Heat adaptation: evaluating interventions to help manage the health effects of heat
The scheme will fund teams led by researchers from low- or middle-income countries (LMIC) to test interventions to manage heat-related health risks in real settings – not under laboratory conditions.
The award will fund teams led by researchers from low- or middle-income countries (LMIC) to test interventions to manage heat-related health risks in real settings – not under laboratory conditions. By the end of the award, successful applicants will have delivered a high-quality study testing and evaluating a new or existing heat adaptation intervention with the potential to change policy and practice in LMICs.
About you
You can apply to this award if you are a transdisciplinary team of researchers who:
- are from climate, health and relevant disciplines (for example, implementation science, social sciences, economics) with the necessary skills to design, test and evaluate the effects that heat adaptation interventions have on health and associated wider outcomes
- are led (or co-led) by an applicant that is a national of, and hosted at an institution that is based in, an eligible low- or middle- income country
- have collaborating partners from policy and/or practice-based institutions in an eligible low- or middle-income country who are involved in a process of co-production across all stages of the research project
- promote a diverse, inclusive and supportive research environment within your team and across your organisation(s).
During your award we expect you to:
- Produce evidence on the health and socio-economic effects of climate heat adaptation interventions in a low- or middle-income country or a set of low- or middle-income countries.
- Develop methods for testing and evaluating heat adaptation interventions across a variety of outcomes such as health effects (health, equity and gender impacts). This may also include implementation and process outcomes such as feasibility, scalability, acceptability and economic evaluations of the interventions.
- Provide evidence for policymakers and practitioners on whether or not the proposed intervention is relevant to the local context, can be scaled up, and is likely to be implementable and sustainable in the long-run.
- Strengthen capacity to undertake and use this type of research in the country or set of countries where the research is taking place. Applicants can propose their own capacity strengthening plans, including scientific and other expertise to deliver the proposal.
Career stage and experience
At the point you submit your application
- Lead applicant(s):
- must be nationals of and located at an institution in a low-or middle-income country; they can lead a research that is taking place in their own or a neighbouring country
- must be a leader in your field who can demonstrate you can drive and lead a collaborative research programme; and that you have a permanent, open-ended, or long-term rolling contract for the duration of the award
- must have experience of leading large-scale projects
- must be able to contribute at least 20% of your research time to this project
- must be based at an eligible host organisation that can sign up to our grant conditions.
- Co-applicants:
- can be based anywhere in the world
- must be able to contribute at least 10% of your research time to this project
- must be essential for delivery of the proposed project and provide added value to the team, for example designing the research, writing the application, providing training, knowledge brokering or managing the programme
- must have a guarantee of space from your host organisation for the duration of your commitment to the award
- must be based at an eligible organisation that can sign up to our grant conditions
- must include in-country policymakers or implementation partners from national or local government, NGOs or other relevant institutions
- do not need to have a permanent, open-ended, or long-term rolling contract at your host organisation
- can be at any career stage.
Researchers can only be a lead applicant on one application for this call. Lead applicants can be included as a co-applicant on one other application, but they must be able to demonstrate that they have sufficient capacity for both projects if funded. Co-applicants can be listed on a maximum of two applications only.
Time spent away from research and part-time working
You can apply if you've been away from research (for example a career break, maternity leave, or long-term sick leave). We'll allow for this when we consider your application. Lead and co-applicants can be part-time. There is no formal minimum, but part-time working needs to be compatible with delivering the proposal successfully.
The skills and experiences of your team
Your team or consortia should be able to demonstrate:
- a strong track record in intervention design and evaluation research
- a strong track record in managing and training others
- a strong track record of working in collaboration with policymakers, implementers and/or decision makers involved in delivering adaption interventions in relevant sectors
- experience designing and planning research projects in collaboration with in-country implementation partners from government, NGOs and/or other relevant institutions and organisations.
Host organisation
You must be at an eligible host organisation in a low- or middle-income country (apart from mainland China). Joint lead applicants can be based anywhere in the world, provided one or more of the lead applicants is at a host organisation in a low- or middle-income country where the research is taking place or nearby.
It can be a:
- higher education institution
- research institute
- non-academic healthcare organisation
- not-for-profit organisation.
About your proposal
Assessment criteria
Focus area of the call
The call will focus on heat adaptation interventions that aim to manage heat-related health risks across short and longer timescales. Eligible interventions can be new or already exist but need to be evaluated within the project timeframe of up to five years in a defined population (for example, urban or rural), or community (for example, schools, healthcare facilities, workplaces, informal settlements and displaced communities). There is guidance on evaluating complex interventions from the MRC/CSO Social and Public Health Sciences Unit.
Examples of interventions include but are not limited to:
- individual or household-level interventions (for example, awareness raising and behaviour campaigns, clothing, hydration technologies or plans)
- technological interventions (for example, personal and ambient heat stress sensors, specialised materials)
- infrastructural interventions (for example, shelter design, cool housing, shade provision, water provision)
- nature-based interventions (for example, parks, green roofs/walls, trees, standing water bodies)
- institutional or policy interventions (for example, heat action plans, occupational safety regulations, built environment policy and plans, building policies)
- cultural or behavioural interventions (for example, traditional practices, dietary practices, clothing, shelter design).
In/out of scope
In scope:
- Studies that evaluate the health effects of heat adaptation interventions in the real world.
- Studies of interventions that are being implemented in low- or middle-income countries.
- Studies that evaluate the direct effects of heat adaptation solutions on human health as a primary outcome.
- Heat adaptation interventions that focus on reducing the impacts on human health of excessive heat.
Out of scope:
- Studies that exclusively model health effects of heat adaptation interventions and do not measure any impacts in the real world.
- Studies in high-income countries.
- Studies where the impacts of the intervention on human health are indirect – for example, agricultural interventions with crop yields as a primary outcome; water interventions with algal blooms as a primary outcome.
- Heat adaptation interventions focused on reducing the effects of cold temperatures on health.
Outcomes we expect you to evaluate
In line with complex evaluation approaches, we expect you to assess outcomes across different dimensions of your proposed intervention.
Health outcomes
Heat-related illnesses encompass a broad spectrum of conditions outlined in a paper in The Lancet. Examples of potentially relevant health outcomes could include (but are not limited to) immediate or intermediate biomarkers of heat stress (for example, dehydration, electrolyte imbalances, heart rate, hypertension). They may also include morbidity and mortality data for specific heat-related conditions (for example, low birth weight, pre-term birth, heat stroke, kidney disease, mental health illness).
Secondary outcomes
We also require studies to consider wider social and economic outcomes such as gender, equity, labour productivity, household income, day-labour attrition, hospital burden or other unintended consequences as these are often critical factors that decision-makers consider.
Implementation outcomes
We are also interested in studies that assess whether or not an intervention works in the real world. Examples of these implementation or process outcomes are intervention acceptability, feasibility, appropriateness, cost and whether or not the intervention can be scaled up and sustained in the long-term, beyond the duration of the research project. Learn more about implementation or process outcomes from this paper on the PMC website.
Approach to co-production
National, regional and local policymakers, researchers, implementers and beneficiaries will be integral to the success, uptake and long-term sustainability of identified heat adaptation interventions to reduce health risks. We therefore expect research to be designed and planned in collaboration with in-country policy and implementation partners so that they are responsive to local needs, interests, and capacities. They need to embrace local cultural contexts to increase the likelihood that the intervention will be sustainable beyond the duration of the project. We encourage South-South collaboration where possible.
Preliminary applications will be reviewed and shortlisted by Wellcome staff.
We will consider the following criteria in reviewing the preliminary applications:
- Strategic importance, approach and methods (50%):
- How relevant your proposal is to local policy and practice.
- Whether your proposal includes a plausible theory of change that describes how the intervention is expected to lead to the desired outcomes.
- Whether the design and methods are appropriate and can achieve your stated aims.
- The team, skills and experience (25%):
- Whether your proposal includes an appropriate combination of collaborating partners from relevant research disciplines, policy and/or practice in a process of co-production.
- The skills and experiences of the team members.
- Evidence of a commitment to equity, diversity and inclusion.
- Capacity strengthening, research environment and research uptake (25%):
- Your experience of and plans for strengthening the heat adaptation research, policy and practice community to undertake and utilise this type of research in the location(s) where the research is taking place.
The maximum word count for preliminary applications is 1,000 words.
Full applications will be reviewed by external experts who will consider a series of criteria including:
Description, aims and objectives of your proposal
- The novelty and strategic importance of your work in:
- understanding health effects, social and economic outcomes, implementation outcomes or other potential unintended consequences of adaptation interventions in protecting health in real-world contexts
- providing actionable recommendations for effective and resilient adaptation interventions.
- Whether you provide a clear description of the intervention(s) including details of the location(s), target population(s), expected pathways to impact, any technology used or specific behaviours required.
- Whether you include a plausible theoretical or conceptual research framework.
- Your presentation and analysis of prior activities, knowledge and learning on which your proposal will build and provide distinct new knowledge.
- The extent and approach to co-production with implementing partners/local communities.
Leadership and management
- Whether the leadership and management approach is convincing and coherent, and whether local researchers are involved in the leadership, design and delivery of the research project.
- Whether the partnership management and governance plan is convincing and coherent (whether there are structures and processes to facilitate equitable participation, co-production and open and active communication).
- Your leadership and management skills, and how you plan to develop these during the award.
Methods and outcomes
- Whether you have used appropriate implementation or evaluation study designs including details of the study site(s) and how contextual factors will be assessed. Further guidance on evaluating complex interventions can be found in this BMJ paper.
- The health, social and economic outcomes you will examine and how you plan to assess health and gender equity and gender impacts.
- How you will identify, consider and/or control for confounding variables including multi-hazard factors (for example, heat and water scarcity) that contribute to observed heat-related health outcomes.
- The implementation outcomes you will examine (for example, acceptability, adoption, appropriateness, scalability, affordability, economic outcomes, feasibility). See further guidance on implementation outcomes from this systematic review in SAGE Journals.
- Whether the projects proposed structures and processes facilitate partnership building.
- How you will consider the longer-term resilience of the intervention, including how the intervention’s robustness and adaptability to climate change will be examined.
The team
- The transdisciplinary nature of your research team and whether your proposal includes an appropriate combination of expertise. Examples might include experts from climate science, public health, epidemiology, evaluation, economics, implementation science, behavioural or social science and relevant sectoral expertise (for example, engineering, occupational health) to deliver the project outcomes.
- How well relevant collaborating partners from research, policy and/or practice are integrated in the team and whether this is likely to deliver co-production of research and knowledge brokering to support research uptake. We expect this to be reflected in the budget. See this guidance on co-production from an NIHR research project.
- Your skills and experience and that of your co-investigators and collaborators, including:
- prior experience of researchers engaging with policy/practitioners/implementation partners
- knowledge brokering competencies such as the ability to act as a bridge between research producers and users
- strong communication, interpersonal and networking skills
- the ability to facilitate social learning and translate research for different contexts and audiences.
- How you will contribute to the strategic aims of the institutional partners involved in your project.
Capacity strengthening and research environment
- How your project will support capacity strengthening in climate adaptation and implementation or evaluation research amongst both research users and producers of evidence. More information on research capacity strengthening can be found on the LSTM website.
- The inclusion of a project capacity strengthening plan for both research users and producers of evidence, with activities in at least two of the following levels, as outlined in this DfID guidance on a framework and indicators to improve capacity strengthening:
- individual (for example, training, mentoring, developing leadership and management skills)
- institutional (for example, infrastructure such as libraries, strengthening institutional committees)
- societal (for example, opportunities to raise the profile of researchers from low or middle-income countries; how you will facilitate learning among researchers and between researchers and policymakers; how you will strengthen the capacity of policymakers to understand and use research findings). While dedicated funds can be allocated to capacity strengthening, we expect the plan to include activities that do not necessarily require external funds.
- How your project will promote research integrity, diversity, equity, and inclusion and promote positive mental health and wellbeing.
Environmental sustainability
- How you address environmental sustainability considerations within the project delivery plans.
Dissemination
- A research uptake plan that describes your approach, why it is appropriate for the specific context, how it will be implemented and the expected impacts. Dedicated funds may be allocated to this activity, where relevant. Guidance on developing a research uptake plan is available from the FCDO.
The maximum word count for full applications is 3,000 words.
Who can’t apply?
You cannot apply if you intend to carry out activities that involve the transfer of grant funds into mainland China.
What’s expected of the host organisation?
You must be based at an eligible organisation that can sign up to our 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, at a minimum, to follow the principles of the Concordat.
We also expect your host organisation to:
- Give you, and any staff employed on the grant, at least 10 days a year (pro rata if part-time) to undertake training and continuing professional development (CPD) in line with the Concordat. This should include the responsible conduct of research, research leadership, people management, diversity and inclusion, and the promotion of a healthy research culture.
- Provide a system of onboarding, embedding and planning for you when you start the award.
- Provide you with the status and benefits of other staff of similar seniority.
If your host organisation is a core-funded research organisation, this Award should not replace or lead to a reduction in existing or planned core support.
The heat adaptation funding call provides up to a maximum of £2 million to cover research expenses, costs of small-scale pilot interventions, costs associated with capacity strengthening, co-production and research uptake activities.
Deployment of interventions at scale will not be supported.
The award can last for up to five years but may be shorter at the applicant’s discretion.
You should ask for a level and duration of funding that is justifiable for your proposed research. You must justify all costs within the costs section of your application.
The award includes:
If you do not have a permanent post, we will provide your salary.
If you have a permanent post, you can only ask for your salary if you are based in a low- or middle-income country and you hold a permanent, open-ended or long-term rolling contract that states that you have to get your salary from external grant funding.
Your host organisation must confirm:
- that your employment contract states you must get salary recovery from external grant funding
- that they will underwrite the salary and post for the period of time that you will be working on the grant.
We will fund the total cost of your salary for the entire period of the grant.
You can only receive one salary.
Your salary should be based on the pay scales of the host organisation that will be employing you.
It should include:
- your 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
- any incremental progression up the salary scale
- locally recognised allowances such as London allowance.
You should not include:
- any potential promotion costs
- any Wellcome fellowship supplement that was part of a previous grant.
If your host organisation is in a low- or middle-income country and you will be working in a high-income country for four weeks or more, you should be paid at an appropriate rate for that country, according to your age and experience.
You should only allow for salary pay awards during Year 1. These should be based on pay awards already agreed: if you don’t know what the pay award is yet then use our inflation rate of 2.0%.
From Year 2 onwards, we will automatically increase your salary, based on our current inflation allowance rates.
If you are a clinical academic, your salary should be appropriate to your clinical status and within the salary scale for academic and senior clinical lecturers.
If you're paid on a non-clinical salary scale, your basic salary should be in line with academics of a similar seniority.
Read about the responsibilities of grantholders and host organisations for people working on a Wellcome grant.
Research/teaching buyout
If you’re a humanities and social science researcher, you can ask for funds for research or 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 scheme 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.
Visa and work permit costs
If Wellcome is going to pay your salary on the grant, you can ask for visa and work permit costs to help you take up the post at your host organisation. You can also ask for:
- visa costs for your partner and dependent children
- Immigration Health Surcharge costs for you, your partner and dependent children if you will be in the UK for six months or more
- essential associated costs, such as travel to attend appointments at a visa application centre or embassy, if you can justify these.
Lead applicant
If you are based in a high-income country, you cannot ask for your salary.
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 that states that you 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.
You will have to contribute at least 20% of your research time to this award.
Your host organisation must confirm:
- that your employment contract states you must get salary recovery from external grant funding
- that they will underwrite the salary and post for the period of time that you will be working on the grant.
Co-applicants
If any co-applicant employed on your grant holds a permanent, open-ended or long-term rolling contract that states that they have 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.
They will have to contribute at least 10% of their research time to this programme.
Your host organisation must confirm:
- that the co-applicant’s employment contract states they must get salary recovery from external grant funding
- that they will underwrite the salary and post for the period of time that the person will be working on the 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, for example 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 science researcher, you can ask for funds for research or 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 scheme 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 fees
We do not provide studentships on this award. But if applicants employ a research assistant on the grant, they can ask for the costs to cover their PhD fees. Each applicant can ask for PhD fees for one research assistant at a time on the grant.
We will only pay the international student fee rate for low- and middle-income nationals who are registered to study for a PhD in a high-income country. In all other situations, we will pay home student fees.
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.
You can ask for costs to cover the following types of training.
Continuing professional development and professional skills training
You can ask for a contribution towards these costs.
Types of training can include:
- research leadership, professional and people management skills
- career development support
- responsible conduct of research
- diversity and inclusion
- promotion of a healthy research culture
- communication and public speaking.
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 post for 12 months or more, and
- working on the grant for at least 50% of their time.
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 post for 12 months or more, and
- working on the grant for at least 50% of their time.
You will need to justify these costs in your application.
We will pay for the materials and consumables you need to carry out your project, including:
- laboratory chemicals and materials (for example reagents, isotopes, peptides, enzymes, antibodies, gases, proteins, cell/tissue/bacterial culture, plasticware and glassware)
- project-specific personal protective equipment (PPE) that is above the standard expected for the setting
- printing associated with fieldwork and empirical research
- associated charges for shipping, delivery and freight.
Equipment purchase
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 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.
You can ask for overheads if your grant will be based at a:
- university outside the UK or Republic of Ireland
- research organisation that does not receive core funding for overheads
- charitable or not-for-profit organisation
- small or medium-sized commercial organisation.
You can also ask for overheads on any part of your grant that is sub-contracted to any of the organisations listed above.
If you’re based at a UK university, you can’t ask for overheads for sub-contracted activity if your university will include the sub-contracted funding in its annual report to the UK Charity Research Support Fund.
Overheads can include:
- 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 if you’re based in a low- or middle-income country
- 15% of the direct research costs if you’re based anywhere else.
These costs must directly support the activity funded by the grant.
How to apply for these costs
In your grant application you must:
- 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.
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:
- Grantholder – £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 laboratory, we'll help with the additional costs of working on the project overseas. Please see the 'Overseas allowances' section for details.
If you or any staff employed on your grant will be spending time in another country, we’ll help you with the additional costs of working on the project overseas.
Our overseas allowances are:
- a contribution towards the personal cost of carrying out research overseas, to ensure that you are not disadvantaged
- provided on the assumption that you’ll be paying income tax, either in your home country, or the country you will be working in (your personal tax is your responsibility).
- provided on the understanding that you or your partner will not receive equivalent allowances from elsewhere
- determined by the amount of time you will spend away from your home country.
Carbon offset costs
We expect the people we fund to choose travel that has a lower carbon impact, where practical, even if it’s more expensive (for example travelling by train instead of flying).
You can ask for costs to offset the carbon generated by the travel, as part of your overseas allowances. If carbon offsetting for travel is not part of your organisational sustainability strategy, you can ask us for a similar level of support for other sustainability initiatives. Your organisation must get our approval for other sustainability initiatives to be included in applications.
See our carbon offset policy for travel for information on what you and your organisation need to do.
If you will be away more than 12 months, we will provide overseas allowances for your partner and any dependants if they are travelling with you.
If you will be away for 12 months or less and can justify why your partner and dependants must travel with you, we may provide overseas allowances for them.
We define your partner as the person:
- you’re married to
- you’re not married to but with whom you’ve been in a relationship for at least a year
and
- you live with at the same permanent address and share some form of joint financial commitment with, such as a mortgage.
See a list of low- and middle-income countries, as defined by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
You can ask for the following allowances. You need to provide estimated costs as accurately as possible.
We will pay your travel costs at the beginning and end of your overseas work. Costs can be for air, ferry, train or coach fares.
All fares should be:
- in line with our carbon offset policy
- booked in advance where possible.
If you are away for up to 12 months, you can ask for up to 80kg of additional baggage or unaccompanied airline freight for your outward and return journeys.
If you are away for more than 12 months, you can ask for the costs of shipping your personal items at the beginning and end of your overseas work.
We will pay the full cost of transporting:
- half a standard shipping container if you’re travelling alone
- a whole standard shipping container (20ft) if you’re travelling with a partner and/or dependants.
We will pay the cost of your medical insurance and travel insurance.
If you will be working in a low- or middle-income country we will also cover the cost of emergency evacuation cover.
We won’t pay for medical insurance if you will be based in the UK or Republic of Ireland.
We will pay the costs of visas, vaccinations and anti-malaria treatment.
You can ask for this if you’ll be based in a low- or middle-income country and it is necessary.
Costs can include guards, panic buttons and alarms. You should ask your employing organisation for advice on the level of security you need.
If you’re away for up to one month you can ask for subsistence costs. These include accommodation, meals and incidentals (for example, refreshments or newspapers).
If your administering organisation has a subsistence policy, use their rates.
If your administering organisation doesn’t have a subsistence policy, please use the HMRC rates.
If you’re away for more than one month and up to 12 months, we will pay reasonable rental costs only, including aparthotels. You should discuss appropriate rates with your administering and host organisations, or Wellcome, as appropriate. We expect you to choose the most economical options, booked in advance where possible.
If you’re from a low- or middle- income country and will be working in a high-income country for more than one month and up to 12 months, you can also ask for up to £10 a day to cover extra costs, such as transport and incidentals.
If you’re away for more than 12 months, we will pay the costs of your housing. You should discuss your needs with your administering and host organisations.
The allowance we provide will be based on family and business need. We will set the maximum allowance we pay for each location. This will be based on current market data or, where data is unavailable, in consultation with your administering organisation, using equivalent market rates. If you need help calculating the costs please contact us.
We will cover the direct expenses you have to pay to find and rent a home. We will not cover the cost of utilities or any refurbishment.
If you’re away for more than 12 months we will pay:
Local nursery or school fees
You can ask for these costs if you are in a location where there isn’t free local education of the same standard as in your home country.
Costs include:
- local nursery school fees up to a maximum of 30 hours a week for 3 to 4 year olds
- local junior or secondary school fees, up to the end of secondary school education.
Local international school fees
You can ask for these costs if local schools do not provide the same standard of education as in your home country. We will only pay the published termly school fees.
We will not cover the costs of:
- extracurricular activities, including field trips
- other extras including, but not limited to, uniforms, sports kit and equipment, transport, meals, books and electronic equipment.
Boarding school fees
We will consider paying the cost of boarding school fees in your home country if:
- a local international school is not available
- both parents, guardians or the sole care giver live outside the home country.
The allowance covers:
- up to a maximum of £30,000 a year for each child for the published termly fees only
- the cost of return airfares at the start and end of each school term, in line with our carbon offset policy for travel.
We will not cover the costs of:
- additional annual leave airfares
- extracurricular activities, including field trips
- other extras including, but not limited to, uniforms, sports kit and equipment, transport, meals, books and electronic equipment.
We will cover the cost of providing special needs education as far as possible. Please contact us to discuss your needs.
We would not usually expect to provide an education allowance if you will be working in a high-income country.
If you will be away for more than 12 months, we’ll pay for you to travel back to your home country for annual leave. This is in addition to your outward and return travel costs and depends on how long you will be away:
- 12-24 months – 1 annual leave trip
- 25-36 months – 2 annual leave trips
- 37-48 months – 3 annual leave trips
- 49-60 months – 4 annual leave trips
All fares should be:
- in line with our carbon offset policy
- booked in advance where possible.
If you will be away for more than 12 months, you can ask for up to 100 hours of lessons in the local language for you and/or your partner during the first 12 months of your visit.
We will cover 100% of the costs for local language school classes or up to 50% of the costs of individual tuition.
We will not cover the cost of examinations or personal learning materials such as DVDs and books.
We cover fieldwork costs if they’re essential and you can justify them. Costs can include:
- 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.
We will add an inflation allowance to your award.
How we calculate your inflation allowance
Your inflation allowance is based on your total eligible costs and the duration of the award. You'll receive the following allowance if the costs in your application are in pounds sterling, euros or US dollars.
| Award duration (in months) | Inflation allowance |
|---|---|
| 0-12 | 0.0% |
| 13-24 | 1.0% |
| 25-36 | 2.0% |
| 37-48 | 3.0% |
| 49-60 | 4.1% |
These rates are calculated using compound inflation at 2.0% a year from Year 2 onwards.
If your costs are in any other currency, we will use an inflation allowance that reflects the inflation rate of the country where the host organisation is based.
What to include in your application
The costs in your application must be based on current known costs, excluding inflation.
You should allow for salary pay awards during Year 1. These should be based on pay awards already agreed; if you don’t know what the pay award is yet then use our inflation rate.
If your organisation receives open access block grant funding, you can ask them to cover your open access article processing charges.
If you're at an organisation that does not receive block grant funding, we’ll supplement your grant when your paper has been accepted for publication.
You cannot ask for these charges in your grant application.
If your research is taking place outside the UK you can ask us for all the direct clinical costs associated with it.
Annex A of the guidelines for attributing the costs of health and social care research and development (AcoRD) sets out the costs we cover.
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.
We will provide funds if you need to outsource project work to:
- contract research organisations
- other fee-for-service providers.
Allowed costs
You may ask for the following costs (you will have to justify them in your application):
- fieldwork costs, including survey and data collection and statistical analysis
- specialist publications that are relevant to the research and not available in institutional libraries
- consultancy fees
- 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 the cost of 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.
You can ask for costs associated with proposed outputs managements and sharing plans, including reports and dissemination. This could include language translations.
Disallowed costs
We will not pay for:
- estates costs – such as building and premises costs, basic services and utilities. This also includes phone, postage, photocopying and stationery, unless you can justify these within a clinical or epidemiological study.*
- 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
- charge-out costs for major facilities* – departmental technical and administrative services, and use of existing equipment
- cleaning, waste and other disposal costs*
*We will fund these costs in the case of animal-related research.
- 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.
What we don’t offer
See ‘Other costs’ for costs we will and will not provide.
1. Before you apply
Make sure you read everything on this page and watch this webinar.
Get some tips to help you write your grant application.
If you are seeking potential collaborators for this call, you can use this Global Heat Health Information Network Collaboration Connector.
You do not need to contact us before you write and submit your application.
2. Submit your preliminary application to the host organisation
Complete your application form on Grant Tracker.
View the sample preliminary application form.
Submit it to the 'authorised organisational approver' at your host organisation for approval. Make sure you leave enough time for the approver to review and submit your application before the deadline. The approver may ask you to make changes to your application.
Get some guidance on using Grant Tracker.
3. Host organisation reviews your preliminary application and submits to Wellcome
Your application must be submitted by 31 May 2022, 17:00 BST.
4. Shortlisting
Wellcome staff will review your application. If shortlisted, you will be asked to submit a full application within two months.
View the sample full application form.
No feedback will be offered if your application is not shortlisted due to the quantity of applications that we expect to receive.
5. Written expert review
We'll seek external written expert review on full applications. Reviewers will be chosen based on their expertise within the relevant research field and not on their level of seniority. Unattributed comments will be sent to you after the final funding decisions are made.
6. Panel
A panel will assess the proposals and peer review comments and make funding recommendations to Wellcome.
Committee membership will be comprised of a diverse range of international members and will take into account Wellcome’s diversity and inclusion priorities. It will specifically include LMIC expertise and will span disciplines.
We will publish membership details in the Spring.
7. Funding decision
You will receive an email notification of the funding decision soon after the decision has been made.
8. Feedback
We will provide written feedback to all applicants who are shortlisted but are unsuccessful at the final decision stage.
Disabled applicants
If you are disabled or have a long-term health condition, we can support you with the application process.
You must submit your application by 17:00 BST on the deadline day. We don’t accept late applications.
If you have a question about how to complete the application form within the Grant Tracker System please contact our Grant Information Officers:
If you have a question about eligibility, what we offer or our funding remit, contact us at:
We do not answer questions about the scope or competitiveness of proposals.
Between £500,000 and £2 million
Up to 5 years