Positive action guidance

Wellcome recongises that some groups are underrepresented in Wellcome funding and UK research.

The Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) and UK census data show that:

• Black or Black British researchers in the UK made up 2.9% of the UK academic research population in 2021/22. By comparison, Black and Black British people made up 4.4% of the working age population of England and Wales in 2021.
• Researchers of Bangladeshi heritage in the UK made up 0.5% of the UK academic population in 2021/22. By comparison, people of Bangladeshi heritage made up 1.1% of the working age population of England and Wales in 2021.
• Researchers of Pakistani heritage in the UK made up 1.1% of the researcher population in 2021/22. By comparison, people of Pakistani heritage made up 2.7% of the working age population of England and Wales in 2021.
• Disabled researchers made up 6.2% of the UK academic research population in 2021/22. By comparison, disabled people made up 15.3% of the working age population of England and Wales in 2021.

Source: Wellcome analysis of HESA data (Academic year 2021/2022) and reported ethnicity of the working age population (16 to 64 years old) of England and Wales (2021 Census of England and Wales).

Historically, Wellcome's UK funding was awarded to fewer researchers from these groups. Read more about the people and projects Wellcome has funded.

An example of the Wellcome application process is: 

1. Apply: Applications are submitted to Wellcome.  
2. Check: Wellcome does internal checks.  
3. Shortlisting: Internal and external advisory committees create a shortlist of applications.  
4. Expert review: Experts provide written reviews of shortlisted applications.  
5. Funding recommendation: External advisory committees review and rank applications. This process may include interviews with the applicants.  
6. Decide: Wellcome makes a funding decision. 

How positive action is used in the application process

If we use positive action, we only use it at the 'Shortlisting' stage.

1. Before the shortlisting stage, Wellcome teams check the applications against the criteria of the relevant scheme or call. Applications that are not eligible are removed. These staff do not have access to the lead applicants’ ethnicity and disability information.

2. At the shortlisting stage, advisory committees review and score applications, and then make recommendations about which applications should be shortlisted. These advisory committees do not have access to the lead applicants’ diversity information.

3. Research programme managers review the recommendations and decide whether there are any additional applications that have scored highly enough to potentially be added to the shortlist.

4. Wellcome Funding platform system administrators share a list of these additional applications with senior staff. This list:

• only shows whether positive action could be applied to an application
• does not identify which ethnic group each applicant is from or whether they consider themselves to be a disabled person
• is stored securely and can only be accessed by a limited number of senior staff.

5. Senior staff check the list provided by the system administrators and may add extra applications to the shortlist if there are lead applicants who are eligible for positive action.

6. Shortlisted applications will then be further evaluated through an interview or final panel consideration. There is no change to this part of the process. The panel does not have access to diversity information when evaluating applications.

Does Wellcome add extra applications to the shortlist for anything else?

Wellcome doesn’t just add extra applications to the shortlist for lead applicants who meet the positive action criteria. We may also add applications for other strategic reasons, for example to increase funding in a particular research area or location.