Wellcome Career Development Awards

This scheme provides funding for mid-career researchers from any discipline who have the potential to be international research leaders. They will develop their research capabilities, drive innovative programmes of work and deliver significant shifts in understanding related to human life, health and wellbeing.

Scheme at a glance 

Lead applicant career stage:
Administering organisation location:
Frequency:
Three times a year - Upcoming deadlines in November 2024 and April 2025
Funding amount:

You should ask for the resources you need for your research programme – see the 'Research costs we'll cover' section on this page. You will need to work with your organisation to justify your request in the context of the support they will provide.  The annual expenditure for a Career Development Award is usually below £250,000 excluding the applicant’s salary.  Applications above this value will be subject to additional scrutiny.

Funding duration:

Usually 8 years, but may be less for some disciplines and may only be longer if held on a part-time basis.

Coapplicants:
Not accepted

Deadline for new applications

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Who can apply 

You can apply for a Wellcome Career Development Award if you are a mid-career researcher and you are ready to lead a substantial and innovative research programme. You must aim to make a key contribution to your field by:

  • generating significant shifts in understanding

and/or

  • developing methodologies, conceptual frameworks, tools or techniques that could benefit health-related research.

During the award, we expect you to:

  • develop your research capabilities and leadership skills
  • support others to undertake research responsibly and promote a positive and inclusive culture
  • start training the next generation of researchers and develop their research skills and careers.

By the end of the award, you should have achieved international standing in your area of research.

You should also have the skills and experience to apply for permanent positions at research organisations.

Lead applicant career stage and experience

To be eligible, you will already be driving your own research.

You must have:

  • completed one or two substantial periods of research after your initial research training
  • made important contributions to your area of research.

You will probably have experience of working collaboratively. You may have directed, or closely guided, the work of others.

At the point of application, you may also have been appointed to:

  • your first permanent, open-ended or long-term rolling contract, or to a tenure track contract. If this applies to you, you cannot ask for your own salary with this award unless you are based in a low- or middle-income country and have to get your salary from external grant funding. 
  • a fixed term position with four years or less remaining on your contract at the point of application. If this applies to you, you can ask for your own salary with this award.
  • a fixed term position with more than four years left on your contract at the point of application. If this applies to you, you cannot ask for your salary with this award and your host organisation must underwrite your salary costs for the duration of the award. 

For permanent, open-ended or long-term rolling contracts, you must have been appointed within the last three years unless, during this time, you:

  • spent time away from research due to personal circumstances (for example, for a career break, parental leave, long-term sick leave or a chronic illness)
  • worked part-time and research was not part of the role, for example, if you have been employed as a healthcare professional
  • have worked part-time and your cumulative research time is less than three years
  • changed research discipline, for example, moving from astrophysics to computational neuroscience, or environmental chemistry to social anthropology. There may be some crossover, such as in research sites or techniques, but the shift should still be a significant change.
  • were based in a low- or middle-income country where it is normal to be appointed to a permanent, open-ended or long-term rolling contract early in your research career.

If the three-year limit falls between two deadlines for this scheme, and you would benefit from applying to the second deadline, we will allow you to do this.

If you hold a proleptic appointment, you can request your salary costs from Wellcome for the duration of the award.

If your contractual circumstances change between the point of application and your award activation you must tell us immediately as this may change your eligibility for salary. We will not normally supplement for salary funds after the award has been made (read our supplementary grant funding page for more information). If after two or more years of your Career Development Award activating your organisation awards you a permanent, open-ended or long-term rolling contract that includes your salary, you will be able to keep the salary element of the award to use towards your remaining research costs. 

How much time you must contribute 

You must be able to contribute at least 80% of your research time to the award.

If you are requesting your salary on the award, you should not spend more than 20% of your time on non-research related activities, for example clinical duties, teaching or administration. If you're in a clinical craft speciality, you may spend up to 40% of your time on clinical duties.

If you are not requesting your salary on the award, you should be spending sufficient time on research to support your research team and achieve the aims of the proposed work.

Health professionals

If you are a health professional, you will have completed your clinical training. If you want to continue with clinical activities, you must be registered with, and licensed by, the relevant professional regulator in the country you intend to work in. Read our Q&As for health professionals.

If you’ve spent time spent away from research

You can apply if you've been away from research (for example a career break, parental leave, or long-term sick leave). We'll allow for this when we consider your application.

Depending on your previous career stage and the level of supervision and retraining you need now, you may also want to consider an Early-Career Award.

Other people involved in the application and award

Current Wellcome grantholders

We will allow current grantholders of the following mid-career schemes to apply for a Career Development Award until the end of their awards, unless they have been appointed to a permanent, open-ended or long-term rolling contract that they will take up by the start of the Career Development Award:

  • Sir Henry Dale Fellowships (including those with extensions)
  • Research Career Development Fellowships
  • Research Career Re-entry Fellowships
  • Intermediate Clinical Fellowships (including those with one-year extensions)
  • Clinical Research Career Development Fellowships (stage 2)
  • International Intermediate Fellowships.

If you are one of these grantholders, you must have an active grant at the time of application.

Other Wellcome awards

During a Career Development Award, you can be a coapplicant on up to two other Wellcome awards. In your application for the second award where you are a co-applicant you must explain:

  • why no other applicant or co-applicant can provide the expertise that you bring to the project
  • how you will manage your research commitments across the three awards.

Resubmissions

If you are unsuccessful with an application to this scheme, you can submit one more application for the same project. Significant changes are needed for the second application. You do not need to contact us first.

Who can't apply 

You are not eligible to apply if:

  • you hold, have held, or have accepted an offer for an equivalent award at this career stage (an exception to this is that our current Wellcome grantholders at an equivalent stage can apply to this scheme)
  • you have made an application to this scheme and you are waiting for a decision.

You cannot apply to carry out activities that involve the transfer of grant funds into mainland China.

Is your research right for this scheme? 

You must check whether Wellcome Discovery Research can fund your type of research project before you apply.

Check what we fund in Discovery Research

Your research must:

Your research can:

  • be in any discipline - including science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), experimental medicine, humanities and social science, clinical/allied health sciences, and public health.

Your research must not:

  • fall outside of what we support in Discovery Research. Check what we don't fund.
  • start earlier than seven months after the application deadline.

Is your organisation right for this scheme? 

The administering organisation is the organisation responsible for submitting your final application to Wellcome and managing the finances of the grant if it is awarded.

Where your administering organisation is based

The administering organisation must be in one of the following:

It can be a:

  • higher education institution
  • research institute
  • non-academic healthcare organisation
  • not-for-profit organisation.

What's expected of your administering organisation

Your grant must be held 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.

Read the Concordat

We also expect your administering organisation to:

  • 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 a system of onboarding, embedding and planning for you when you join the organisation and/or start the award.
  • Provide you with the status and benefits of other academic staff of similar seniority.

Your administering organisation must guarantee they will:

  • provide you with a permanent, open-ended or long-term rolling contract by the end of the award

or

  • carry out a formal review process, no less than two years before the end of your award, to discuss your future at the organisation, including the possibility of a permanent, open-ended or long-term rolling contract.

This does not apply to applicants who already have a permanent, open-ended or long-term rolling contract.

If your administering organisation is a core-funded research organisation, a Career Development Award should not replace or lead to a reduction in existing or planned core support.

How applications are assessed 

We will review your research proposal, skills and experience, and research environment. The assessment weightings are used at interview stage.

Your research proposal (50%)

To be competitive, your research proposal will be:

  • Bold. It aims to deliver a significant shift in understanding and/or it provides a significant advance over existing methodologies, conceptual frameworks, tools or techniques. It has the potential to stimulate new and innovative research.
  • Creative. Your proposed approach is novel – it develops and tests new concepts, methods or technologies, or combines existing ideas and approaches in a new way.
  • High quality. It is well-designed, clear, supported by evidence and the proposed outcomes/outputs are feasible.

Your skills and experience (25%)

We will review:

  • your research outputs and contributions to the research community
  • your experience of, and contribution to, developing other researchers
  • your leadership and management skills, and how you plan to develop these during the award.

Your research environment (25%)

We will review:

  • how you will contribute to the strategic aims of your organisation
  • how your research environment(s) will help you develop your research capabilities and leadership and management skills
  • how you will contribute to a positive and inclusive research culture.
     

Research costs we'll cover 

A Wellcome Career Development Award provides a salary for the grantholder (if required) and research expenses.

The award usually lasts for 8 years, but may be less for some disciplines, such as humanities and social science.

The award may be held on a part-time basis. When applying, you should cost the application at 1.0 (100%) full-time equivalent. We will then extend the duration of the award to reflect this.

You should ask for a level and duration of funding that’s justifiable for your proposed research.

You can only hold one of these awards. We do not offer renewals.

The award includes:

If you're awarded this grant

You are guaranteed an endorsement of a Global Talent visa application.

If your host organisation is in the UK and you have team members who will spend at least 50% of their working time contributing to the award, they may be eligible to apply for a Global Talent visa through the endorsed funder route.

What we don't offer

See 'Other costs' for the costs we will and will not provide.

How to apply 

Where to apply

Apply for this scheme on the Wellcome Funding platform. You will need to log in or create an account. You can save your application and return to it at any time.

Get some tips to help you write your grant application.

Information you need to provide

As well as answering the application questions, you will need to provide:

  • a letter of support from your current supervisor
  • a letter of support from the director of finance at your administering organisation if you are requesting overheads
  • a quote if you wish to purchase a piece of equipment costing £100,000 or more.

How long it takes to apply

You must leave enough time for:

  • you to complete the application
  • your organisation to review and submit the application.

Getting support with your application

We offer disability-related support for applicants. Read the disability-related support guidance if you:

  • are disabled or have a long-term health condition and you need help applying for funding
  • need to defer your application
  • need help completing your project, for example costs for assistive technology.

Application process

  1. Before you apply

    Make sure you read everything on this page.

    Get some tips to help you write your grant application.

    You do not need to contact us before you write and submit your application.

    View the Sample full application form for Wellcome Career Development Awards [PDF 1.38MB].

  2. Submit your application to your administering organisation for approval

    Complete your application form on Wellcome Funding.

    Submit your application to the ‘approver’ your administering organisation for approval. Make sure you leave enough time for the to review and submit your application to Wellcome before the deadline. The approver may ask you to make changes to your application.

    If this is your organisation’s first time applying for Wellcome funding

    If this is your organisation’s first time applying for Wellcome funding, they will need to contact us to request an organisation account. Email fundingsupport@wellcome.org with your organisation’s:

    • name
    • address
    • country
    • team email address for the people who will approve and submit your application (this is usually a research management team).

    We will create the organisation account and provide access to the approvers. Review our guidance for research offices.

  3. Administering organisation reviews your application and submits it to us

    Your application must be submitted by 17:00 (GMT/BST) on the deadline day. Watch a recording of a webinar demonstrating the new Wellcome Funding Platform from Thursday, 4 May 2023.

  4. 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.

    One of the following Discovery Advisory Groups will then review your application, depending on your area of research:

    If shortlisted, we will invite you for interview.

  5. Written expert review

    We'll seek external written expert review on shortlisted applications. Only the proposed research will be reviewed.

    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 before your interview.

  6. Interviews

    The Career Development Award Interview Panel will interview shortlisted candidates at the Wellcome offices in London. Accessibility requirements will be accommodated. Those who cannot attend in person can participate remotely.

    We will provide information on the structure of the interview, layout of the room, and interview committee membership.

    You will be asked to give a presentation at the start of your interview. Shortly before the day of the interview, you will need to provide us with your presentation slides.

    The committee will assess across a set of criteria rather than one specific aspect of the proposal.

  7. Funding decision

    Final funding decisions will be made by the Discovery Research Decision Board.

    You will receive an email notification of the funding decision soon after the decision has been made. We will write to you after this with the reasons for the decision.

We may use positive action on this scheme. Read our guidance for more information.

Key dates 

You must submit your application by 17:00 (GMT/BST) on the deadline day. We don’t accept late applications.

April 2025 round

Opening soon

  1. 27 November 2024

    Applications open

  2. 03 April 2025, 17:00 BST

    Application deadline

  3. June 2025

    Shortlisting

  4. 02-04 September 2025

    Interviews

More information about this scheme 

Hear from Wellcome staff, committee members and funded researchers about:

  • our vision and priorities for funding researchers and research led from low- and middle-income countries
  • our Discovery Research funding schemes
  • examples of funded discovery research around the world
  • application assessment process and advice for applying
  • panel Q&A with Wellcome staff, funded researchers and our Funding Advisory Committee members. 

These webinars are primarily for researchers based in low- and middle-income countries at all career stages, as well as for research support staff.

The main content of each webinar is the same, with some of the panel membership tailored for each region.

While all our application systems are managed in English, these webinars offered live interpretation options.

Contact us