Wellcome Funding platform – guidance for research offices

Most large universities and administering organisations have a dedicated research office. On the Wellcome Funding platform, the research office is responsible for:  

• reviewing, editing and submitting funding applications to Wellcome
• from October 2023, submitting finance reports to Wellcome.

Smaller academic organisations might not have a dedicated research office but they will normally have someone who can be responsible for these tasks.

On the Wellcome Funding platform, these tasks are completed through an organisation’s workspace.

How to set up an organisation workspace

If your organisation already has an account on Wellcome Trust Grant Tracker, you should have received an email to the email address you registered with on Wellcome Trust Grant Tracker. The email included instructions to help you set up your new organisation ‘workspace’ on the Wellcome Funding platform. If you have not received this, contact fundingsupport@wellcome.org.

If your organisation doesn’t have a Wellcome Trust Grant Tracker account, contact fundingsupport@wellcome.org. Our Funding Information team will set up an organisation workspace account on the Wellcome Funding platform for you.

After your organisation workspace has been set up, you can invite and assign roles to individual team members so that they can set up their own logins to the workspace.

Types of roles and permissions

For now, anyone from an administering organisation who is invited to join the Wellcome Funding platform will have admin access by default. In future, we will add other roles with different permissions. 

Admins can: 

• edit and approve applications so they can be submitted to Wellcome
• add and remove team members from their organisation workspace
• (from October 2023) accept grants 
• (from October 2023) submit finance reports. 

How to invite other people to your organisation’s workspace

When the first account has been set up, this person can go to the ‘Teams’ menu item to invite their team members to the workspace. Watch a demo starting at 12 minutes 32 seconds from the Wellcome Funding platform webinar for research offices. 

How to log in to the Wellcome Funding platform

When you have accepted an invite to your organisation’s workspace and created an account, go to funding.wellcome.org to log in.

Getting notifications

For now, automated notifications will go to your main organisation account. You can't update this information on the Wellcome Funding platform yet. If you need help, contact fundingsupport@wellcome.org. 

The questions and information we ask for in the application forms will stay the same on the new platform. You can download a PDF of the application form questions on the ‘How to apply’ section of the relevant funding page.

How to view and edit draft applications

After the lead applicant adds the organisation to the application, the application will be listed on the ‘Applications’ page in the organisation workspace. Anyone who is part of the workspace will be able to view and edit the application. You will receive an email notification to the email address that you provided when you set up the organisation workspace.

The lead applicant does not need to submit the application to their administering organisation for the organisation to be able to view and edit the draft application. However, the organisation will only be able to submit the application after the lead applicant has submitted it to them.

If you don’t have access to an organisation workspace, you can ask the lead applicant to invite you as a ‘guest editor’ which will allow you to view and edit the application but not submit it.
 
If you are registered as a guest editor on an application form, you cannot be added to the organisation's workspace. If you are part of the organisation's workspace, you cannot be added as a guest editor on an application form. If you want to change the type of account you have, contact fundingsupport@wellcome.org.

How applicants can see the edits

All changes to the application are automatically saved on the platform. Anyone with access to the draft application will be able to see any changes that have been made straight away, so everyone is viewing the same version.

How many people can edit an application on the Wellcome Funding platform at the same time

More than one person can edit the application form at the same time but only one person can edit a section of the application form at the same time. For example, someone can edit the 'research summary' section while someone else is working on the 'costs' section. If someone is editing a section then you will be able to see the changes that are being made but you will not be able to make any changes to that section yourself until they’ve finished.

How many lead applicants can be on a single application

Each application form can only have one lead applicant. Other applicants will need to be added as coapplicants, depending on the requirements of the funding call or scheme. For more information, read Wellcome funding applicants. Only the lead applicant can submit the application to their administering organisation.

How to mark form sections as complete

Every section of the application form must be ‘marked as complete’ to submit it to the administering organisation. You can do this by clicking the ‘mark as complete’ button at the bottom of each form page. If you mark a section as complete, you can still make edits and mark it as complete again at any point before submitting the application.

How to download a PDF of the application form

Both the applicants and the organisation can download the completed application form as a PDF. They can do this after the lead applicant submits the application to their organisation or after the organisation submits the application to Wellcome. We do not currently provide PDFs of in-progress applications.

All applications (apart from preliminary applications) will need to be approved by the lead applicant's administering organisation. After the lead applicant has submitted to their administering organisation, anyone in the organisation’s workspace can approve it. Applicants won’t need to name a specific organisational approver.

How to see which applications need approving

On the ‘Applications’ page, the applications which have been submitted for approval will appear at the top of the list, marked ‘Ready to be reviewed and submitted to Wellcome’.

How to edit the application form after it has been submitted to the organisation

On each form section, there is an option to ‘edit page’. Selecting this will make the form fields editable. When you have completed your edits, select ‘Finish editing’.

How to leave feedback for the applicants

On each form section, there are options to mark the section as ‘Changes needed’ or ‘No changes needed’. Selecting ‘Changes needed’ will open a comment box for you to leave feedback. The applicants will not see this feedback until you return the whole application to them.

How to return the application to the applicants for further edits

When you have checked all sections, you can return the application to the applicants for further edits by selecting ‘Return to applicant’ on the form overview page.

How to submit applications to Wellcome

To submit the application to Wellcome you must check and approve each section. You can do this by:

• selecting ‘No changes needed’ on each form section individually, or
• selecting ‘Approve all sections’ on the application form overview page.

When all form sections have been reviewed, you can submit the application to Wellcome by selecting ‘Submit to Wellcome’ on the form overview page.

Editing an application after it’s been submitted to Wellcome

The Funding Information Team at Wellcome can return the application to the applicant, and the applicant will then be able to edit and submit it to the administering organisation. Email fundingsupport@wellcome.org if you need the Funding Information Team to help you with this.

Awarded grants and previous applications on Wellcome Trust Grant Tracker

If you have already been awarded a grant, it will be transferred to your new Wellcome Funding account later in 2023. However, any other documents to do with your award, for example your grant start certificate or reports, will not be transferred to your new account - you will need to download them from Wellcome Trust Grant Tracker before 30 September 2023.

We will be sharing more information about how and when you need to download your old document later this year.

Unsubmitted applications on Wellcome Trust Grant Tracker

Draft (unsubmitted) applications won't be moved from Wellcome Trust Grant Tracker to the new Wellcome Funding platform. The lead applicant will need to start a new application on the Wellcome Funding platform.

Finance reporting

Financial reporting will move from Grant Tracker to the Wellcome Funding platform in October 2023. We will be providing information about this nearer the time and will be running a webinar about the changes to financial reporting.