About

The Wellcome Discovery Awards provides funding for established researchers and teams from any discipline who want to pursue bold and creative research ideas to deliver significant shifts in understanding related to human life, health and wellbeing.

Funding Information

• The average size of a Discovery Award is £3.5 million. Applications above £5 million will be subject to additional scrutiny.

• Duration: Awards can be up to 8 years, but may be less for some disciplines, and may be longer if held on a part-time basis. The average duration of a Discovery Award is 7 years, although they have supported awards from 3 to 8 years.

Eligible Activities

• Research questions should generate knowledge that leads to a shift in understanding or delivers new insight into how human life and health work. They welcome proposals that may have a clinical or societal impact or have translational potential, but the focus should be on discovery research.   

• They fund research into the: 

  • fundamental processes that underpin biology, to understand more about how human life works 

  • complexities of human health and disease, including clinical and population-based approaches

  • burden of disease and its determinants, where this brings new and transformational knowledge

  • development of methodologies, conceptual frameworks, technologies, tools or techniques that could benefit health-related research

  • needs, values and priorities of the people and communities affected by disease and health disparities 

  • social, ethical, cultural, political, economic and historical contexts of human health and disease.

• They support research from a broad range of disciplines, including:

  • Science, technology, engineering, computation and mathematics

  • Clinical and allied health sciences

  • Experimental medicine

  • Epidemiology, population and public health

  • Arts, humanities, social sciences, and bioethics

Ineligible Activities

• Examples of things they will not fund include:

  • Large clinical trials and population interventions where the main purpose is to develop, test or implement a drug, product or intervention. Intervention designs can be used if they bring understanding of biological and/or social mechanisms of health and disease, including understanding how or why interventions work, or to establish proof-of-concept.

  • The development of compounds, tools, technologies or methodologies predominantly to be used for diagnosis, treatment or improving clinical care. The primary focus should be the benefit to health-related research although proposals may also have potential for clinical or translational impact.

  • The study of animal diseases, including in food production animals, that are not transmissible to humans or not considered a model for human biology or disease. The study of zoonotic disease is only in remit where the aspects studied are relevant to humans (transmission or disease).

  • Stand-alone resources (including databases) except as part of a proposal where generating a new resource or enriching an existing resource is required to answer specific research questions.

Geographical Focus

• UK, Republic of Ireland, Low or middle-income countries (apart from India and mainland China)

Ineligibility Criteria

• You are not eligible to apply as a lead applicant on a Discovery Award if you are the lead applicant on two other Discovery Award applications and you are waiting for a decision.

• You cannot apply if you intend to carry out activities that involve the transfer of grant funds into mainland China.

Eligibility

• You can apply for a Wellcome Discovery Award if you are a researcher who wants to pursue bold and creative research ideas. You must aim to make a major contribution to your research field by:

  • generating significant shifts in understanding and/or

  • developing methodologies, conceptual frameworks, tools or techniques that could benefit health-related research.

• An award can be held by an established researcher or a team of researchers led by an established researcher.

• Team size will depend on the proposed research. It will usually range from two to eight applicants, including the lead applicant.

• They 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.

Post Date: December 20, 2024