Costs grantholders can claim on a grant

This information is for grantholders based in UK and Irish universities. Different rules may apply if you're based anywhere else. If you are, contact us for advice.

If you are applying for a grant, you should read the 'What we offer' section on the relevant scheme webpage to see which costs you can ask for.

Wellcome funds must not be used to supplement support from other funding bodies.

All costs charged to a grant should be auditable. Your administering organisation must be able to justify and account for all expenditure incurred. You must get invoices for any expenditure on your grant, unless it's for travel and subsistence costs in remote locations.

Staff salary costs

Covers staff working full or part-time on your project, including:

• fellows
• research assistants
• technicians
• nurses
• fieldworkers.

Costs can 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.

Visa, work permit and immigration health surcharge costs

Covers visa and work permit costs for researchers whose salary is funded by your grant. Costs can include:

• visa costs for the researcher’s partner and dependent children
• essential associated costs, such as travel to attend appointments at a visa application centre or embassy
• Immigration Health Surcharge costs for the researcher, their partner and dependent children if they will be in the UK for six months or more.

Service charges

Covers charges from an external supplier to deliver a piece of work (for example, sequencing costs, antibody production, large-scale data storage or providing expert consultancy advice).

Recruitment costs

Includes:

• advertising
• interviewees’ travel expenses.

Materials and consumables costs

Includes:

• laboratory chemicals and materials (for example, reagents, isotopes, peptides, enzymes, antibodies, gases, proteins, cell/ tissue/bacterial culture, project-specific personal protective equipment (PPE) that is above the standard expected for the setting, plasticware and glassware)
• associated charges for shipping, delivery and freight
• archival photocopying
• printing associated with fieldwork.

Animal research costs

You can claim for:

• buying and transporting animals
• animal maintenance, food, procedures, licences, relevant staff training, estates and equipment depreciation (but not building depreciation). You should include these in your organisation’s Wellcome charge-out rates for animal house facilities.

Equipment costs

You can claim for:

• purchase, delivery, installation, maintenance and training
• VAT and import duties on equipment only where the usual UK exemptions on equipment used for medical research do not apply.

Equipment maintenance costs

Includes:

• equipment purchased on our grants for up to five years
• existing equipment over five years old that is essential to the research project and cost effective to maintain.

Equipment access charges

Includes:

• service contracts
• materials and consumables
• staff time associated with running a piece of equipment, once the original funding awarded for maintenance has come to an end.

You can’t claim for depreciation costs.

Facility access charges

Covers use of research facilities at the host organisation if they’re essential to the project. Cost calculations may include:

• materials and consumables
• maintenance and service contracts
• staff item costs for dedicated technical staff.

Costs should not include:

• estates and utilities
• depreciation and insurance
• contributions towards other staff time.

Computing costs

Includes:

• computing hardware, for example, laptops up to a maximum of £1,500 for each item, unless more expensive items are specifically justified
• software, software licences and other recurring computing costs linked to the project.

Publication costs (academic papers)

You can claim for page charges and the cost of colour prints if they were included in your award letter.

If your organisation receives open access block funding, you can ask them to cover your open access article processing charges.

If you're at an organisation that doesn't receive open access block funding, we'll supplement your grant when your paper has been accepted for publication.

Publication costs (specialist publications)

Research-relevant publications that aren't available in institutional libraries.

Clinical, epidemiological and qualitative research studies costs

Includes:

• questionnaires, newsletters and other materials associated with clinical, epidemiological and qualitative research studies
• dissemination of the results from these studies
• clinical trial registration costs.

Subject and volunteer expenses

Includes:

• recruitment of participants and patients
• participatory fees
• travel for subjects and volunteers
• interviewee expenses.

Public engagement, patient involvement, and dissemination activity costs

Covers costs that are essential to the project. This includes:

• materials, including printing and publishing
• other costs relating to engagement activities essential to carry out your research, such as patient involvement and community engagement
• dissemination of research results and findings arising from Wellcome-funded research and workshops.

You can apply for Research Enrichment funding if you want to engage the public with your research in ways that are useful to your project and/or society.

Data management and sharing plan costs

Covers costs associated with delivering data management and sharing plans.

Patent and registered design filing costs

Covers the costs of drafting, filing and prosecuting applications for registered IP rights to the point of grant, to protect Wellcome-funded IP.

You can't claim costs for renewing, exploiting, or asserting IP against third parties.

Catering costs

Includes:

• project-specific working lunches and meals
• project-focused team retreats.

Poster costs

Covers costs of producing, displaying and presenting posters (for example at conferences).

Training costs

You can claim for:

• formal transferable skills training and personal development, including the International Funders Award, for fellows and staff employed on the grant
• training on specific skills relevant to the research project, for example animal handling, microscopy.

Travel costs

Covers costs for lead applicants, staff employed on the grant or others contributing to the research to:

• attend research meetings and conferences
• visit collaborators and facilities
• collect samples and undertake fieldwork
• visit neutron sources and synchrotron radiation facilities.

Carbon offset costs

You can claim 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 claim 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.

Caring responsibility costs

You can also claim 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, provided:

• Wellcome is paying your salary
• the conference is directly related to your grant
• the costs are over and above what you’d normally pay for care
• the conference organiser and your employing organisation are unable to cover the costs.

You can claim up to £1,000 per person for each conference to cover caring costs.

Subsistence costs

Covers lead applicants, staff employed on your grant or others contributing to the research to work away from their host organisation for less than 12 months.

Costs can include:

• a daily allowance for living expenses
• airfares and freight
• health insurance if travelling overseas
• visa and vaccination costs.

See the relevant scheme webpage guidance for details.

If your travel and subsistence is for remote locations where receipts are not available, you can claim up to £20 a day for each person. Subsistence is only available on trips of up to one month.

Fieldwork costs

Covers surveys, data collection and statistical analysis.

You can only claim these costs if:

• they're necessary for the type of research you're undertaking, for example, for clinical, epidemiological and qualitative research studies
• they were included in your award letter. 

Phone, iPad and tablet costs

Includes:

• iPads and tablets
• mobile and landline phones and contracts
• phone cards and other ad hoc charges.

Stationery and other miscellaneous office expenses

Includes:

• diaries, notepads and files
• pens and Post-it notes
• staples, rubber bands, hole punches
• glue sticks and laser pointers.

Printing and photocopying costs

Includes:

• printers, printer toner and cartridges
• photocopying charges.

Removal and relocation expenses

Only provided in specific circumstances, for example, as part of an International Recruitment Supplement award.

Overseas allowances

For lead applicants, staff employed on the grant or others contributing to the research to work away from their host organisation (and for accompanying partners and dependants).

See the relevant scheme webpage for details on the allowances you can claim for.

VAT and import duties

You can only claim these if the usual VAT exemptions for UK biomedical research don't apply.

Other costs

Include:

• postage and courier costs
• capital and refurbishment costs.

We won't pay for:

Salary recovery costs

Staff costs for lead applicants, co-investigators, departmental administrative staff and other staff who are funded full-time by the employing organisation or Research England and its equivalents in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Overhead costs

Includes:

• estates, for example building and premises
• research, technical and administrative staff whose time is shared across several projects
• administration, such as personnel, finance, library, and room hire.

Read our overheads policy.

Cleaning and other ad hoc estate costs (excluding animal research related costs)

Includes:

• cleaning, waste and other disposal costs, waste containers and bin bags
• key cutting
• wall brackets, installation of electrical points.

Shared catering costs

Includes:

• coffee machines, kettles and vending machines
• coffee tins, teabags, milk and water
• kitchen rolls and washing up liquid.

Non-research related activity costs

Includes:

• catering, room and venue hire for 'Happy Hours'
• Christmas parties, staff leaving parties and miscellaneous social events
• team-building or other non-research related activities.

Equipment-related costs

Equipment insurance and disposal costs.

Open access costs

You can’t claim for this on individual research grants unless we've provided supplementary funding for this purpose. If your organisation receives open access block funding, you can ask it to cover these costs. If not, we’ll supplement your grant when your paper has been accepted for publication. If your grant has ended, we have an alternative method for paying these costs.

Publication costs

Publications and journals available in institutional libraries.

Indemnity insurance

Insurance cover against claims made by subjects or patients associated with a research programme.

Other costs

Include:

• furniture such as chairs, desks, filing cabinets, foot rests, coat hooks and miscellaneous laboratory furniture
• utilities such as electricity, gas and water costs
• standard IT charge - per unit IT costs
• ethics reviews
• studentship-related costs, for example thesis binding and viva-related costs
• central HR staff costs, for example redundancy
• health and safety, for example, radiation protection costs, first aid kits and signage
• clothing such as laboratory coats, shoes and protective clothing.