Contract opportunities

Wellcome is commissioning a partner to map and analyse how mental health conditions – specifically anxiety, depression and psychosis – and the range of interventions available are portrayed across UK culture and entertainment. This work will support our creative and cultural advocacy strategy by helping us understand the stories shaping public perceptions of mental health.

We are looking for a partner who can provide senior-level strategic counsel, a global perspective and creative leadership to elevate the Wellcome Global Monitor’s visibility and impact.

This includes:

• shaping the overarching communications strategy
• guiding narrative development
• advising on reputational opportunities and risks
• planning and delivering campaigns
• ensuring the initiative reaches and resonates with key global audiences (particularly researchers, policymakers, and global health stakeholders)

The Gates Foundation, Novo Nordisk Foundation and Wellcome have launched a new initiative, The Gram-Negative Antibiotic Discovery Innovator (Gr-ADI), to drive innovation in early drug discovery for Gram-negative pathogens.  

Gr-ADI will function as a consortium, bringing together the portfolio of projects and working collectively across multiple funders, research institutions and industry partners. Success of the consortium depends on cohesive and collaborative working, which requires careful management of the projects. This includes facilitating and fostering an open environment where researchers are encouraged and motivated to share learnings, insights and data. 

We are seeking a supplier who will be able to provide the following:

• Project management of the Gr-ADI portfolio.
• Monitor progress at both the project and consortium level.
• Co-ordinate meetings of the consortium within the governance structure of Gr-ADI.
• Foster an environment of collaboration to enable the consortium to function effectively.

Wellcome is seeking to commission five organisations to lead inclusive regional dialogues on the future of the global health architecture and concrete pathways for global health reform. One organisation will be commissioned from and based in each of the following regions: (i) Latin America and the Caribbean, (ii) Africa, (iii) Asia and the Pacific, (iv) Europe and North America, (v) the Middle East and Central Asia. These dialogues will engage a wide range of government stakeholders and non-governmental partners across the region to surface, challenge and refine ideas, and build regional consensus on priorities, proposals and implementation pathways for reforming the global health architecture.

To support work across Wellcome's Climate and Health programme, we are looking to contract an expert advisor to help define a three- to five-year plan to guide Wellcome’s engagement on climate finance. 

Terms of the contract can be discussed, but we expect the role holder to work with us 0.6 full-time equivalent or FTE over six months and is able to join Wellcome staff in our London offices once a week.  

Following the Expression of Interest stage of this RFP, invitations to submit proposals have now been circulated.

Wellcome is seeking a supplier to help design and facilitate the first cycle of Wellcome’s Major Prize in Mental Health Science. The prize will spotlight and reward an evidence-based intervention that has the potential for transformative global impact.

By providing high-profile financial and reputational recognition — including a $3 million top prize and up to three $750,000 finalist awards, to be spent on future research and innovation in mental health science — the initiative aims to:

• Celebrate innovative, research-based interventions that have engaged with lived experience and demonstrate clear potential to improve mental health outcomes.
• Raise the global visibility of mental health science and innovation by showcasing breakthrough approaches that shift public and policy narratives.
• Inspire greater investment and engagement from people who can influence and accelerate progress, such as funders and policymakers.

We are seeking a supplier to design, deliver and disseminate an ambitious Mental Health Catalyst programme. The aim is to identify promising targets for better interventions in depressed mood and map out the necessary enabling environments needed to deliver and scale those interventions. The key outputs will be:

• Years one to two: create an online, interactive and updated mission map, setting out key targets and required facilitative environments.
• Year two: launch, engagement and dissemination activities to introduce the mission map to stakeholder groups.
• Years three and four: ongoing updates and monitoring. 

For further information, please watch our webinar.

Wellcome wants to identify opportunities to drive research at the intersection of climate change and foodborne diseases, specifically focused on the health of populations in low- and middle-income countries. There has been relatively little attention and investment in this area despite food safety being a foundational requirement of food security and a healthy diet. This is also the case even as foodborne diseases contribute to a substantial burden of disease, particularly in low- and middle-income countries. We need to better understand the current problem of foodborne disease and the emerging and changing risks from climate change and food systems transitions. And we need to improve our understanding of the types of solutions that work in local contexts. We are seeking a supplier to undertake a landscaping and evidence synthesis, a futures exercise on the risks, vulnerabilities and impacts on the food system under different scenarios. We are also seeking another supplier to analyse the barriers and opportunities for enhancing data and knowledge generation and engage with key stakeholders and affected communities to co-create foundational research priorities.

Wellcome is seeking to support the production of at least two policy products and a convening on Indigenous Knowledges in global scientific and climate policy making processes. 

Following the Expression of Interest stage of this RFP, invitations to submit proposals have now been circulated.

Due to the neglected nature of snakebite as a global health issue, the opportunities for innovation to address challenges across the patient journey remain underexplored. We are seeking a supplier to deliver an innovation prize competition that supports creative approaches to tackling snakebite envenoming. 

These monetary prizes will support multi-sector, multi-disciplinary and international teams to advance solutions, tools and interventions with the potential to impact snakebite patient health outcomes by 2030.

The supplier will be responsible for delivering the entire competition process, administering prizes and providing a package of support activities designed to facilitate team formation and idea development. 

We are seeking to commission and collaborate with a research organisation to deliver qualitative research in 10 to 12 countries, alongside quantitative data analysis and reporting.

The Wellcome Global Monitor (WGM) is the world’s largest global survey of public perceptions of science and health. Two waves of research were previously published in 2018 and in 2020. The quantitative survey was run in more than 140 countries (113 in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic).

Following a review of the project, we are now running a more streamlined survey and, in addition, for the first time are carrying out qualitative research to dive further into the data.

Please note this RFP is for:

• the data analysis and reporting of the quantitative survey where the data will be provided to you
• designing, carrying out, analysing and writing up the qualitative research component

The quantitative fieldwork has already been commissioned and is underway. A further RFP will be issued to procure a supplier to support our communications and engagement work.

We are seeking an agency to help us create and deliver a compelling brand story for Discovery. Wellcome’s work is broadly divided into two modes – Discovery and Solutions – under which sit all our strategic programmes. Discovery mode includes our Discovery Research programme, proposed activity on AI and computational science, Wellcome Sanger Institute, Wellcome Leap and many activities undertaken by our free museum and library, Wellcome Collection. We need a cohesive narrative that brings these different projects together under one banner. Developing this brand story will help facilitate effective communication around this activity and strengthen Wellcome’s position at the forefront of science and research.

Fungal infections are an emerging threat to global health due to multiple factors such as climate change and antifungal resistance. Despite their significance, research on fungal pathogens lags behind research on other organisms.  

There is a critical need to explore how climate variability and climate change impact fungal pathogens and to gather data that support or may support this research. Consequently, Wellcome is inviting qualified consultancy teams, think tanks, and do tanks to submit proposals that will contribute to our understanding of the potentially complex relationships between fungal pathogens and climate.  

This RFP aims to support comprehensive reviews and data analyses that might identify existing gaps in research, data, and knowledge. The selected supplier will contribute to clarifying the current state of evidence and data availability in this field to inform future investments and catalyse novel research. 

Wellcome and UKRI believe that lived experience expertise is vital for the success of mental health research. We want a supplier to develop a platform of resources to improve lived experience collaboration in mental health research. Where possible, we want the supplier to develop these resources based on existing examples from practical contexts.

Wellcome is commissioning a project to advance the use of psychometric evidence in mental health research. We are seeking experts across mental health, evidence synthesis, psychometrics and data science to:  

1. Systematically review psychometric evidence underlying Wellcome’s current common metrics (for example, sensitivity to change). These would be published as living systematic reviews on an appropriate platform.
2. Develop a free-to-use, interactive, living evidence interface drawing data from these systematic reviews. This includes providing bespoke evidence for use in specific settings (for example, the validity of the PHQ-9 in a specific geographical context).   

Our goal is for this platform to support existing efforts to implement common metrics and stimulate further engagement and research on measurement in mental health.  

Please submit an expression of interest if you would like further details regarding our live webinar planned for 3 April 2025.

Join our webinar for applicants of this RFP on Thursday, 3rd April 2025 at 13:30-14:30 BST. We will outline the goal of this work and what we are looking, followed by a Q&A session. All attendees will be anonymous.

Wellcome is organising the third annual meeting of the Pathogen Variants Network members from 23 to 25 September 2025. This will bring together members of the six research teams in a predominantly in-person meeting format in Bangkok, Thailand. 

We seek to appoint an experienced facilitator to facilitate the workshop on 24 and 25 September 2025. 

We also seek to appoint an experienced science writer to prepare a meeting report for Wellcome’s internal use. 

Wellcome, in collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO), is seeking to commission a supplier to develop standardised definitions for cholera epidemiology using in-person expert consultations and the Delphi method, a structured communication technique involving a panel of experts. The supplier is expected to disseminate and ensure uptake of newly refined standardised definitions on cholera epidemiology through publication in a scientific journal and the WHO website, and presentations at cholera meetings and conferences. 

Wellcome is seeking an organisation to undertake a landscape review of the employment contracts and salary provision in use for academic researchers across the globe, as well as the teaching buyout provisions of other funders. The work will provide intelligence into the provision in a number of specified countries where a significant amount of Wellcome-funded research takes place.  

Wellcome’s Climate and Health programme seeks an experienced facilitator to co-design and deliver a support programme for a new cohort of grantees funded through the Advancing climate mitigation solutions with health co-benefits in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) call. The programme content will be tailored to the needs of the cohort, with primary objectives focused on peer learning and skills development, as well as amplifying the impact of research outputs. Preference will be given to suppliers based in LMICs for the delivery of this programme. 

Wellcome’s Climate and Health programme seeks to understand where we can best play a catalytic role in strengthening the already seeded research field, as well as how we can best support research and broader ecosystems that help accelerate transitions to sustainable food systems. This work will focus specifically on opportunities related to Europe (including the UK).

Please only submit a full proposal if you have been invited to do so.

Wellcome is seeking a learning and support partner for a co-created Community Engagement Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning Framework (MEL). Over the past year, we have collaborated with several global partners to co-develop a MEL Framework in an open-source e-learning platform format. For the next phase of this project, we seek a supplier with strong strategic and delivery capacities to support key partners in utilising the framework. This contract requires the successful contractor to sub-contract the consultancy that developed the original MEL framework, Itad.

Wellcome’s Insight team is looking to commission and collaborate with an organisation who can deliver and manage a long-term insight community and platform (Audience Insight Collective) involving Wellcome’s diverse audiences in 12+ countries. Our audiences include researchers, scientists, policymakers and strategic partners across the globe - all of whom make a contribution to, or are interested in, life, health and well-being. In order to achieve its strategic objectives, Wellcome needs to reach, engage and influence our audiences. As such, there is a need to provide timely and relevant insight to inform engagement and influencing approaches. The Audience Insight Collective should help us meet this need in providing access to our audiences in a more agile and equitable way. 

Wellcome’s Climate and Health programme seeks to significantly increase our understanding of the effects of climate change on human health and identify the interventions and policies that can respond to the climate crisis in a way that protects and improves human health. This programme of work is intended to monitor, evaluate and learn about the Climate Impacts Awards, an annual funding call run through the Climate and Health team at Wellcome.

We are seeking proposals from qualified cybersecurity firms to conduct comprehensive security testing of our Laboratory Information Management System, SEDRI-LIMS. The goal is to identify potential vulnerabilities and provide guidance on any risk mitigations to ensure the integrity, confidentiality and availability of our digital product.

The aim of this activity is to identify the most promising areas for intervention, pinpoint opportunities and gaps, and determine where further mechanistic research is most required or where the current evidence base is weak. The outcome of this activity will be a report, developed in collaboration with a science writer dedicated to the project, of a quality to be publishable externally.

We are looking to appoint a science writer to work with three to four experts to produce a report for Wellcome focused on how to best fund research that will ultimately improve treatment and early intervention options for young people under 18 experiencing symptoms of anxiety and/or depression. 

Wellcome’s Research Culture and Communities team are seeking a supplier to work with us to deliver up to £1 million of funding to small, Black-led initiatives supporting the careers of Black-heritage academic researchers. The supplier would act on behalf of Wellcome to deliver a flexible, accessible and impactful grant-giving programme that goes beyond traditional funding models. The selected organisation should have a track record of working with Black/racially minoritised communities.

Centres for Exchange (CfE) is a collaborative learning and design project led by Wellcome’s Community Engagement team. CfE aims to re-envision knowledge exchange with communities in research. Over the last year, we collaborated with global partners and communities to develop a framework that rethinks knowledge exchange with communities in health research. In this next Proof of Concept phase of CfE, we will fund up to nine community-based organisations in India, Kenya and South Africa, to implement and learn from the framework.