and middle-income countries.
The Neuroscience for Mental Health Capacity Accelerator will award grants of around £50,000 each to ~10 collaborative projects of the duration of six to nine months, with at least one partner in each project based in and/or affiliated with an institution in a low- and middle-income country for activities such as:
- widening networks
- forming collaborations
- exchanging and developing projects and ideas
- generating pilot data
- developing plans for collaboration with Lived Experience (LE) experts
- preparing research proposals.
Eligibility: Open to all
Expression of interest and question submissions: 13 March 2023
Full proposal deadline: 03 April 2023
Mental health problems are holding people back in all parts of the world. They are set to become the largest burden of disease by 2030, with anxiety, depressive and psychotic disorders being the largest contributors. Achieving step-changes in understanding mental health problems is critical to developing new and improved early interventions.
To do this effectively, we need a cohesive, inclusive and impact-orientated mental health science field. To help us do this better, we are looking for proposals from a supplier or suppliers to deliver a multilayered insight and design solution programme, which will involve:
- helping researchers pursue new perspectives and approaches
- supporting the integration of biological-psychological-social mental health research agendas
- creating a collectively identifying, excited mental health science community
Eligibility: Open to all
Expression of interest and question submissions: 17 March 2023
Full proposal deadline: 31 March 2023
We wish to commission a Supplier to scope, identify and categorise topics and areas of research within anxiety, depression, and psychosis that may be challenging to pursue or where progress is being held back due to areas of contestation and entrenched debates. It is anticipated that this landscaping exercise will help us identify key areas and debates where deeper analysis, engagement and collaboration with relevant stakeholders could facilitate agreement—or at least, managed disagreement—that might help research to progress.
Eligibility: Open to all
Full quotation deadline: 22 March 2023
Other RFPs
Strategy:
Wellcome is in the process of setting out a policy vision for a reformed infectious disease research and development (R&D) ecosystem with sustained innovation and equitable access to products at its heart. This vision will set out where we hope the global infectious disease R&D ecosystem could be in 10 to 20 years, and explore the policy changes needed to enable an ecosystem that is more equitable and accelerates innovation across a variety of infectious diseases.
We plan to initially launch a discussion paper in early spring 2023 and then seek input from a range of global health and R&D stakeholders through a listening exercise to be completed during early summer 2023.
In this RFP Wellcome are seeking a supplier to support us in this listening exercise where we want to hear from experts from across countries and sectors, including those Wellcome have engaged with in the past, and new voices – with a strong focus on the countries and communities with the highest burden of infectious disease. Culture, equity, diversity and inclusion must be core to the listening exercise, ensuring a true range of perspectives are sought, and we create an environment that supports open sharing of views and constructive discussion.
Eligibility: Open to all
Submission of expression of interest: 31 March 2023
Deadline for submission of proposal: 17 April 2023
The Global Government Relations team at Wellcome is looking to commission a landscape analysis to understand the political, societal and economic dynamics that influence political decision-making and research funding in Kenya and across the Eastern Africa region. We are particularly interested in climate and health, infectious disease, discovery research, and mental health.
Eligibility: Open to all, including individuals or teams.
Expression of interest deadline: 16 March 2023
Full proposal deadline: 23 March 2023
Wellcome’s Policy team would like to commission between three and five suppliers to prototype ambitious and creative tools, methods or approaches that support policy development.
This commission is part of the team’s new Policy Lab function, which aims to drive greater creativity and impact in the way that Wellcome does policy work. The trials will be run independently of Wellcome’s policy work, but we would like to learn from suppliers as they carry out the trials, capture lessons, and use this to inspire more creative practices in our own work in future.
Eligibility: Open to all
Expression of interest deadline: 8 March 2023
Full proposal deadline: 3 April 2023
Download the full RFP [PDF 184KB]
Wellcome’s Government Relations and Strategic Partnerships team is looking to find a consultant to help build and deepen our relationships with key government stakeholders and civil society partners in India.
Wellcome has a strong legacy of funding and scientific relationships in India, and we are keen to collaborate with India further to advance our core mission of improving human health and discovery research. We would like to partner with an agency that can help Wellcome develop its stakeholder engagement strategy in India, assist with outreach to relevant government and non-government partners, and offer political insights to help us achieve our goals.
Eligibility: Open to all
Initial response deadline: 14 February 2023
Full Proposal deadline: 10 March 2023
The Global Government Relations team at Wellcome are looking to find a UK-based firm to help advance our political advocacy and government relations in the UK. We are looking for an organisation that can offer a high level of strategic political advice, support our policy ambitions and help us navigate opportunities.
Eligibility: Open to all
Expression of interest and submission of Q and A deadline: 17 March 2023
Full proposal deadline: 27 March 2023
Corporate Affairs:
Wellcome Corporate Affairs Planning and Insights team are looking to contract a supplier or group of suppliers to develop a segmentation of our audiences. The segmentation will support the activity of Corporate Affairs and others in Wellcome who need to communicate and engage with our audiences, through the development of a meaningful and actionable segmentation, that deepens our understanding and knowledge, enabling us to develop and maintain relationships, in ways that are more meaningful for different audience segments.
Eligibility: Open to all
Expression of interest and submission of Q and A deadline: 24 March 2023
Full proposal deadline: 14 April 2023
Download the full RFP [PDF 341KB]
We want to develop a new series of explainer videos for Wellcome’s YouTube channel. Initially, these videos will draw on existing explainer articles from wellcome.org and translate them into engaging, findable and easily digestible video content that raises our profile and demonstrates our expertise in mental health, climate and health, infectious disease and discovery research.
We want to build a relevant, engaged and international YouTube audience for this type of content and establish Wellcome as a trusted, go-to source for information on these topics. The production and output of these videos must be carried out in line with Wellcome’s commitment to equitable communication.
Eligibility: Open to all
Submission of questions: 3 April 2023
Full proposal deadline: 2 May 2023
Culture, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (CEDI):
There are currently no RFPs for CEDI
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.
We do not contract with suppliers connected to the tobacco industry. For clarity, we define the tobacco industry as any company, entity or organisation (or groups or combinations of the same) whose business other than for an insignificant part (less than 10% of its revenue), is the development, production, promotion, marketing, or sale of tobacco in any country of the world. The term also includes any companies that are a subsidiary or a holding company or affiliate of the above. This also includes E-cigarette companies and non-tobacco related companies which are fully or partially owned by the tobacco industry.
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.
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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.