This scheme provides funding for early-career researchers from any discipline who are ready to develop their research identity. Through innovative projects, they will deliver shifts in understanding that could improve human life, health and wellbeing. By the end of the award, they will be ready to lead their own independent research programme.
Watch a recording of the webinar that took place on Monday 12 April 2021.
Salary and up to £400,000 for research expenses
Usually 5 years, but may be less for some disciplines, and longer if held on a part-time basis
You can apply to this scheme if you are an early-career researcher and you are ready to design, plan and deliver your own innovative research project that aims to:
and/or
During the award, we expect you to:
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 – as long as it has the potential to improve human life, health and wellbeing, and aligns with our funding remit .
At the point you submit your application, you must have completed a substantive period of research training relevant to your discipline.
You must have:
or
You may also have some postdoctoral experience in your proposed field of study, but generally no more than three years. When we review how much postdoctoral experience you have, we will allow for part-time work, career breaks and other significant amounts of time spent outside research, for example clinical training.
You should be able to demonstrate:
You should not need close supervision to complete your proposed research, although you may need training in new techniques and experimental approaches.
If you are a health professional and you want to continue with clinical activities, you must be registered with, and be licensed by, the relevant professional regulator in the country you intend to work in. Read our Q&As for health professionals.
By the end of the award, you should have the research maturity to develop, manage and lead your own creative, independent research programme.
If you decide not to pursue a career in research, you’ll have transferable skills that you can use in roles related to research or outside of research, for example in industry or teaching.
You must have sponsorship from an eligible host organisation in one of the following:
It can be a:
You should choose a research environment that provides you with the appropriate training, resources and experience to deliver your project and develop your research skills and identity. We encourage you to move away from your current research environment. This may mean moving from your group or department, but it is not essential to move organisations.
You can apply if you've spent time away from research (for example a career break, maternity 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 a Career Development Award .
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.
During an Early-Career Award, you can be a coapplicant on one Discovery Award .
You are not eligible to apply if:
We allow short-term funding from your host organisation or a learned society that supported your transition from doctoral to postdoctoral research. This can include, but is not limited to, funding for:
You can have more than one period of short-term funding, but the combined duration cannot be more than three years.
You cannot apply if you intend to carry out activities that involve the transfer of grant funds into mainland China.
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:
If your host organisation is a core-funded research organisation, an Early-Career Award should not replace or lead to a reduction in existing or planned core support.
Your sponsor must hold an established post (or an honorary academic appointment) at the host organisation for the duration of the award. They will be expected to:
If you plan to work for more than one month outside your host organisation, you must also have an additional sponsor at that location. They must guarantee the space and resources you'll need during your visit.
You should also identify a mentor for the period of your award. They should have a track record in training and mentorship, and support and guide you on how to:
Your sponsor can also be your mentor.
A Wellcome Early-Career Award provides a salary for the grantholder and up to £400,000 for research expenses.
The award usually lasts for 5 years, but may be less for some disciplines, such as humanities and social science.
The award may be held on a part-time basis. We will 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:
You can ask for your salary.
We will fund the total cost of your salary for the entire period of the grant.
You can only receive one salary.
Your salary should be based on the pay scales of the host organisation that will be employing you. It should include:
You should not include:
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're paid on a non-clinical salary scale, your basic salary should be in line with academics of a similar seniority.
Read about the responsibilities of grantholders and host organisations for people working on a Wellcome grant .
If Wellcome is going to pay your salary on the grant, you can ask for visa and work permit costs to help you take up the post at your host organisation. You can also ask for:
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.
We will provide the salary costs for staff, full or part-time, who work on your project, up to the equivalent of a 36-month full-time post. For example, you can ask for 24 months' salary for a research assistant, and 12 months' salary for a technician.
You can ask for more staff costs (in addition to the equivalent of a 36-month full-time post) if you need:
We do not provide studentships on this award.
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:
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 our inflation rate.
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:
More details will be available soon.
We will pay for the materials and consumables you need to carry out your project, including:
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:
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:
We will not provide estates or depreciation costs.
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:
You can also ask for specialised equipment if:
If a complete piece of specialised equipment costs £100,000 or more, we expect a contribution of at least 25 per cent 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.
We will cover maintenance costs for equipment if:
We won’t cover maintenance costs for equipment if there is a mechanism in place to recoup these costs through access charges.
We will cover the cost of one personal computer or laptop per person up to £1,500.
We won't pay for:
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:
We don’t cover the costs of:
If the facilities or equipment were paid for by a Wellcome grant, you can only ask for access charges if:
You can ask for overheads if your grant will be based at a:
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 report to the UK Charity Research Support Fund.
Overheads can include:
The total cost for overheads should not be more than:
These costs must directly support the activity funded by the grant.
In your grant application you must:
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:
We provide 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. We will pay these if:
You can ask for up to £1,000 per person for each conference.
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.
We will pay for other essential visits, for example to facilities, for sample collection and for fieldwork. You can include subsistence costs.
This applies to all types of travel costs Wellcome provides.
You can ask for:
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:
See our carbon offset policy for travel for information on what you and your organisation need to do.
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.
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:
We expect the people we fund to choose travel that has a lower carbon impact, where practical, even if it’s more expensive (for example travelling by train instead of flying).
You can ask for costs to offset the carbon generated by the travel, as part of your overseas allowances.
See our carbon offset policy for travel 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:
and
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:
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:
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:
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:
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:
We will consider paying the cost of boarding school fees in your home country if:
The allowance covers:
We will not cover the costs of:
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:
All fares should be:
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:
You can ask for other fieldwork costs that aren’t listed here, but you’ll need to justify them.
Your inflation allowance is based on your total eligible costs and the duration of the award. You'll receive the following allowance if the costs in your application are in pounds sterling, euros or US dollars.
| Award duration (in months) | Inflation allowance |
|---|---|
| 0-12 | 0.0% |
| 13-24 | 1.0% |
| 25-36 | 2.0% |
| 37-48 | 3.0% |
| 49-60 | 4.1% |
These rates are calculated using compound inflation at 2.0% a year from Year 2 onwards.
If your costs are in any other currency, we will use an inflation allowance that reflects the inflation rate of the country where the host organisation is based.
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 our inflation rate.
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 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 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.
You can ask for costs that are essential to the project. These can include:
We will provide funds if you need to outsource project work to:
You may ask for the following costs (you will have to justify them in your application):
We will not pay for:
*We will fund these costs in the case of animal-related research.
See 'Other costs' for the costs we will and will not provide.
Applications will open in August 2021.
Make sure you read everything on this page.
You may also want to watch a recording of a webinar that took place on Monday 12 April 2021 .
You do not need to contact us before you write and submit your application.
When it is available, complete the application form on Grant Tracker.
Submit it 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.
Get some guidance on using Grant Tracker .
Your application must be submitted by 17:00 (GMT/BST) on the deadline day.
Applications will be shortlisted by one of our six research area specific committees.
If shortlisted, we will invite you for an interview.
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.
The Early-Career Interview Committee 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.
Shortly before the day of the interview, you will need to provide us with a pre-recorded presentation. The panel will watch your presentation before you enter the room. You will not be asked to give a presentation during the interview.
The focus of the interview will be on questions and answers. The committee will assess across a set of criteria rather than one specific aspect of the proposal.
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.
Written feedback will be provided to all unsuccessful applicants at each decision point, including the reasons for a decision.
If you have a question about eligibility, what we offer or our funding remit, contact our grants information officers:
We do not answer questions on the scope or competitiveness of proposals.