Mental Health Award: improving cognitive and functional outcomes in people experiencing, or at risk of, psychosis
This call supports interventions to improve cognitive and functional outcomes for people experiencing, or at risk of, psychosis – or to test new or existing markers of cognitive impairment for prediction of risk or treatment stratification.
This call will provide funding to individuals or teams from not-for-profit or commercial organisations for two types of applications. Firstly, to develop and evaluate interventions to improve cognitive and functional outcomes for people experiencing, or at risk of, psychosis. Secondly, to test new or existing markers of cognitive functioning for prediction of risk or treatment stratification.
As part of our strategic focus on mental health as a key global health challenge, we aim to enable early intervention for the most common and the most severe mental health conditions, in ways that reflect the priorities and needs of people experiencing them. This work includes developing and improving ways to predict, identify and intervene as early as possible for anxiety, depression and psychosis.
This call aims to improve cognitive and functional outcomes for people experiencing, or at risk of, psychosis, an area of unmet patient need.
Wellcome recently commissioned a review of interventions targeting cognitive impairment in psychosis. It highlighted that "cognitive impairments are a core feature of psychotic disorders and often appear well before the onset of full-threshold psychotic disorder. While psychotic and other psychiatric symptoms generally respond to medication and psychotherapy, cognitive impairments often interfere with full functional recovery, including the ability to achieve vocational success and independent living."
In this one-off call, we are looking to:
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support the development and evaluation of interventions to improve cognitive and functional outcomes in people experiencing, or at risk of, psychosis, and
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increase our understanding of the potential for markers of cognitive functioning to enable risk or treatment stratification for people experiencing, or at risk of, psychosis.
About you
You can apply to this call if you are an individual or team:
- from a relevant discipline, broadly defined (for example, biomedical, digital, social sciences or humanities)
- with co-applicants based in the country or countries where the research will take place.
Lead applicant
You must:
- have the experience needed to drive and lead a complex collaborative research programme to address mental health research questions
- have experience of people and research management and training, as appropriate for your career stage
- have a permanent, open-ended, or long-term rolling contract for the duration of the award, or guarantee of a salaried post, which is not conditional on receiving this award
- be able to contribute at least 20% of your research time to this project
- be based at an eligible host organisation that can sign up to our grant conditions. In the case of lead applicants based at commercial companies, we may offer funding via a convertible loan, or a revenue sharing agreement instead of a grant, depending on circumstances.
Researchers can request salary recovery if this is a condition of their employment contract.
Co-applicants
Co-applicants:
- must be essential for the delivery of the proposed research and make a significant contribution, for example designing the research, writing the application, or managing the programme
- must be able to contribute at least 10% of their research time to this project
- can be at any career stage
- do not need to have a permanent, open-ended, or long-term rolling contract at their host institution, however, they must have a guarantee of space from their host institution for the duration of their commitment to the award
- must be based at an eligible organisation that can sign up to our grant conditions
- can be based in the same or in different organisations, and come from any discipline, but the added value of the team approach must be clear.
Your team
Each team should be comprised of all the necessary expertise to support the research. This must include the necessary expertise to effectively involve and collaborate with people with lived experience in the proposed research project.
We encourage lead applicants to put together diverse teams. You will be expected to actively promote a diverse, inclusive and supportive research environment within your team and across your organisation.
Team size will depend on the proposed research.
Collaborators are distinct from co-applicants in that they will support the delivery of the project (for example, providing technical or knowledge area expertise, access to tools or resources) but are not leading on a specific work-package or research aim of the project.
Time spent away from research
You can apply if you've spent time away from research (for example a career break, parental leave, or long-term sick leave). We'll take this into consideration when we review your application.
If you have retired, please contact us before applying.
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.
About your proposal
We will consider two types of applications:
1. Intervention development and evaluation (up to 5 years, up to £3 million)
Applications to develop and evaluate interventions that are applied early in the disease course.
- Applications must build on proof-of-concept data and can be anywhere on the translational pipeline up to and including efficacy testing.
- Interventions of any type (or a combination of interventions) will be considered.
- Evaluations can include but are not limited to: randomised designs, cluster designs, innovative designs such as adaptive or factorial trials, natural experiments and modelling (for example, simulation studies).
2. Research on markers of cognitive functioning (up to 3 years, up to £1 million)
Applications to advance prediction of risk or treatment response in people experiencing, or at risk of, psychosis using markers of cognitive functioning.
- Primary (for example, observational or experimental work) or secondary research (for example, data analysis) are both in scope.
- Research could be standalone or add on to already funded/ongoing research (for example, to existing cohorts or clinical trials).
Recommended common measures for anxiety, depression and psychosis
As a member of the Common Measures Board for Mental Health Science, Wellcome is committed to identify and adopt common measures so that, in time, data can be combined and compared across studies to answer crucial research questions. Please note that we do not currently have an agreed measure for psychosis.
Teams planning to conduct research projects with human participants and to collect data on anxiety and/or depression must use (as a minimum) one or more of the following recommended measures:
- PHQ-9 (adults)
- GAD-7 (adults)
- RCADS-25 (children and adolescents)
In exceptional circumstances when these measures are not feasible (for example, due to length), we may agree to the use of shorter versions (for example, PHQ-2, GAD-2, RCADS-10), however, the reasoning for this must be clearly justified.
Find out more about the Common Measures in Mental Health Science initiative.
All applications
- Applications must measure both functional and cognitive outcomes (either as co-primary, primary, or secondary outcomes), with a clear rationale for the measures chosen. ‘Cognitive outcomes’ include social and non-social outcomes.
- Research should focus on early intervention (for example, including people at risk, following early symptom presentation, or at the earliest point of contact with healthcare). Research proposed in chronic populations should clearly articulate the value of the research for early intervention.
- Applications must include evidence of the mechanistic understanding of the intervention, or where that is lacking, address potential mechanisms as part of the application.
- Applications must demonstrate the involvement of lived experience expertise [PDF 100KB] in the planning, design and delivery of the research. We recognise that there are a range of ways that research teams can involve and collaborate with people with lived experience. For example, this may include, but not be limited to, expert advisors, co-researchers, advisory group members, or co-applicants. We are open to any methods of involvement that teams choose but expect lived experience experts to be involved in the most appropriate ways to inform multiple aspects and stages of the research project.
- Research must consider potential uptake from the outset. For example:
- applicants may engage with potential end users of research, including people experiencing psychosis, caregivers/families, clinicians and service managers for future implementation and impact for policy
- applicants may engage with stakeholders, such as policymakers, health care professionals, regulatory bodies and downstream partners, as appropriate, during the research process to ensure results are implementable, scalable, suitable for commercialisation and in line with policy and end users’ needs
- applicants may employ a mixed methods approach and include social science and health economics expertise (as appropriate) to ensure that the interventions are appropriate, acceptable and feasible and that any potential social, cultural or economic barriers to implementation are examined
- proposed research may consider and include measures such as (but not limited to) acceptability, adoption, appropriateness, affordability, costs, feasibility, fidelity, penetrance and sustainability, as relevant.
- Research must consider the following, as is relevant to the proposal:
- the subsequent development steps required leading to regulatory approval
- the key desired attributes of your healthcare innovation
- any clinical, manufacturing, regulatory or marketing issues known that may affect the ability to deliver the product to market
- a downstream partner
- the future implementation strategy, including delivery and market penetration.
- Once funded, grant holders will be asked to agree with each other a minimum set of common functional and cognitive measures to be used across research projects. (Relevant costs for this work will be covered by Wellcome.)
Writing your preliminary application
Under ‘Details of proposal’ section
Your 'Details of proposal' section includes your scientific proposal, details of the research and your plans to involve lived experience experts in your research. All points listed below must be addressed for your application to be considered eligible. We provide guidance on approximate word count per section. If you want to include figures or tables, please upload your answer as an appendix rather than using the text box. Only include figures/tables that are directly relevant to your proposed research. Provide all relevant information within the application form; do not refer to additional unpublished information on personal websites.
Please use the following headings within the ‘Details of proposal’ section:
1. The unmet need and supporting evidence (250 words)
Describe the scientific background to the project. This may include: the need for this research, justification of the proposed sample and location, the competitive advantage of the intervention and the supporting evidence.
2. Project plan (500 words)
Define the primary objective of the proposal and briefly summarise the proposed work plan. You should clearly state:
a. the specific aims and objectives of the proposed project
b. the proposed methodology under each work package.
If relevant, include details on interventions, trial design, target populations, sample size and community and patient group involvement.
3. The involvement of lived experience experts (250 words)
Describe your plans to develop and undertake the research in partnership with people with lived experience of psychosis as part of the project team and/or at multiple stages throughout the project (for example, project design, delivery and dissemination).
Under ‘Additional information’ section
Please upload this information separately:
1. The potential for impact (300 words)
Describe:
a. the potential for the research to have a significant and measurable impact on early intervention for cognitive and functional outcomes for people experiencing, or at risk of, psychosis
b. how you will consider the potential uptake of the intervention/marker from the outset
c. the potential for the research to have applicability and acceptability in settings beyond the specific context of the research (if appropriate).
Under ‘Other participants’ section
Provide your rationale for a team approach, the proposed team composition, how your team is positioned to achieve the research (with regard to the complementary skills that they bring and resources that can be accessed) and the contribution of each team member to the research (300 words).
Assessment criteria for preliminary applications
We will review your research proposal, skills and experience, involvement of lived experience as well as overall strategic alignment.
Your research proposal
To be competitive, your research proposal will include:
The unmet need and strength of evidence
- A research focus on early intervention (for example, early symptom presentation, including early relapses, or the earliest point of contact with a healthcare system) or statement of the value of the research for early intervention.
- Justification for the proposed research, including how it meets the needs of end users and support from existing evidence (for example, existing literature, systematic reviews/meta-analyses, proof of concept data or pilot data as relevant).
- The competitive advantage of the intervention.
High quality research
- A well-designed, clear study with proposed outcomes that are feasible.
- An appropriate approach to answer the question, which is competitive with the best in the field.
The potential for impact
- The potential for the research to have a significant and measurable impact on early intervention for cognitive and functional outcomes for people experiencing, or at risk of, psychosis.
- Consideration of uptake of the intervention/marker from the outset.
- The potential for the research to have applicability and acceptability in settings beyond the specific context of the research (if appropriate).
Your skills and experience (applicants and co-applicants)
We will review (relative to your career stage):
- your rationale for a team approach, team composition (including your approach to diversity, inclusion, lived experience and career stage) and the contribution of each team member to the research
- whether the team has the necessary expertise to effectively involve and collaborate with people with lived experience in the research project.
Involvement of lived experience
We will review your plans for how people with lived experience of psychosis are involved in multiple stages of the design, delivery and dissemination of the project. Approaches to involvement at each stage of the project should be explained in detail. Please note we expect lived experience experts to be appropriately compensated or paid for their time.
We understand lived experience as a unique form of knowledge, insight and expertise, that comes from having experience of mental health challenges. When we refer to ‘lived experience experts’ or ‘people with lived experience’ we are referring to people who identify as having experienced psychosis broadly defined, either in the past or currently. People with lived experience do not need to have been diagnosed by professionals or have accessed formal mental health services.
We would encourage you to collaborate with people with lived experience on your preliminary and full application (if shortlisted). However, we recognise that this may not be possible for all research teams.
How to involve people with lived experience in the research project
We recognise that there are a range of different ways that research teams can involve and collaborate with people with lived experience. For example, this may include, but not be limited to, expert advisors, co-researchers, advisory group members, or co-applicants. We are open to any methods and roles teams choose, but we are expecting lived experience experts to be involved in the most appropriate ways to inform multiple aspects and stages of the research project. It is key for us is that this is not tokenistic or a tick box exercise, and that the approaches and roles are appropriate for the research aims and stage of the research.
The number of lived experience advisors involved in the research project is entirely up to the research team and will depend on how you plan on involving people with lived experience. We will be reviewing the justification you provide for the chosen approach, to ensure that people with lived experience are meaningfully involved throughout the project.
People with lived experience can be included as team members for this funding call. We are looking for people with lived experience to be involved throughout the research and would welcome them being named as co-applicants on applications, so long as they meet the eligibility requirements.
We expect lived experience experts to be involved in most projects and research that we fund. For example, all projects involving developing, testing or understanding interventions for people with or at risk of psychosis must have lived experience involvement. However, we understand that in some limited circumstances, involvement may not be appropriate. In these cases, we require a clear justification of why there is no lived experience involvement, and this will be assessed during the review process.
Indicating who you involve as people with lived experience
We recognise that teams may be at different stages in developing their plans and some teams may have already identified individuals, whereas others may not yet have identified those they are going to work with. When reviewing applications, we will be considering the strength of your proposed plans for involving people with lived experience. As part of this we will review how you plan to identify people who have relevant knowledge, skills and experience to inform your specific proposal.
Ethical approval
We are expecting people with lived experience to be involved in informing the design, governance, and delivery of the projects. This is distinct from any research you will be conducting with participants. Therefore, their roles would be in contributing advice, knowledge and expertise to the design, governance, and delivery of the project. This will likely mean that you do not need ethical approval to work with people in this way and that you can incorporate their contributions as you would with any other advisor, collaborator, or co-researcher. However, some institutions do vary with their requirements for ethical approval so we would encourage you to check with your institution.
Supporting lived experience experts in their roles
We encourage research teams to build a positive and supportive work environment in their project team and for collaborating with lived experience experts. There are proactive steps teams could take to support lived experience experts to feel more embedded in a project, such as jointly agreeing best ways of collaborative working, providing technical training if required, and encouraging team members to clarify acronyms and jargon regularly. Regular team check-ins where team members (including lived experience experts) feel able to raise any issues and how to address them could help to mitigate future issues around lack of support arising. The Wellcome lived experience team will also be running workshops with funded teams on lived experience involvement to enable teams to share and develop their practice and gain support.
Assessment criteria for full applications
Further guidance and assessment criteria for full applications will be uploaded to this page in due course.
We will review your research proposal, your leadership, management skills and experience, involvement of lived experience in more depth as well as the research environment.
Who can’t apply
We will not consider:
- ‘blue skies’ or curiosity-driven research
- non-targeted population-based interventions
- one-off costs that don’t include key experiments, such as manufacturing a drug substance
- research to support chronic management unless relevant to advance early intervention
- implementation science research as the sole focus of the proposal
- health systems research around the distribution and uptake of interventions
- direct service provision or support for access to current services
- healthcare reorganisation
- phase III trials for pharmacological interventions
- applications that do not include the involvement of lived experience experts [PDF 100KB] in the proposed project
- applications that do not comply with Wellcome’s research environment principles of open science and relevant diverse inputs.
You cannot apply if you intend to carry out activities that involve the transfer of grant funds into mainland China or a country that is the target of international sanctions.
You can only be an applicant on a maximum of two applications to this funding call:
- you can only be lead applicant on one application (but can be a co-applicant on another)
- you must be able to demonstrate that you can dedicate enough time and resources to both projects, if funded.
Other Wellcome awards:
- An early-career researcher can be a lead applicant on one Wellcome award and a co-applicant on one other Wellcome award.
- A mid-career researcher can be a lead applicant on one Wellcome award and a co-applicant on two other Wellcome awards.
- An established researcher can be a lead applicant on two Wellcome awards, one as the sole applicant and one as lead applicant for a team, or both as the lead applicant for a team. They can also be a co-applicant on two other Wellcome awards.
The awards should be for different research projects, with no overlap in work packages. The researcher must be able to dedicate the required time to all projects.
What's expected of your host organisation
The organisation can be a:
- Higher education institution.
- Research institute.
- Non-academic healthcare organisation.
- Not-for-profit organisation: Any not-for-profit research organisations based anywhere in the world can apply (apart from mainland China). These organisations must be able to sign up to Wellcome’s grant conditions.
- Company: any commercial organisations based anywhere in the world can apply (apart from mainland China), as long as they can sign up to our grant conditions. You are not eligible for this call if your company is not established and/or doesn't have working capital. Funding to a company may need to occur through a convertible loan, or revenue sharing agreement to ensure public benefit. Please contact us to discuss further.
If an application is from a multidisciplinary collaboration or partnership, the partners must enter into a suitable collaboration agreement including provisions detailing:
- ownership of foreground intellectual property
- necessary licences in respect of background intellectual property
- confidentiality
- publication
- and arrangements for the protection, maintenance, exploitation and commercialisation of foreground intellectual property.
Note that the lead applicant’s host organisation is required under our grant conditions to own all the foreground intellectual property arising from the project and to take the lead in any commercialisation activity. For guidance, applicants are advised to read the university and business collaboration agreements: model heads of terms agreements on GOV.UK.
In the case of lead applicants based at commercial companies, we may offer funding via a convertible loan, or a revenue sharing agreement instead of a grant, depending on circumstances.
We expect organisations based in the UK to meet the responsibilities required by the Concordat to Support the Career Development of Researchers for institutions, companies, 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 can 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.
- For applications developing and evaluating interventions, we offer up to £3 million for projects of any duration up to 5 years.
- For research on markers of cognitive functioning, we offer up to £1 million, with the award lasting up to 3 years.
If your proposal is likely to exceed the proposed level or duration of funding, please get in touch with us.
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.
This award includes:
Lead applicant
If you are based in the UK or Republic of Ireland, you cannot ask for your salary.
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
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.
Their 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 this award when you won't receive buyout costs from another grant.
You must provide a letter from your employing organisation, confirming that your contract includes a teaching commitment. You should include this in your grant application.
PhD 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 these costs if you are applying from a university, a not-for-profit organisation or a small company.
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.
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.
You can ask for funds to buy animals if they are essential to your project. We will also fund the charge-out rates for animal house facilities if your organisation uses full economic costing methodology. These costs include:
- running costs (including animal maintenance, any experimental procedures, licences and relevant staff training)
- appropriate estates costs
- cage and equipment depreciation costs, but not building depreciation costs.
We may not pay the full charge-out rate for an animal house facility if we've provided significant funding towards the infrastructure and/or core support of the facility.
If your organisation does not use full economic costing methodology to establish charge-out rates for animal house facilities, you can ask for funds to cover:
- the cost of buying animals
- running costs (including animal maintenance, any experimental procedures, licences and relevant staff training)
- staff costs, for example, contributions towards the salaries of animal house technicians.
We will not provide estates or depreciation costs.
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.
You can ask for these costs if you are applying from a university, a not-for-profit organisation or a small company.
Travel costs
Conference attendance
You can ask for a contribution towards the costs of attending scientific and academic meetings and conferences, including registration fees and the costs to offset the carbon emissions of your travel. The limits are:
- lead applicant – £2,000 a year
- co-applicants on your grant – £2,000 each a year
- staff employed on your grant – £1,000 each a year.
We provide costs to cover caring responsibilities for any staff employed on your grant attending a conference. This includes childcare and any other caring responsibility they 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 would 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, libraries, archives, sample collection and for fieldwork. You can include subsistence costs.
Carbon offset costs
This applies to all types of travel costs Wellcome provides.
You can ask for:
- the cost of low carbon travel where practical, even if it's 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 of the journeys you make.
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 carbon offset policy for travel for information on what you and your organisation need to 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.
You can ask for these costs if:
- you are applying from a university, a not-for-profit organisation or a small company
- you or any staff employed on your grant will be spending time in another country.
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.
If you are applying from a university, 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 you need to carry out clinical research using NHS patients or facilities, we will cover some of the research costs.
Annex A of the guidelines for attributing the costs of health and social care research and development (AcoRD) sets out the costs we cover, and which costs should be funded through the Department of Health and Social Care in England, or its equivalent in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. If you're based in the Republic of Ireland, we would expect you to adhere to the spirit of these principles.
Read more information on our clinical trials policy.
If your proposal involves clinical research using NHS resources, check if you need to upload a SoECAT form with your full application.
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.
If you are involving people at the application design stage, you cannot include a consultation charge for this work. Wellcome will not be held responsible for any costs associated with the production of a response to this funding call.
We expect people with lived experience involved in approved applications to be appropriately compensated or paid for their time. The budget that must be completed during the application process should include appropriate remuneration for lived experience experts and costs for involvement.
We cannot advise on ways to appropriately compensate or pay people with lived experience, as approaches differ between organisations and contexts. However, when thinking about appropriate compensation or payment, we would encourage you to think about the experience, knowledge, and skills that someone will be bringing to the project, as well as their responsibility within the process. Please make sure you are appropriately budgeting for the costs needed to support meaningful involvement, as set out in your proposals. For example, this could include (but not be limited to):
- consultant fees for lived experience experts on the project
- travel costs
- salary costs for lived experience researchers embedded in a team
- expenses to support meetings or workshops.
It is not possible for us to advise on social security, in terms of people with lived experience being paid for their involvement, as the arrangements will be different in different countries. It is the responsibility of the research team to ensure that they are abiding by any relevant regulations in their context, and we would encourage you to seek advice from relevant local organisations if needed.
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 policymakers.
Costs can include:
- travel and accommodation for keynote speakers
- external room hire and catering
- event publicity and conference materials
- childcare and other caring responsibility costs for delegates
- any costs related to accessibility and inclusion.
Disallowed costs
We will not pay for:
- estates costs – such as building and premises costs, basic services and utilities. 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
- Salary recovery costs for staff funded full-time by the employing organisation.
- Indirect costs.
- Working capital costs of commercial organisations.
- Fees for academic courses such as Master's degrees or PhDs, and other tuition fees.
- Costs for large equipment.
- Costs for capital build or refurbishment.
- We don't fund overheads unless they're included on this page (for example research management and support costs).
See ‘other costs’ for costs we will and will not provide
1. Before you apply
- Make sure you read everything on this page, including the material linked in the ‘Useful documents’ section.
- Consider registering to attend our webinar on 20 April, 13:30 BST, where we will be introducing this call and answering some questions. The recording of the webinar will be available to view on 22 April.
- We will also be collating the most frequently asked questions and answering them in this Call Guidance document [PDF 100KB].
- Get some tips to help you write your grant application.
- You do not need to contact us before you write and submit your application.
2. Submit your preliminary application
- Complete your application on Grant Tracker.
- Get some guidance on using Grant Tracker.
- View the sample preliminary application form [PDF 116KB].
- Your application must be submitted by 17:00 (BST) on the deadline day.
3. Shortlisting
At the shortlisting stage Wellcome staff and Wellcome’s lived experience advisors will review your preliminary application. If shortlisted, we will invite you to submit a full application within two months. All shortlisted applications will be invited to a 30 minute call with Wellcome staff to provide specific feedback on the application. No feedback will be offered if your application is not shortlisted due to the quantity of applications that we expect to receive.
4. Invitation to full application
- Complete your full application on Grant Tracker.
- Submit your application to your host organisation for approval.
- View the sample full application form [PDF 249KB].
5. Host organisation reviews your application and submits it to Wellcome
- Your application must be submitted by 17:00 (BST) on 4 August 2022.
6. Interviews
- A committee will interview shortlisted candidates at the Wellcome offices in London or online, and make funding recommendations to Wellcome. Committee membership will be comprised of a diverse range of international and UK experts and lived experience advisors and will take into account Wellcome’s diversity and inclusion priorities. We will publish committee details in the summer.
- Accessibility requirements will be accommodated. Those who cannot attend in person can participate remotely.
- We will provide information on the structure of the interview, layout of the room, and interview committee membership.
- Shortly before the day of the interview, you will need to provide us with your presentation slides. You will be asked to give a presentation at the start of your interview.
- The focus of the interview will be on questions and answers. The committee will assess applications against a set of criteria rather than one specific aspect of the proposal. They will consider your proposal and interview responses and will make funding recommendations to Wellcome.
7. Funding decision
- Final funding decisions will be made by Wellcome’s Mental Health Team.
- You will receive an email notification of the funding decision soon after the decision has been made.
8. Feedback
-
Written feedback will be provided to all unsuccessful applicants who submitted a full application, including the reasons for the decision. Due to demand, we are unable to provide personalised feedback on unsuccessful preliminary applications.
Disabled applicants
If you are disabled or have a long-term health condition, we can support you with the application process.
Details of how we will handle any personal or confidential information contained in your application are available in our Grants Privacy and Confidentiality Statement.
Log in to our online grants system (Grant Tracker). You can save your application and return to it any time.
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 using Wellcome Trust Grant Tracker, please contact our Grant Information Advisers.
If you have a question about eligibility, what we offer or our funding remit, contact us at mentalhealth@wellcome.org.
We do not answer questions on the scope or competitiveness of proposals.
Up to £3 million for applications developing interventions. Up to £1 million for studies testing markers of cognitive functioning.
Up to 5 years for intervention development and evaluation. Up to 3 years for studies testing markers of cognitive functioning.