Biological vulnerability to extreme heat in maternal and child health
This award will fund research teams to significantly advance understanding of the biological vulnerability to extreme heat in the context of maternal and child health. By the end of the award, successful applicants will have delivered new knowledge at this intersection and generated evidence with the potential to inform new interventions that can be used in real world settings.
Scheme at a glance
This scheme is now closed
- Lead applicant career stage:
- Funding amount:
Up to £2 million per award. In exceptional cases we may award above £2 million.
- Funding duration:
3 to 5 years
Summaries of all the funded projects are available to read on our grants awarded page.
Find out more about why we're funding this research on Science.org.
Eligibility and suitability
About you
You can apply for this award if you are a research leader who wants to pursue bold and creative research ideas that will significantly improve our understanding of biological vulnerability to extreme heat in the context of maternal and child health. This could include studies involving expectant and lactating mothers, foetuses, neonates, infants and children under 5 years of age.
Your research should generate evidence that may lead to new interventions to protect maternal and child health from the effects of extreme heat. We will prioritise funding for research in disadvantaged communities. This review of the current understanding of the effects of extreme heat on pregnancy outcomes details where the gaps in the evidence base are.
You and your team must aim to make a significant contribution to this research area by:
- generating new understanding of the biological mechanisms of increased vulnerability to exposure to extreme heat, and
- developing methodologies, conceptual frameworks, tools or techniques that could benefit maternal and child health in the context of exposure to extreme heat.
We will prioritise funding for projects that generate research that is relevant to the needs of disadvantaged groups in a warming climate and that have potential opportunities for translation into policy and practice. Disadvantaged groups are not homogenous. They may include those with high exposure and vulnerabilities to extreme heat that results from the intersection of social factors such as age, race, ethnicity, co-morbidities, occupation and socio-economic status.
You will be expected to:
- actively promote a diverse, inclusive and supportive research environment within your team and across your organisation
- outline your plans for public engagement with affected communities, practitioners and/or policymakers to both inform your research activities and share your learning.
Your research team can:
- Include researchers from any discipline (natural, physical and social sciences as well as technology) but must include significant expertise in relevant biological and/or medical sciences.
- Be interdisciplinary (synthesising different disciplinary approaches to conceptualise a larger problem) or transdisciplinary (challenging conventional disciplinary boundaries or creating a new discipline). For further information on how we define transdisciplinary research please see the OECD report on addressing societal challenges using transdisciplinary research.
The award will be held by a team of researchers led by an established researcher.
Career stage and experience
Lead Applicant
You must:
- have demonstrated experience of leading a successful research programme from design and development to achievement of agreed milestones
- have a track record of managing and training others, while promoting a positive and inclusive research culture
- have demonstrated ability to drive and lead an interdisciplinary / transdisciplinary research programme
- be able to contribute at least 20% of their research time to the programme
- be based at an eligible host organisation that can sign up to our grant conditions (it can be based in any country apart from mainland China).
The type of host organisation can be:
- higher education institution
- public and private research institute
- non-academic healthcare organisation
- not-for-profit organisation.
At the point of application, lead applicants should have an open-ended or long-term rolling contract, or the guarantee of one for at least three years. The contract should not be conditional on receiving this award.
Your salary should be paid by your host organisation for the duration of the award, however if it is a condition of your employment contract to obtain part of your salary from external grant funding, salary may be requested. If you have less than three years remaining on your contract at the point of application, you must have secured your next position at your current or another eligible organisation and provide a letter of support from them.
Coapplicants
Coapplicants can be based in the same or in different organisations, and can come from any discipline, but the added value of the team approach must be clear.
Coapplicants can be at any career stage and based anywhere in the world, apart from mainland China.
Each coapplicant must make a significant and essential contribution to the research proposal, for example designing the research, writing the application and/or managing the programme. They must be able to contribute at least 10% of their research time to the programme.
Coapplicants must be based at an eligible organisation that can sign up to our grant conditions.
The organisation can be a:
- higher education institution
- public or private research institute
- non-academic healthcare organisation
- not-for-profit organisation
- commercial organisation. Examples of commercial organisations include spin-outs, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and listed companies. Any commercial organisation based anywhere in the world (apart from mainland China) can apply, provided they can sign up to our funding terms and conditions. A company must be established and/or have working capital to be an eligible coapplicant. Funding to a company may need to occur through a contract to ensure public benefit.
Coapplicants:
- Must have the guarantee of space and salary support from their host organisation (if they can’t get it from other sources) for the period of time that the coapplicant is working on the grant.
- Do not need to have a permanent, open-ended or long-term rolling contract.
- Can ask us for a contribution to their salary in the application. The amount we pay will be proportionate to the time they contribute to the award, for example if they contribute 20% of their time to the award we will fund 20% of their salary.
Team size will depend on the proposed research. It will usually range from two to five applicants, including the lead applicant.
We encourage lead applicants to put together diverse teams.
Time spent away from research and part-time working
You can apply if you've been away from research (for example a career break, maternity leave or long-term sick leave). We'll take this into account when we consider your application. Lead and coapplicants can be part-time. There is no formal minimum, but part-time working needs to be compatible with delivering the proposal successfully.
If you have retired, please contact us before applying.
Who can't apply
You cannot apply if you intend to carry out activities that involve the transfer of grant funds into mainland China.
Restrictions if you are applying for/hold other Wellcome awards
You can only be an applicant on a maximum of two applications to this funding call:
- You can only be lead applicant on one application (but can be a coapplicant on another).
- You must be able to demonstrate that you can dedicate enough time and resources to both projects, if funded.
Other Wellcome awards:
- An early-career researcher can be a lead applicant on one Wellcome award and a coapplicant on one other Wellcome award.
- A mid-career researcher can be a lead applicant on one Wellcome award and a coapplicant on two other Wellcome awards.
- An established researcher can be a lead applicant on two Wellcome awards, one as the sole applicant and one as lead applicant for a team, or both as the lead applicant for a team. They can also be a coapplicant on two other Wellcome awards.
About your host organisation
- You must be based at an eligible organisation that can sign up to our grant conditions.
- We expect organisations based in the UK to meet the responsibilities required by the Concordat to Support the Career Development of Researchers for institutions, managers and researchers.
- Any organisation with Wellcome funding that is based outside the UK is expected, at a minimum, to follow the principles of the Concordat.
We also expect your host organisation to:
- Guarantee that the space and resources you need will be made available to you from the start date through to the end date of your award.
- Explain how your research fits with the strategic aims of the organisation.
- Give you, and any staff employed on the grant, 10 days a year (pro rata if part-time) to undertake training and continuing professional development (CPD) in line with the Concordat. This should include the responsible conduct of research, research leadership, people management, diversity and inclusion, and the promotion of a healthy research culture.
- Provide onboarding, embedding and planning support to you when you join the organisation and/or start the award.
- If your host organisation is a core-funded research organisation, this award should not replace or lead to a reduction in existing or planned core support.
About your proposal
All proposals must focus on biological vulnerability to extreme heat (pathophysiological and /or protective mechanisms) in the context of maternal and child health.
Scope of proposals
In scope:
- We are particularly interested in research that prioritises disadvantaged groups in low-or middle-income, or high-income countries.
- We encourage comparative research across multiple groups and geographies.
- Proof of concept studies involving non-human model organisms for human physiology will be considered.
Out of scope:
- Impact of exposure to extreme heat on non-human organisms (for example, pathogens, vectors, reservoirs, hosts, crops, livestock, microbiomes, biodiversity).
- Psychological or behavioural adaptations to exposure to extreme heat as a primary research objective.
- Evaluation of heat adaptation solutions.
Examples of research questions within the scope of this award include:
- The underlying genetic basis of thermal adaptation and physiological markers of heat exposure in pregnant women in low- and middle-income countries.
- The biological causes and health consequences of chronic heat for birth outcomes of workers from low socio-economic backgrounds in highly exposed occupations.
- The transgenerational impacts of epi-genetic changes associated with acute heat stress following extreme heat events in ethnic minority groups.
- The identification of protective biological mechanisms that enable successful pregnancy in well-adapted indigenous populations in the tropics.
- The impacts of chronic heat exposure in early childhood on later life outcomes in multiple low resource settings, for example using Longitudinal Population Studies.
- The range of biological responses in maternal, new-born, and child health across a range of socio-economic contexts in low resource settings.
- The direct and indirect impacts of heat stress on maternal and child health from the confounding effects of nutrition, infection, seasonal drivers and social determinants.
- The co-morbidities that exacerbate the heat-stress response in pregnant women in the arctic regions and lead to more adverse outcomes.
Please note these are illustrative examples of research questions only.
Assessment criteria for preliminary applications
Preliminary applications will be reviewed and shortlisted by Wellcome staff. Your application should be a concise and clear description of the strategic importance of your idea, approach and methods. In developing your preliminary application, you should also be mindful of the full application criteria listed further below.
If invited to submit a full application, you will have the opportunity to explain your proposed research in more detail including expanding on the strategic importance of the idea, approach and methods, the team structure, skills and experience, and your public engagement and communication plans.
In reviewing your preliminary application, we will consider whether the eligibility criteria are met, and the following:
- Strategic importance, approach and methods:
- The ambition and strategic importance of the work in meeting the aims of this award, which is to generate new understanding of the biological mechanisms of increased vulnerability to exposure to extreme heat. This includes the proposed interdisciplinary / transdisciplinary approach, analytical methods, and the likelihood that the approach / methods can achieve the award aims. Where applicable, the extent to which the research responds to the expressed needs of target populations should be highlighted. Please note that we will prioritise research the addresses the needs of disadvantaged populations.
- The likelihood that your proposed work will identify new opportunities for interventions that can minimise the impact of exposure to extreme heat on maternal and child health.
- The feasibility of the approach including the need for primary data collection and / or secondary data availability, plus any preliminary results.
- An appropriate budget for the proposed activities.
- The team, skills and experience:
- The lead applicant’s relevant expertise and demonstrated experience of leading a successful research programme.
- The interdisciplinary / transdisciplinary experience and planned composition of the team, plans for how the team will work together and contribute to the overall objectives.
- The team’s experience and history of working with the affected communities or similar experience.
- Evidence of a commitment to promoting a positive research culture and equity, diversity and inclusion.
- Public engagement and communication:
- Outlines of your plans for public engagement with the affected communities, practitioners and/or policymakers, both to inform your research activities and share your learning.
- Outlines of your academic dissemination plans.
The maximum word count for project description in the preliminary applications is 1,000 words.
Assessment criteria for full applications
Full applications will be reviewed by external experts. In addition to the preliminary application criteria, they will also consider:
- Strategic importance, approach and methods (50%):
- The ambition and innovation of the proposed work to develop significant new understanding of biological vulnerability to extreme health in the context of maternal and child health.
- The likelihood that the proposed work will develop and test new concepts, methods or technologies, or combine existing ideas and approaches in a new way that has the potential to transform policies and practices.
- The short / medium and/ or long-term impact (academic and non-academic) of the work.
- Identified internal or external risks to the successful completion of the proposed work, and the team’s approach to mitigating these risks.
- The environmental sustainability of the development and implementation of the research and the approach taken to reduce the carbon footprint of the research.
- The team, skills and experience (30%):
- The lead applicant’s relevant subject matter expertise and their track record in managing and training others
- Any plans for training graduate students and early career scientists, especially from disadvantaged groups, where appropriate.
- Public engagement and communication (20%):
- Your output management plan – see here for more information on output management.
The maximum word count for project description in the full applications is 3,000 words.
What we offer
This call provides up to £2 million of funding to cover research expenses and costs associated with public engagement, research dissemination and research uptake activities.
We expect awards to last between three and five years. You should ask for a level and duration of funding that is justifiable for your proposed research.
All costs must be justified in the costs section of your application. In exceptional cases we will award over £2 million if the costs are justified.
If you are based in the UK or Republic of Ireland, you cannot ask for your salary.
If you are based anywhere else in the world, you can ask for a contribution to your salary if you hold a permanent, open-ended or long-term rolling contract that states that you have to get your salary from external grant funding.
The amount we pay towards your salary will be proportionate to the time you contribute to the award, for example if you contribute 30% of your time to the award we will fund 30% of your salary.
You will have to contribute at least 20% of your research time to this award.
If you have a permanent post, you can only ask for your salary if your contract states that you have to get your salary from external grant funding. However, your host organisation must confirm:
- that your employment contract states you must get salary recovery from external grant funding
- that they will underwrite the salary and post for the period of time that you will be working on the grant.
Your salary should be based on the pay scales of the host organisation that will be employing you. It should include:
- your 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
- any incremental progression up the salary scale
- locally recognised allowances such as London allowance.
You should not include:
- any potential promotion costs
- any Wellcome fellowship supplement that was part of a previous grant.
If your host organisation is in a low- or middle-income country and you will be working in a high-income country for four weeks or more, you should be paid at an appropriate rate for that country, according to your age and experience.
You should only allow for salary pay awards during Year 1. These should be based on pay awards already agreed: if you don’t know what the pay award is yet then use our inflation rate of 2.0%.
From Year 2 onwards, we will automatically increase your salary, based on our current inflation allowance rates.
If you are a clinical academic, your salary should be appropriate to your clinical status and within the salary scale for academic and senior clinical lecturers.
If you are paid on a non-clinical salary scale, your basic salary should be in line with academics of a similar seniority.
Research/teaching buyout
If you’re a humanities and social science researcher, you can ask for funds for research or teaching replacement to cover the cost of a temporary replacement lecturer. You must retain at least a 10% commitment to teaching.
If you have to move to take up the post at your host organisation, you can ask for up to £1,000. This is to cover personal removal costs only.
You will have to explain in your application why you need this.
For the lead applicant, see Basic Salary.
Coapplicants
If any coapplicant employed on your grant holds a permanent, open-ended or long-term rolling contract that states that they have to get their salary from external grant funding, you can ask us for a contribution to their salary in your application.
The amount we pay will be proportionate to the time they contribute to the award, for example if they contribute 30% of their time to the award we will fund 30% of their salary.
They will have to contribute at least 20% of their research time to this programme.
Your host organisation must confirm:
- that the coapplicant’s employment contract states they must get salary recovery from external grant funding
- that they will underwrite the salary and post for the period of time that the person will be working on the grant.
Staff working on your programme
We will cover the salary costs of all staff, full or part-time, who will work on your grant.
Staff members may include:
- research assistants or technicians employed on your grant
- specialist service staff, for example data analysis, fieldwork and clinical studies
- project manager, if you have multiple applicants on your programme
- support if you or a member of staff employed on your grant is disabled or has a long-term health condition – see 'Disability-related adjustment support'.
Teaching buyout
If you’re a humanities and social science researcher, you can ask for funds for research or teaching replacement to cover the cost of a temporary replacement lecturer. You must retain at least a 10% commitment to teaching.
Costs:
- can cover up to 33% FTE of your contracted time
- are usually for a person at a more junior level than the postholder
- can be spread across the full period of the grant.
If you already get buyout costs from another grant (funded by Wellcome or elsewhere), you can ask us for this cost, but only for the period of time on your Discovery Award when you won't receive buyout costs from another grant.
You must provide a letter from your employing organisation, confirming that your contract includes a teaching commitment. You should include this in your grant application.
PhD fees
We do not provide studentships on this award. But if applicants employ a research assistant on the grant, they can ask for the costs to cover their PhD fees. Each applicant can ask for PhD fees for one research assistant at a time on the grant.
We will only pay the international student fee rate for low- and middle-income nationals who are registered to study for a PhD in a high-income country. In all other situations, we will pay home student fees.
Staff salaries should be appropriate to skills, responsibilities and expertise. You should ask your host organisation to use their salary scales to calculate these costs, which should 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.
You should allow for salary pay awards during Year 1. If the pay award is not yet known, applicants should use the International Monetary Fund inflation rate, selecting the ‘inflation, average consumer price’ option as an indicator.
From Year 2 onwards, you should use your organisation’s current pay rates. We’ll provide a separate inflation allowance for salary inflation costs.
Read about the responsibilities of grantholders and host organisations for people working on a Wellcome grant.
If you have named people on your grant whose salaries will be funded by Wellcome, you can ask for visa or work permit costs to help them take up their posts at the host organisation. You can also ask for:
- visa costs for the person's partner and dependent children
- essential associated costs, such as travel to attend appointments at a visa application centre or embassy, and essential English language tests
- Immigration Health Surcharge costs for the person, their partner and dependent children if they will be in the UK for six months or more.
If you or a member of staff working on your grant is disabled or has a long-term health condition, you can ask for adjustment support to help you carry out your project.
Costs can include, but are not limited to:
- additional costs for staff to help with day-to-day activities related to your project
- assistive technology to help use computers, research equipment or materials – for example, text to audio software
- care costs for assistance animals if you need to travel.
We will not pay for capital or building costs, such as access ramps.
You can ask for these costs if your government and/or employer:
- does not cover any of the costs
- only covers some of the costs (if they do, we will only meet the shortfall).
The costs we provide must not replace the support you may get from the government or your organisation, who are responsible for providing these costs.
If you don't know what these costs are now, you can ask for them after we've awarded your grant.
You can ask for costs to cover the following types of training.
Continuing professional development and professional skills training
You can ask for a contribution towards these costs.
Types of training can include:
- research leadership, professional and people management skills
- career development support
- responsible conduct of research
- diversity and inclusion
- promotion of a healthy research culture.
We expect your host organisation to provide and fund this training. However, if these types of training are not available, or the quality is inadequate, you can ask for up to £500 a year for you and each member of staff employed on your grant who will be:
- in a post of 12 months duration or more only and
- working on Wellcome-funded awards for at least 50% full-time equivalent.
You will need to justify these costs in your application.
Research skills training
You can ask for costs to cover training for the technical and research skills you need to deliver your proposed research.
You can ask for whatever research skills training you need for you, and each member of staff employed on your grant, who will be:
- in a post of 12 months duration or more only and
- working on Wellcome-funded awards for at least 50% full-time equivalent.
You will need to justify these costs in your application.
We will pay for the materials and consumables you need to carry out your project, including:
- laboratory chemicals and materials (for example reagents, isotopes, peptides, enzymes, antibodies, gases, proteins, cell/tissue/bacterial culture, plasticware and glassware)
- project-specific personal protective equipment (PPE) that is above the standard expected for the setting
- printing associated with fieldwork and empirical research
- associated charges for shipping, delivery and freight
You can ask for funds to buy animals if they are essential to your project. We will also fund the charge-out rates for animal house facilities if your organisation uses full economic costing methodology. These costs include:
- running costs (including animal maintenance, any experimental procedures, licences and relevant staff training)
- appropriate estates costs
- cage and equipment depreciation costs, but not building depreciation costs
We may not pay the full charge-out rate for an animal house facility if we've provided significant funding towards the infrastructure and/or core support of the facility.
If your organisation does not use full economic costing methodology to establish charge-out rates for animal house facilities, you can ask for funds to cover:
- the cost of buying animals
- running costs (including animal maintenance, any experimental procedures, licences and relevant staff training)
- staff costs, for example, contributions towards the salaries of animal house technicians
We will not provide estates or depreciation costs.
Equipment purchase
Your chosen research environment should have the necessary equipment for you to complete your work. You can ask for additional basic items of equipment that are essential to your research project.
Costs may include purchase, delivery, installation, maintenance and training, where necessary.
We will cover VAT and import duties if:
- the usual UK exemptions on equipment used for medical research don’t apply
- you’re applying from a non-UK organisation, and you can show these costs can’t be recovered.
You can also ask for specialised equipment if:
- it is essential to the success of the proposed research project
- it is not available at your host organisation or through collaboration, and
- you’ll be the main user and have priority access to the equipment.
If a complete piece of specialised equipment costs £100,000 or more, we expect a contribution of at least 25% of the total costs, including maintenance, from the host organisation or another source. In some cases, we may expect a larger contribution. We’ll discuss this with you after we’ve assessed your application. Contributions can include benefits in kind, such as refurbishment or the underwriting of a key support post.
Multi-component items must not be broken down into component parts to avoid this contribution.
Equipment maintenance
We will cover maintenance costs for equipment if:
- you are requesting it in your application
- it is existing equipment that is:
- funded by us or another source
- essential to the proposed research project
- more than five years old
- cost effective to keep maintaining it.
We won’t cover maintenance costs for equipment if there is a mechanism in place to recoup these costs through access charges.
Computer equipment
We will cover the cost of one personal computer or laptop per person up to £1,500.
We won't pay for:
- more expensive items, unless you can justify them
- installation or training costs.
You can ask for the cost of access to shared equipment, facilities or services if they’re essential to your project.
These may include materials and consumables, plus a proportion of:
- maintenance and service contracts
- staff time costs for dedicated technical staff employed to operate the equipment or facility.
We don’t cover the costs of:
- estates and utilities
- depreciation or insurance
- other staff, for example, contributions towards departmental technical, administrative and management staff time
We do cover these costs if related to animal housing facilities.
If the facilities or equipment were paid for by a Wellcome grant, you can only ask for access charges if:
- the grant has ended
- any support for running costs and maintenance contracts has ended
You can ask for overheads if your grant will be based at a:
- university outside the UK
- research organisation that does not receive core funding for overheads
- charitable or not-for-profit organisation
- small or medium-sized commercial organisation
You can also ask for overheads on any part of your grant that is sub-contracted to any of the organisations listed above.
If you’re based at a UK university, you can’t ask for overheads for sub-contracted activity if your university will include the sub-contracted funding in its annual reporting for the charity support element of UK government block funding, for example the Charity Research Support Fund for universities in England.
Overheads can include:
- estates, for example building and premises
- non-project dedicated administrative and support staff
- administration, for example finance, library and room hire
The total cost for overheads should not be more than 20% of the direct research costs.
These costs must directly support the activity funded by the grant.
How to apply for these costs
If you are requesting funds for overheads, in your application you will need to provide a letter from your Finance Director providing information on how you have calculated these costs.
If your organisation has an externally audited or otherwise verified methodology for calculating overhead rates, then the letter must include:
- confirmation of the validated rate
- how the rate was arrived at/who provided the rate
- when the rate was last reviewed
- where details of the rate can be found
If your organisation does not have an externally audited or otherwise verified methodology for calculating overhead rates, then the letter must include:
- a breakdown of the costs requested
- confirmation that the request is a true representation of the costs incurred
We encourage applicants to include costs for travel only where essential and to explore environmentally sustainable ways of engagement such as virtual meetings where possible.
Travel costs
Conference attendance
You can ask for a contribution towards the costs of attending scientific and academic meetings and conferences, including registration fees and the costs to offset the carbon emissions of your travel. The limits are:
- Lead applicant – £2,000 a year
- Coapplicants on your grant – £2,000 each a year
- Staff employed on your grant – £1,000 each a year.
We provide costs to cover caring responsibilities for any staff employed on your grant attend a conference. This includes childcare and any other caring responsibility they have. We will pay these if:
- Wellcome is providing the salary
- the conference is directly related to the research
- the caring costs are over and above what they would normally pay for care
- the conference organiser and their employing organisation are unable to cover the costs.
You can ask for up to £1,000 per person for each conference.
Collaborative travel
You can ask for travel and subsistence costs for collaborative visits for you and any staff employed on your grant. You’ll need to justify each visit and its duration.
Other travel
We will pay for other essential visits, for example to facilities, libraries, archives, sample collection and for fieldwork. You can include subsistence costs.
Carbon offset costs
This applies to all types of travel costs Wellcome provides.
You can ask 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 ask for 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.
Subsistence costs
If you’re away for up to one month you can ask for subsistence costs. These include accommodation, meals and incidentals (for example, refreshments or newspapers).
If your administering organisation has a subsistence policy, use their rates.
If your administering organisation doesn’t have a subsistence policy, please use the HMRC rates.
If you’re away for more than one month and up to 12 months, we will pay reasonable rental costs only, including aparthotels. You should discuss appropriate rates with your administering and host organisations, or Wellcome, as appropriate. We expect you to choose the most economical options, booked in advance where possible.
If you’re from a low- or middle- income country and will be working in a high-income country for more than one month and up to 12 months, you can also ask for up to £10 a day to cover extra costs, such as transport and incidentals.
If you’re away for more than 12 months, we will pay the costs of your housing. You should discuss your needs with your administering and host organisations.
The allowance we provide will be based on family and business need. We will set the maximum allowance we pay for each location. This will be based on current market data or, where data is unavailable, in consultation with your administering organisation, using equivalent market rates. Please contact us if you need help calculating the costs.
We will cover the direct expenses you have to pay to find and rent a home. We will not cover the cost of utilities or any refurbishment.
Overseas research
If you or any research staff employed on your grant will be doing research away from your home laboratory, we'll help with the additional costs of working on the project overseas. Please see the 'Overseas allowances' section for details.
If you or any staff employed on your grant will be spending time in another country, we’ll help you with the additional costs of working on the project overseas.
Our overseas allowances are:
- a contribution towards the personal cost of carrying out research overseas, to ensure that you are not disadvantaged
- provided on the assumption that you’ll be paying income tax, either in your home country, or the country you will be working in (your personal tax is your responsibility).
- provided on the understanding that you or your partner will not receive equivalent allowances from elsewhere
- determined by the amount of time you will spend away from your home country.
Carbon offset costs
We expect the people we fund to choose travel that has a lower carbon impact, even if it’s more expensive (for example travelling by train instead of flying). We will not pay for business class flights.
You can ask for costs to offset the carbon generated by the travel as part of your overseas allowances. If carbon offsetting for travel is not part of your organisational sustainability strategy, you can ask us for a similar level of support for other sustainability initiatives. Your organisation must get our approval for other sustainability initiatives to be included in applications.
See our environmental sustainability policy for information on what you and your organisation need to do.
If you will be away more than 12 months, we will provide overseas allowances for your partner and any dependants if they are travelling with you.
If you will be away for 12 months or less and can justify why your partner and dependants must travel with you, we may provide overseas allowances for them.
We define your partner as the person:
- you’re married to
- you’re not married to but with whom you’ve been in a relationship for at least a year
and
- you live with at the same permanent address and share some form of joint financial commitment with, such as a mortgage.
See a list of low- and middle-income countries, as defined by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
You can ask for the following allowances. You need to provide estimated costs as accurately as possible.
We will pay your travel costs at the beginning and end of your overseas work. Costs can be for air, ferry, train or coach fares.
All fares should be:
- in line with our environmental sustainability policy.
- booked in advance where possible.
If you are away for up to 12 months, you can ask for up to 80kg of additional baggage or unaccompanied airline freight for your outward and return journeys.
If you are away for more than 12 months, you can ask for the costs of shipping your personal items at the beginning and end of your overseas work.
We will pay the full cost of transporting:
- half a standard shipping container if you’re travelling alone
- a whole standard shipping container (20ft) if you’re travelling with a partner and/or dependants.
We will pay the cost of your medical insurance and travel insurance.
If you will be working in a low- or middle-income country we will also cover the cost of emergency evacuation cover.
We won’t pay for medical insurance if you will be based in the UK or Republic of Ireland.
We will pay the costs of visas, vaccinations and anti-malaria treatment.
You can ask for this if you’ll be based in a low- or middle-income country and it is necessary.
Costs can include guards, panic buttons and alarms. You should ask your employing organisation for advice on the level of security you need.
If you’re away for up to one month you can ask for subsistence costs. These include accommodation, meals and incidentals (for example, refreshments or newspapers).
If your administering organisation has a subsistence policy, use their rates.
If your administering organisation doesn’t have a subsistence policy, please use the HMRC rates.
If you’re away for more than one month and up to 12 months, we will pay reasonable rental costs only, including aparthotels. You should discuss appropriate rates with your administering and host organisations, or Wellcome, as appropriate. We expect you to choose the most economical options, booked in advance where possible.
If you’re from a low- or middle- income country and will be working in a high-income country for more than one month and up to 12 months, you can also ask for up to £10 a day to cover extra costs, such as transport and incidentals.
If you’re away for more than 12 months, we will pay the costs of your housing. You should discuss your needs with your administering and host organisations.
The allowance we provide will be based on family and business need. We will set the maximum allowance we pay for each location. This will be based on current market data or, where data is unavailable, in consultation with your administering organisation, using equivalent market rates. If you need help calculating the costs please contact us.
We will cover the direct expenses you have to pay to find and rent a home. We will not cover the cost of utilities or any refurbishment.
If you’re away for more than 12 months we will pay:
Local nursery or school fees
You can ask for these costs if you are in a location where there isn’t free local education of the same standard as in your home country.
Costs include:
- local nursery school fees up to a maximum of 570 hours a year for 3 to 4 year olds
- local junior or secondary school fees, up to the end of secondary school education.
Local international school fees
You can ask for these costs if local schools do not provide the same standard of education as in your home country. We will only pay the published termly school fees.
We will not cover the costs of:
- extracurricular activities, including field trips
- other extras including, but not limited to, uniforms, sports kit and equipment, transport, meals, books and electronic equipment.
Boarding school fees
We will consider paying the cost of boarding school fees in your home country if:
- a local international school is not available
- both parents, guardians or the sole care giver live outside the home country.
The allowance covers:
- up to a maximum of £30,000 a year for each child for the published termly fees only
- the cost of return airfares at the start and end of each school term, in line with our carbon offset policy for travel.
We will not cover the costs of:
- additional annual leave airfares
- extracurricular activities, including field trips
- other extras including, but not limited to, uniforms, sports kit and equipment, transport, meals, books and electronic equipment.
We will cover the cost of providing special needs education as far as possible. Please contact us to discuss your needs.
We would not usually expect to provide an education allowance if you will be working in a high-income country.
If you will be away for more than 12 months, we’ll pay for you to travel back to your home country for annual leave. This is in addition to your outward and return travel costs and depends on how long you will be away:
- 12-24 months – 1 annual leave trip
- 25-36 months – 2 annual leave trips
- 37-48 months – 3 annual leave trips
- 49-60 months – 4 annual leave trips
- 61-72 months – 5 annual leave trips
- 73-84 months – 6 annual leave trips
- 85-96 months – 7 annual leave trips.
All fares should be:
- in line with our environmental sustainability policy
- booked in advance where possible.
If you will be away for more than 12 months, you can ask for up to 100 hours of lessons in the local language for you and/or your partner during the first 12 months of your visit.
We will cover 100% of the costs for local language school classes or up to 50% of the costs of individual tuition.
We will not cover the cost of examinations or personal learning materials such as DVDs and books.
We cover fieldwork costs if they’re essential and you can justify them. Costs can include:
- survey and data collection, including communication and data collection services and any associated costs such as essential field materials, travel costs and language translation services
- the purchase, hire and running costs of vehicles dedicated to your project
- expenses for subjects and volunteers, including the recruitment of participants, their participatory fees and travel costs
- statistical analysis.
You can ask for other fieldwork costs that aren’t listed here, but you’ll need to justify them.
How we calculate your inflation allowance
We will add an inflation allowance to your award. Your inflation allowance is based on your total eligible costs and the duration of the award.
We will use an inflation allowance that reflects the inflation rate of the country where the host organisation is based using data from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). You'll receive the following allowance if the costs in your application are in pounds sterling.
| Award duration (in months) | Inflation allowance |
|---|---|
| 0-12 | 0.0% |
| 13-24 | 1.00% |
| 25-36 | 2.01% |
| 37-48 | 3.04% |
| 49-60 | 4.08% |
| 61-72 | 5.14% |
| 73-84 | 6.20% |
| 85-96 | 7.29% |
The costs in your application must be based on current known costs, excluding inflation.
You should allow for salary pay awards during Year 1. These should be based on pay awards already agreed; if you don’t know what the pay award is yet then use the IMF rate for the currency your award will be made in.
We strongly encourage open access publishing. Please read our Open Access policy.
If your organisation receives open access block grant funding, you can ask them to cover your open access article processing charges.
If you're at an organisation that does not receive block grant funding, we’ll supplement your grant when your paper has been accepted for publication.
You cannot ask for these charges in your grant application.
If your research is taking place outside the UK, you can ask us for all the direct clinical costs associated with it.
If you need to carry out clinical research using NHS patients or facilities, we will cover some of the research costs.
Annex A of the guidelines for attributing the costs of health and social care research and development (AcoRD) sets out the costs we cover, and which costs should be funded through the Department of Health and Social Care in England, or its equivalent in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. If you're based in the Republic of Ireland, we would expect you to adhere to the spirit of these principles.
Read more information on our clinical trials policy.
If your proposal involves clinical research using NHS resources, check if you need to upload a SoECAT form with your full application.
You can ask for costs that are essential to the project. These can include:
- materials, including printing and publishing
- other costs relating to engagement activities that are essential to carry out your research, such as collaborating with people with lived experience, patient involvement (including under-served groups) and community engagement
- dissemination of research results and findings arising from Wellcome funded research and workshops.
For more information, please refer to our guidance on using an engaged research approach.
We will provide funds if you need to outsource project work to:
- contract research organisations
- other fee-for-service providers.
Allowed costs
You may ask for the following costs (you will have to justify them in your application):
- fieldwork costs, including survey and data collection and statistical analysis
- specialist publications that are relevant to the research and not available in institutional libraries
- consultancy fees
- expenses for subjects and volunteers – includes recruitment of participants, their participatory fees and travel, as well as interviewee expenses
- reasonable research-associated costs related to the feedback of health-related findings but not any healthcare-associated costs
- costs associated with developing an outputs management plan
- questionnaires, recruitment material, newsletters etc for clinical, epidemiological and qualitative research studies
- public engagement materials where dissemination (including printing and publishing) is a key activity of the project
- recruitment, advertising and interviewee travel costs for staff to be employed on the grant
- purchase, hire and running costs of project-dedicated vehicles
- project-specific personal protective equipment (PPE) that is above the standard expected for the setting
- costs associated with proposed outputs and data managements and sharing plans, including reports and dissemination – this could include language translations
- costs to host/a contribution towards the cost of hosting:
- a conference
- a session within a conference
- a symposium
- a seminar series
- advisory board meetings, if appropriate. The meeting should either be:
- for research purposes, for example data gathering
- to disseminate your research findings, for example to policymakers.
Costs can include:
- travel and accommodation for keynote speakers
- external room hire and catering
- event publicity and conference materials
- childcare and other caring responsibility costs for delegates
- any costs related to accessibility and inclusion.
Disallowed costs
We will not pay for:
- estates costs – such as building and premises costs, basic services and utilities. This also includes phone, postage, photocopying and stationery, unless you can justify these within a clinical or epidemiological study.*
- page charges and the cost of colour prints
- research, technical and administrative staff whose time is shared across several projects and isn’t supported by an audit record*
- PhD stipends
- charge-out costs for major facilities* – departmental technical and administrative services, and use of existing equipment
- cleaning, waste and other disposal costs*
*We will fund these costs in the case of animal-related research.
- indirect costs – this includes general administration costs such as personnel, finance, library, room hire and some departmental services
- office furniture, such as chairs, desks and filing cabinets
- clothing such as lab coats and shoes
- non-research related activities such as catering, room and venue hire for staff parties, team-building events and social activities
- indemnity insurance (insurance cover against claims made by subjects or patients associated with a research programme)
- ethics reviews, unless you are in a low- or middle-income country
- radiation protection costs
- contingency funds
- organisation insurance
- clinical examination or course fees
- working capital costs of commercial organisations.
How to apply
- Before you apply
- Make sure you read everything on this page.
- Get some tips to help you write your grant application.
- If you are seeking potential collaborators for this award, you can use the Heat Research Collaboration Connector
- You do not need to contact us before you write and submit your application.
- Submit your preliminary application
- Complete your application form on Grant Tracker. If you have not previously applied for funding using the online system, then please register as soon as possible.
- Get some guidance on using Grant Tracker.
- View the sample preliminary application form.
- Your application must be submitted by 17:00 BST on Monday 8 August 2022
- Shortlisting
- We will check your eligibility for the scheme and that your application demonstrates how you will meet the aims of the scheme. If your application is ineligible or does not demonstrate how you will meet the aims of the scheme, we will withdraw your application and contact you to explain why. Wellcome staff will review all eligible preliminary applications. If shortlisted, you will be asked to submit a full application in the week commencing 12 September 2022.
- No feedback will be offered if your application is not shortlisted due to the quantity of applications that we expect to receive.
- If invited to submit a full application, submit your application to your host organisation for approval
- Complete your full application form on Grant Tracker.
- View the sample full application form.
- Submit your application to the ‘authorised organisational approver’ at your host organisation for approval. Make sure you leave enough time for the approver to review and submit your application before the deadline. The approver may ask you to make changes to your application.
- Host organisation reviews your application and submits it to Wellcome
- Your application must be submitted by 17:00 GMT on 10 November 2022.
- Written expert review
- We'll seek external written expert review on full applications.
- Reviewers will be chosen based on their expertise within the relevant research field and not on their level of seniority.
- Unattributed comments will be sent to you after the final funding decisions are made.
- Committee
- A committee will assess the proposals and expert review comments and make funding recommendations to Wellcome.
- The committee will be comprised of a diverse range of international members and will take into account Wellcome’s diversity and inclusion priorities. View the Heat Physiology Committee.
- Funding decision
- You will receive an email notification of the funding decision soon after the decision has been made.
- Feedback
- We will provide written feedback to all applicants who are shortlisted but are unsuccessful at the final decision stage.
Disabled applicants
If you are disabled or have a long-term health condition, we can support you with the application process.
Key dates
You must submit your application by 17.00 (BST) on the deadline day. We don’t accept late applications.
Open to new applications
- 8 August 2022, 17.00 BST
Application deadline
- August – September 2022
Shortlisting
- 12 September 2022
Full applications invited
- 10 November 2022
Full applications deadline
- February 2023
Decision
Useful documents
Madeleine Thomson, Head of Climate Impacts at Wellcome spoke about this funding scheme in more detail for The Physiological Society, The Climate Emergency: Research Gaps and Policy Priorities, on Wednesday 15 June 2022.
Contact us
If you have a question about how to complete the application form within the Grant Tracker System please contact our Funding Information Advisers.
If you have a question about eligibility, what we offer or our funding remit, contact us at heatmchealth@wellcome.org
We do not answer questions about the scope or competitiveness of proposals.